Is the Male Headcovering in Judaism Biblical?
I am asked by many Messianics why MLT men do not use the prayer shawl and cover their heads when worshipping or praying as is the custom amongst Jews and Messianic Jews, to which my reply is that we do not imitate the customs or traditions of men, but observe Torah. Scholar Michael Marlowe writes:
"Among Jews the custom of covering the head for prayer did not arise till the third or fourth century of the Christian era. Some theorize that Jews adopted the yarmulke* in a reaction against Christian customs. For example, the Jewish scholar Abraham Millgram, in his book Jewish Worship (Jewish Publication Society, 1971), writes, "As the persecutions of the Church increased, the Jewish aversion to everything Christian deepened. The uncovering of the head became associated with Church etiquette and therefore became repugnant. To worship or even to go about with an uncovered head was regarded as imitation of the Christians and an act of irreverence" (p. 351). See also the article "Head, Covering of," in the Encyclopedia Judaica, Vol. 8 (Jerusalem: Keter Publishing House, 1971), in which it is said that one Jewish sage declared that "since Christians generally pray bareheaded, the Jewish prohibition to do so was based on the biblical injunction not to imitate the heathen custom." (p. 5.) The assertion that the men covered their heads for prayer in New Testament times, often found in the older commentaries (such as John Lightfoot's Horæ Hebraicæ et Talmudicæ) was based entirely upon statements about headcoverings in the Talmudic tractates of late antiquity. But in the past hundred years scholars have become much more cautious about the use of rabbinic literature dating from the fourth century as a source of evidence for first-century practices" (Michael Marlowe, Headcovering Customs of the Ancient World, http://www.bible-researcher.com/headcoverings3.html#note11).
*For information on the yarmulke or kippa, see our study on the Kippa.
There is no evidence in the Torah, in the Bible as a whole, or from the history of the period, that men ever wore headcoverings for spiritual or religious reasons as was required of women. To the contrary, the New Testament positively asserts that they should not (see 1 Corinthians 2:11-16) because Yah'shua is their covering and He, being in Heaven, is invisible. In the same way that Yahweh hangs the earth upon nothing [visible], so the authority of Elohim over men is likewise invisible (Job 26:7). For a thorough exegesis on headcoverings, especially for women, please see http://www.bible-researcher.com/headcoverings.html.
The use of a tallit, yarmulke or headcovering by men in worship and prayer is a man-made tradition and contrary to scripture - also see the study on the Kippa.
