The Philippi Collection: October 2011

October 31, 2011

Headgear Seen in Assisi

Day of Reflection, Dialogue and Prayer for Peace and Justice in the World

"Pilgrims of Truth, Pilgrims of Peace"
Assisi, 27th October 2011
Documentation of the event you will find here.

Have a look at all these different religious headgears. The head as the seat of the soul and of life since prehistoric times has a magic power of meaning. The head is covered in the first place, to protect it from hostile forces, but also to emphasize and highlight it, and in consequence symbolize the presence of the divine in the mind of his wearer.

Mar Aprem

Metropolitan of India

Assyrian Church of the East

Prof. Wande ABIMBOLA, Awise Agbaye

IFA Heritage Institute, Oyo, Nigeria

Spokesperson of Ifu and Yoruba Religion in the World

Commissioner Barry Swanson

Salvation Army

Mulana Mohammed Zubair Abid

Presidet of Ulama and Mashaikh Council, Pakistan

in light brown Jinnah Hat

Mr Wai Hop TONG

Daoist Association Hong Hong

Baba Edmond BRAHIMAJ

Capo, World Bektashi Community, Albania

October 28, 2011

The Lithuanian Kippah (כִּיפָּה)

Lithuanian Rabbi Michel Yehuda Lefkowitz (הרב מיכל יהודה לפקוביץ)

wearing a Lithunian Kippah

Rabbi Moshe Feinstein (הרב משה פיינשטיין)

Rabbi Shraga Fievel Mendelson (הרב שרגא פייבל מנדלסון)

Lithuanian Kippah made of very thin fabric

You can recognize the inner hat, too.

October 27, 2011

The Yeminite Hat

Amnon Yitzhak (אמנון יצחק‎)

The Yemenite hat is made of a fez (as base) and a scraf wrapped around the fez

October 25, 2011

The Shtreimel (שטריימל) of the Bluzhev (Bluzhov) Rabbi

The Bluzhever Rebbe Ztvi Yehuda Shapira (צבי יהודה שפירא)

wearing a shtreimel with an inner hat (made from black velvet) of cylindric shape, which towers above the shtreimel itself

The Bluzhever rabbi is the only one wearing such a desgin (form)

Some information about the the Bluzhev dynasty, see here.

Jewish boys from Blazowa (Bluzhev), Poland wearing a kasket or kasketel (קאסקעט קאסקעטל)

See my article "The Jewish kasket or kasketel (קאסקעט קאסקעטל)"

October 24, 2011

The Jewish Kolpik (קאלפיק) and Spodik (ספודיק)

At the first glimps is not so easy to distinguish the kolpik from the spodik.

The two hats look very similar.

Sometimes the Polish Hassidim such as Ger, Amshinov, Ozharov, Aleksander call their spodik shtreimel.

The kolpik - it is made by an entire piece of sable fur. It is a very expensicve hat and only a few craftsmen still can make it.

It is a tall, light brown hat and the fur feels soft. The kolpik is worn in families of some Chassidic Rebbes, by unmarried children (but only after their bar mitzvah) on every Shabbat, holidays, family weddings etc., and by some Rebbes on special occasions.It is worn by Galica and Hungarian rabbis and as well by Bobov, Belz, Munkacz, Vizhnitz and many sons and grandchildren of those rabbis like Satmar, Spinka, ...

The spodik is made out of fur or the tails of the Fisher. A spodik made out of fur is cheaper than out of tails. Its colour varies from very dark brown to black.

The Kolpik (קאלפיק)

Rabbi Moshe Leib Rabinovich wearimg a kolpik

Rabbi Bentzion Halbershtam of Bobov (1874-1941)

wearing a kolpik

Belze rebbe Yissachar Dov Rokeach (II) ( ישכר דב רוקח)
wearing a kolpik

The rabbi in the center is the Belze rebbeYissachar Dov Rokeach (II), the one on the right (his left) is his son Aharon Mordche, the one on the left is his other son wearing a kolpik.
Many grandchildren of rabbi's wear a kolpik from the bar mitzvah till the wedding.