Hatboxes glossary: clip-on earrings

Miriam and Nadine shop together in Hatboxes

In Hatboxes, Miriam exclaims, "You never see such nice clip-ons," as she peruses a whole tree of earrings in Lena's boutique.  "I think I'll get two."

Some observant Jews do not pierce their ears because it may be considered immodest. Tzni'ut (Hebrew: צניעות) is a body of Jewish law concerned with comportment, including dress, and relations between the sexes.  Tzni'ut is rooted in concepts of of humility and modesty, articulated repeatedly across the Bible as ideal traits, and it forms the basis of an enormous body of jurisprudence.

Ear-piercing sometimes gets included among the prohibitions against mutilating the body:  "Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor imprint any marks upon you: I am the LORD." (Leviticus 19:28; the Talmud identifies tattooing as an idolatrous practice, but the rabbis disagreed about whether including the name of a deity was what was prohibited or the entire act itself.  800 years ago, Maimonides concluded that tattoos are entirely prohibited.)  In Exodus 32, Aaron collecting the earrings from women, sons, and daughters, but maybe melting them down to use as the Golden Calf casts a taint on piercings still, thousands of years later.

Is modesty a part of how you choose to dress yourself?

Hatboxes glossary: hats/head-coverings/tzniut

Tzni'ut is an encompassing Jewish conception of modesty and humility that emanates from the Torah  (Micah 6:8, Numbers 5:18) and Talmud (Tractate Sanhedrin 97b; Tractate Sukkah 45b) as a bedrock value.  

Tzni'ut can be observed in mystical tales of the Tzadikim Nistarim, 36 righteous individuals whose very existence is said to secure the world against destruction.  Exemplars of humility, the Tzadikim themselves may not know they are among the 36, and if they do, they would never call attention to their special status.

Observant Jewish men cover their heads as a sign of their reverence for and obedience to a higher power, a practice which dates to biblical times. A man may wear a yarmulke (Hebrew: כִּפָּה‎ "kipa"), a cap, or one of many different broad-brimmed hats, depending on his sect or community.  Sometimes, men wear both a yarmulke and a hat.

Observant married Jewish women keep their hair covered as a mark of modesty, though variations from hats through scarves to wigs exist across different communities.   Modest clothing—skirts reaching at least to the knee, blouses covering the elbows, and no trousers—are strongly encouraged, as well.

Miriam with two of her customers at her millinery in Hatboxes

In Hatboxes, Miriam is a milliner—a hatmaker—but she wears vibrant scarves instead of hats throughout Hatboxes.  Maybe she's a bit at arms-length from her community, or maybe she's coloring inside the lines, but with the colors that suit her personality.

How do you color outside the lines?