Passaic, NJ – Sometimes people leave bags of wigs on her Van Houten Avenue doorstep.
Short hair, long hair, blond hair and streaked hair; mesh, synthetic, from Europe, China, Russia, you bring it, Rochel Shiffman will take it.
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For the past year, the city resident has been collecting the wigs from Orthodox Jewish women as part of a charity that her younger sister, Shani Greenfield, runs out of her home in Musrara, a suburb of Jerusalem.
The charity, called Shani’s Sheitel Gemach, which includes in its name the Yiddish word for wig or “sheitel” and Gemach, the acronym for the Hebrew phrase “bestowal of kindness,” donates wigs to Orthodox Jewish women in Israel.
Under Jewish law, women are required to dress modestly and cover their heads in public after they are married.
“We want to show reverence that’s in being modest and showing good character. Once women get married they have to wear their sheitel to remind her that she belongs to her husband and that her husband belongs to her,” said Rabbi Shlomo Singer of the Passaic Torah Institute, a yeshiva on Passaic Avenue. [northjersey]
Anonymous said…
” Once women get married they have to wear their sheitel to remind her that she belongs to her husband and that her husband belongs to her,” said Rabbi Shlomo Singer
Where did he get that from???
December 4, 2007 3:34 PM
Maybe he go it from the same shulchan aruch that gave a blanket heter to all divorcees to go with uncovered hair for the sake of a shidduch.
I sure hope he was misquoted because if he said this we really need to watch out for a whole bunch of fahrkrumpt ba’alai teshuva coming out of his yeshiva.
>Once women get married they have to wear their sheitel to remind her that she belongs to her husband…
Silly me, I thought it was because shulchan orech said so. I guess the ring wasn’t a good enough reminder.
>However, if she’s having a very difficult time with shiduchim, it’s alright for the woman to wear her hair instead of the sheitel.
The Chofetz Chaim deals with this in his sefer gedar oilom, just as deals with the beard/payos issue in his sefer tiferes odam. Basically he states that a person has serious emunah problems if he feels that G-d can’t get him a shidduch if he follows the mitzvahs in the torah. Such a person might want to consider perhaps it is his lack of emunah and not a beard/sheital that is responsible for the lack of a shidduch.
there’s a halacha that if a woman is divorced she still must wear a sheitel. However, if she’s having a very difficult time with shiduchim, it’s alright for the woman to wear her hair instead of the sheitel
TIZKU LEMITZVOS
ALSO BE AWARE THAT THERE’S A WHOLE INYAN AS TO WHERE THE SHEITELS COME FROM AND WHAT TYPE THEY ARE. IF THEY COME FROM INDIA, THEY ARE NOT ALLOWED TO BE WORN BECAUSE THERE’S AN INYAN OF AVODA ZARA. THAT’S WHY BACK MANY YEARS IN MANY COMMUNITIES THE WOMEN ALL THREW AWAY THEIR SHEITELS AND WOULD WEAR TICHELS. IT’S EVEN BETTER TO WEAR ONE’S OWN HAIR THAN TO WEAR ANY SHEITEL COMING FROM INDIA.
no one really understands the sheitel thing. we say it is based on sotah but deep inside many have doubts on this.
May Hashem bentch this unselfish woman, we can learn a lot to spend some time every day helping other jews!
” Once women get married they have to wear their sheitel to remind her that she belongs to her husband and that her husband belongs to her,” said Rabbi Shlomo Singer
Where did he get that from???
beautiful
my mom has been doing this for years, she brought shtiels to gush katif over 10 yrs ago. for women who could not afford to purchase their own and only wore kerchiefs.