Welcome to Gaia! ::

I'm falling out of habit with my tephilin, which I'm having a guilt trip abbout because it's in the Shema...

Well, then in 10 min, the twins are coming home and I will need to get them to do HW, take showers etc.

We are back to seriousness now. stare

Wearing a kippah is a sign of Jewishness. That can mean pride in Jewishness, or it can mean humility before Hashem and modesty before humanity, or it can mean both. It can also simply mean the same thing that it means to wear your baseball uniform when playing ball, your work uniform when earning a living, or the same type of jeans or shirts as your friends: membership in a team, a way of saying "Hey, for good or ill, this is me."

Wearing a kippah is a minhag (custom), not a mitzvah (commandment), but after a certain length of time a minhag takes on the strength of a commandment. I don't know any man who's a serious Jew who doesn't wear a kippah, or at least some form of hat. Whatever the reasons, let him have them -- he wears the kippah because he has decided to take on the potential danger, the pride, the humility, and the responsibility of being identified as a Jew wherever he goes.

That means that if someone hates Jews, and there you are in your kippah, there will be problems. If someone highly respects Jews, and there you are in your kippah, there will be advantages. But wherever you go, your actions will create either a sanctification or a desecration, an honor or an insult, and not just to yourself, but to all Jews, and to the God who chose us as the "holy people, a nation of priests." If you're going to wear a kippah, let it serve primarily as a reminder that all eyes are on you, and you should act in a way that brings respect to all of us.

Today I asked my rabbi about this and was most intrigued my what he said. But now I come here and Divash has just said all that and more, so thank you very much for the insight.

By the way, I am sending the link for this to him.

I keep thinking about that Kippah=Juniform thing. I like it a lot. biggrin

Divash, I have always found it awesome how you just spontaneously pop up and give so much information.

My rabbi did say something interesting:
Different types of kippot, such as knit, velvet, etc. can convey different messages or as Divasg would put it, 'uniforms.'

Which best describes you?

I probably would go with a simple knit disc, as it is small and I am a reform Jew who does not do much kippah-ing.

I have some awesome green and purple ones with golden sequins; a gold, blue and white silk one from my bar mitzvah; and a plain knitwear one for when I'm feeling humble.