Jewish Women of the Hijab and Burqa February 7, 2008

Jewish women across Israel are joining what more and more Orthodox Jews are seeing as an alarming social trend. “Dozens of” charedi Orthodox women, under the tutelage of one Rebbetzin Bruria Keren in Ramat Beit Shemesh are eschewing their traditional covered wigs in favor of burqas, hijabs, and abayas/jilbab.

I first wrote about this on Jewlicious, when I first read the Muqata translation of the Ha’aretz piece which introduced me to this sect of ultra-modest women, one of whom “show[s her] children” to prove “[she’s] not…Arab” at security checkpoints, because she doesn’t want “men seeing [her] ID.” The story was run in the British Independent and Jewish Chronicle, and blogged about throughout the blogosphere. I echoed the same sentiments as MomInIsrael, that this was alarming and shocking — and I prayed that it never catch on.

And then I saw this. Perhaps my blog-prayer was in vain, after all.

MomInIsrael, giving a hat-tip to MRW, wrote a series of pieces, translating and commenting on the newest development in the story of die Yiddishe Burka — an interview with the rebbetzin Keren herself. Sherry Malikover-Balikov’s piece in the Israeli newspaper Ma’ariv, entitled Neshot Ha’Ra’alah (Women of the Veil), gives us more of an insight into the worlds of these new burqa-clad Orthodox women.

For all of the women, the decision to wear a burqa was voluntary. This, I already knew. What I didn’t know (but, after reflecting upon it, do not find surprising) is that for many of these women, Jewish observance in general was a voluntary decision. Some of Rebbetzin Keren’s students are ba’alot teshuvah, “returnees” to observance who chose religious piety after a secular upbringing. One is even a convert to Judaism. While everyone has their “portion in Torah”, the part of the Torah world for which their soul is suited…this?

From MomInIsrael’s translation of the Ma’ariv:

Ten thick skirts, seven long capes, six scarves tied in front of the head and three more in the back. And over all a shawl– several thin veils, falling from the top of her head to her ankles, fluttering over a face covered by a crocheted cloth veil…[so] sat the Rabbanit, bent by her load of wrappings, reading chapters of prayers…

A righteous teacher came to school with a shawl on her head in addition to a scarf and hat. They asked her why she is so “tzanua” (modest), and she said that a great rabbi told her, “My daughter, when you see women on the street covered from head to toe, you will know that the Messiah is at the door.”

The Rabbanit has 50 followers in Beit Shemesh, about 70 in Geulah in Jerusalem …and dozens more in Tzefat, Beitar and the Haredi section of Elad. They “speak to Hashem” each night and recite Psalms, are careful to eat healthy food and rarely go out…They dress their daughters in “redidim” [this could mean veils, capes, or shawls, but usually means veils in this context] but only married women cover their faces. They are quiet in the presence of men and communicate with the outside world through the husband.

Quoting Rabbanit Keren: “The holy matriarchs and the women of Jerusalem covered their bodies and hid their faces. Even in the Torah it says that Tamar didn’t see Judah’s face because she was covered…The Torah doesn’t change. The body must be covered so that no one will see her shape. Because the face and figure of a woman can cause men to sin. The more layers of clothes, the more a woman’s modesty is esteemed.

MomInIsrael also gives us some fast facts about the Rabbanit, which put many of these teachings in their pedagogical context:

She doesn’t speak to men at all, and rarely to women; during the day she abides by a speech fast and prays.

The rabbanit signals to her guest to offer her a drink.

Her “small” daughter easily follows her unspoken instructions.

She writes on paper, and her followers interpret.

The children of the veiled women have an important role. Some women “vitru” (have given up on) eyeholes in their veils, and their small children guide them in the streets.

During her talk, she promises the women who have not yet “taken the step” (of wearing veils) many blessings and the merit of taking part in bringing the Messiah, if they will adopt this stringency.

Ms. Malikover-Balikov then gives us an insight into the Rabbanit’s students. The first one, Miriam, is a 32-year-old Hasidic returnee to observance, a mother of six, who sometimes feels guilty — for the one eye she leaves exposed to the world:

Miriam, 32, mother of six, is a Breslover baalat teshuva (returnee to observant Judaism) and a follower of Rabbanit Bruria Keren. She wears 5 skirts, two capes, seven scarves, and a veil angled to cover one eye. She uses the other eye to see in front of her, because she is disgusted by the idea of using her children as guide dogs…

Miriam feels that her beauty could cause men to stumble, so it is more important for her to cover her face than for a woman with average looks…In Ramat Beit Shemesh, many women dress this way so Miriam does not get too many comments. When she feels guilty about leaving one eye uncovered, she comforts herself with the fact that one eye forces her to hurry to get where she is going, so she doesn’t stop. She doesn’t talk to men, but she chastised a pair who made fun of her on a bus, asking them whether their wives’ wigs were better, and whether “pritzut” (licentiousness) was preferable. That shut the men up.

Maya is also a ba’alat teshuvah who became observant eight years ago. A mother of four with two advanced degrees, she describes her journey into the world of the “hyper-modest”:

“At first I wore only three skirts and a cape. Then I read that Rabbanit Kanievsky, a well-known figure in the haredi community, covered the upper part of her hand (shoresh kaf hayad) with cloth. I looked at the place my fingers began, and saw that it was indeed very feminine. So I cut off the ends of some socks and wore them on my hand, to cover the part up to my fingers. At first I wore them only outside, because they bothered me at home. Gradually I also began to wear them at home, and now I sleep in them as well as in a high neckline….The more a woman covers her exterior, the more room there is for her interior. I come from the secular world, and I know how much women are involved in attracting men with their beauty and exterior. If a woman would know what goes on in a man’s head when he sees her in the street, hears her voice, or accidentally brushes against her, she would go underground in shame. When I go out completely covered, I feel like a princess. Even though I don’t cover my face–I feel that that is too great a light…

The children were born into it and my son brings me a shawl when we are on our way out….If there are men in the makolet[store], I won’t go in. If a man comes to buy from me I “guard my eyes” and don’t look at him. I look at the floor.

Yesterday I went by a haredi man who saw me and lowered his head. I said to my son, ‘The daughters of Israel are the daughters of the king, it’s not seemly for people to look at them. They aren’t like a rotten tomato that every passerby can see what’s inside and what isn’t.’

Anne, a convert to Judaism who became a very close student of Rabbanit Keren, envisions the day when all men will require this of their wives:

“The rabbanit doesn’t talk because of all of the bad things that can come from it such as slander, gossip, joking, and flattery; therefore she took silence upon herself. It also allows her to control anger. She taught us not to speak to men, pass them objects, sit next to them on the bus, nor to ride in a taxi with a male driver. Not to be too colorful…”

“The next level is for men to insist on capes and veils from their wives. That it will come from them, not from us. That in a few more years the haredi public will discover the sweetness of the layers of clothes and the modesty behind the veil…The rabbanit Bruria believes that very soon a man will come to his wife and ask her not to go out without her body and face covered.”

“We are already seeing the beginning.”

May G-d save us from this — where stringency ad infinitum becomes the new rule. My analysis later.