Why Do Jews Wear Kippahs? The Meaning Behind the Head Covering - Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein

What's the difference in the color of the kipa? This is known as a kipa, otherwise known as a yulka. A ya is a combination of two Hebrew words yur mala which means fear of the king. But what is why do most rabbis wear a black keepa? The cardinals wear a red one. The pope wears a white one. What's the difference in the colors of the keepa or the yama? Why are the different colors? Well, let's back up a little bit. Why do we wear a kipa? And why do we wear it all the time? What is the significance of it? And what is the basis for it? These days, it's most common when you are in a neighborhood of traditional observant Jewish people. You would see that everyone walks around with a keepa or a hat. Our heads must be covered. all the time. The reason is when you think about the difference between man and animal that all animals even the giraffe the heads are facing the earth. The human species we stand tall and erect. Our eyes are able to see the heavens naturally. We don't have to lift up our head to see it such as the animal does. Our eyes are always focus on what's above us. The keeper is a reminder to always be aware that there is a superior being, a manipent, omnipresent, the creator of all things, God almighty is always here looking over your shoulder. By keeping your head covered basically is a conduit per se between heaven and your head that there is an understanding and appreciation that there is something and someone above us. The tradition of keeping your heads covered days dates back to the times of the temple. And the idea is that from the moment we are awake till we go to sleep. When we are cognizant and awake, we have to always be aware that God is above us. It's very easy to forget it. It's very easy to get caught up in the hustlebustle of your day-to-day activities and totally disregard the concept that there is a God in the world that we have to be aware. We need to be aware all the time about God's presence not only on a spiritual level but on a practical level. Imagine if you are in a situation where things are not going your way and the worst is getting the best of you and you are just about to lash out. You're just about to lose it and you're going to really give the other person a thought that's going to be very hurtful to them. But if you were to think for a second, one second, God is here. Would I scream at the other person if God is here? Would I attack the other person verbally? Would I tear the other person down? God is standing right here. Would I do that in front of God? And that's what the purpose of the Keipa is. It's a reminder. It's a reminder to remind us all the time that God is above. Let's take it to another level. Before I continue, I'd like to ask you to kindly subscribe to this channel. This channel is here to be able to serve the world with words of inspiration, to help improve your life, and to help improve your mission that God has bestowed upon you. When I was a child, my great rabbi, Rabbi Manden, the Grand Kabad Rabbi, chose 12 verses to teach the young up until you're an adult. He required every single child knows these 12 verses by heart. And as a kid, we studied them until we knew them by heart. And anytime we came together as a group, we always went through these 12 verses. Anytime a kid has a birthday, the birthday boy goes through these 12 verses. One of those verses is a very powerful verse coming out of the mysticism, the Cabala. And the words are, "Behold, God Almighty is standing over you. He listens to you. He hears you. and he sees everything that you're doing and watches to see if you are conducting yourself appropriately. As a child, this is an earthshattering awakening. Many times as children, we may find ourselves alone and we may feel alone. But when you think about this verse, you realize you're never alone. God is always with you. No matter where you are geographically, emotionally, spiritually, you are never alone. God is always with you. God is always looking over your shoulder and God is watching what you're doing and he's hearing what you're saying and he is fully aware of your existence. This is such an important fact for people to know that especially when things are not going well, when things are not going exactly how we planned them out, at that moment you need to renew your faith in God and realize that you are not alone. But God is with you. When you suffer, suffer God. God suffers with you. When you are celebrating, God celebrates with you as well. And that's where the word mazalto, you have heard it at a bar mitzvah, at a wedding. Mazalto, what that means is mazal is basically talking about God. That your angel, your guardian angel in heaven has guided you. So good fortune should come your way. Mazalto, God gave you good fortune. Yes, you too will have good fortune. So back to the question, why do we wear black keepa and the cardinals red and the pope white? What is the significance in the color? So let me share with you a story that came my way. Actually all the stories I tell are true but this one actually happened. So I understand the yeshiva university in New York applied for a grant to the Kennedy Foundation and the trustee of the foundation was a cardinal and he reviewed the grant and approved it and he called up Belulkin and said um we're going to do this we're going to approve your application bel what what a great concept the cardinal is going to be signing off on a grant for Yeshiva University. So, the cardinal actually suggested, "Wouldn't it be nice if we do this together as a ceremony? Let the world see that we're doing this together." And Rab said, "Let's do this." They compared the calendars and the best and only time that was mutually available was during Passover. So they said fine the intermediate days of Passover we could do this. They rented a hall. They rented a caterer and they invited both the Jewish community, the Catholic community came together, the rabbi balcon sitting together with the cardinal and they're serving matzah because it's Passover. No bread and wine. So the cardinal takes a piece of matzah, takes some wine in his hand says, "Rabbi, look. Wine wafer. Come on. There's more in common between us than that separates us. What do you see? Gosh, we're drinking wine, eating matzah. It's amazing. So, Belin, as we know, a very wise rabbi looks up to him, says, "You know, I agree. There's more that we have in common that separates us, but there's one distinct difference that is unescapable." So what is that? So you see cardinal, you wear a red keepa and I wear a black keepa. That's very different. So the cardinal says, "How does that divide us?" So the rabbi says, "You wear a red keeper and all your organizations are in the black. I wear a black keeper and all of my organizations are in the red." And burst out laughing. Yes. So, why do we wear a black keeper? Why does a cardinal wear a red? Why does the pope wear a white keeper? Well, why the pope wears a white keeper? I don't know. Why the cardinals wear a red keeper? I do not know. Why do I wear a black keeper is because that is my tradition. My rabbi wore a black keeper. His rabbi wore a black keeper. We generally dress in black and white. And um once a comedian asked a question to the rabbi. He says, "Rabbi, it must be very hard for you guys. When you get up and get dressed, you go into your closet. You say, "Hm, what am I going to wear today? What are my choices? Should I wear a white shirt and black pants or a black pants and a white shirt?" Indeed, we dress in black and white because we are taught to dress modesty. It's a kind of a modest way of dressing. Black and white. White represents the purity of of we were white on holidays. And black is is humbleness, humility. And that is has been our traditional garb forever is to dress in black and white. And uh and that's what we continue to dress. When we're on vacation, we we wear polo shirts and uh golf caps and some other colored clothing. But traditionally, professionally, you would find most rabbis, traditional rabbis would be wearing black and white. So, I hope this answers your question. Please subscribe to our channel and thank you for supporting our channel. We are so grateful. We just hit the 40,000 subscribers. We want to bring it up to 100,000 soon. I hope this helped you in your journey in life and I hope that this gives you some inspiration to love others as yourself as an extension of yourself. God bless you. God loves you.