Q&A: Head Covering and Modesty
Head Covering and Modesty
Question
Hello Rabbi,
1. In the Talmudic passage in Ketubot it is explained that head covering for women is Torah-level, and this is derived from the verse, “and he shall uncover the woman’s head.” Even if we accept the Talmud’s statement (which is admittedly quite puzzling) as part of some commandment incumbent on the woman, under which commandment is she obligated in head covering? I don’t recall such a commandment among the 613 (though I’m not an expert).
2. More generally, regarding the commandment of modesty (without getting into the dispute over what exactly the binding parameters are), from which commandment are women obligated in it at all? Is it because of “do not place a stumbling block”? It seems a bit strange that a woman would need to be stringent with herself her whole life so that men should not stumble by seeing something forbidden.
Thank you very much. I looked a bit in the columns and in the responsa literature and didn’t find discussion of these exact questions.
Answer
There are quite a few Torah-level laws that are not included among the 613 commandments. Here that is probably because they infer it from the verse, but there is no command, and without a command it is not a counted commandment.
The question is whether a woman’s modesty is meant to prevent men from stumbling. I tend to think not, among other reasons because of your argument. Causing stumbling is only an indication that there is a lack of modesty here. Nadav Shnerb has a nice article about this. Search online: Nadav Shnerb modesty.
Discussion on Answer
People do look, but they do not always find. There are half a measure, beautifying a commandment, and so on, which are Torah-level laws but are not counted. See my article on the Ninth Principle.
Thanks for the quick reply. Is there any practical difference whether it is counted or not?
And forgive the question, but what is the Rabbi’s source for the idea that there are Torah-level laws without a commandment?
As far as I remember, usually people try to see where a halakhic obligation belongs to / is rooted (like the famous conceptual inquiry about the prohibition regarding damages).