Mar 1, 2022
Interesting Psak: the size of the kipa
According to a report in Behadrei, the former Av Beis Din of Haifa, Rav Gedalyahu Axelrod, has paskened that the kipa worn by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is too small and is not considered a valid head covering.
Rav Axelrod says that the kipa is too small and sits on the down slope of the back of Bennett's head so it does not cover the head itself.
Rav Axelrod says that with such a kipa, that is not really a kipa, one cannot daven, get called up for an aliya to the Torah or go into a shul.
While my initial thought was, did Prime Minister Bennett ask Rav Axelrod for his psak on the matter, and if not, what is it his business to comment on? Then I saw that it actually began with a comment on the public meeting Prime Minister Bennett held with representatives of the Reform and Conservatives movements.
In response to the meeting Rav Axelrod sent an angry letter to the Prime Minister protesting the event. As part of the letter, while criticizing the Reform and asking (obviously rhetorically) who gave him the authority over the Kotel to give part of it to the Reform where they will act inappropriately... he went n to comment how Bennett himself has said he took off his kipa for a while when he was younger and only put it back on later for other reasons, not for religious reasons. And that led to his psak that it is not even actually a valid head covering.
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From פנינה הלכה:
ReplyDeleteשלוש שיטות ישנן בשיעור גודל הכיפה
And then he lists the strict and moderate opinions.
The he writes:
ויש מקילים וסוברים, שאין לכיפה שיעור, ובכל אופן ברור שאין צורך שתכסה את רוב הראש, אלא די שתהיה ניכרת לרואים אותו, ויהיה נחשב בעיני בני אדם כמי שמכסה את הראש. ואף בזמן התפילה והכניסה לבית הכנסת אפשר להסתפק בכיפה כזו, וכפי שנוהגים רבים, ואין להחשיבם חס וחלילה לקלים (אג”מ או”ח א, א, ע”פ ב”ח ומ”ב צא, י, רשז”א ועוד).
He's citing RMF & RSZA, so Bennet is in good company.
It's also ironic that RGA is a meshichist, and the photo of the rebbe in his student days shows him without a kipa.
ReplyDeleteUntil one was drawn on.
Delete