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I have heard lots of "anecdotal evidence" (which means Mashpiyim telling over what they heard at private Yechidusim [private audiences]) that the Lubavitcher Rebbe wanted people (or Bochurim) to wear hats and jackets.

Is there any "written" source for this statement (such as a Sicha (even non-Muga) Letter, etc.)

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  • 1
    @DoubleAA, they're y'chiduyos.
    – msh210
    Commented Mar 9, 2012 at 7:04
  • 3
    @yoel But not millennia.
    – Double AA
    Commented Mar 9, 2012 at 15:08
  • 2
    @DoubleAA arguable! Look at last week's parsha. A turban and robe look suspiciously like a hat and jacket to me...
    – yoel
    Commented Mar 9, 2012 at 15:18
  • 4
    @Ephraim the crowd there would not be able to answer this question, and we have plenty of such questions Commented Apr 26, 2012 at 22:56
  • 3
    @Ephraim, Shmuel's right. No need to engage in scope gerrymandering.
    – Isaac Moses
    Commented Apr 27, 2012 at 15:15

1 Answer 1

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+50

About hats, the Rebbe comments in a footnote to one of his letters (Igros Kodesh, letter 3356, and from there in Sefer Haminhagim, p. 9) that it is normative chassidic practice to wear a double headcovering - a yarmulka under one's hat. (As R' Y.S. Ginsburg points out (Hiskashrus, no. 537), this formulation fits with the older European (and American) practice that everyone wore a hat anyway, so that the yarmulka was the "extra" covering; whereas nowadays we think of wearing a hat as something additional.)

R' Ginsburg notes, though, that this doesn't necessarily mean that one has to wear a hat all the time; indeed, the Rebbe himself, when studying privately, often did so wearing only a yarmulka.

Not sure about sources for jackets.


Looking in R. Michoel Seligson's new index of the Rebbe's talks and writings (highly recommended, btw), he references (under בגד) an account from 5729, printed in from Kfar Chabad magazine #700, about an elder chassid who put on a hat and jacket before opening the door for the Merkos shluchim; the Rebbe commented, when hearing this, that this chassid may be "[physically] far away, yet [spiritually] very near."

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  • At least half an answer :) Commented Apr 30, 2012 at 19:52
  • page 223 of Kulam Bechachma vol 2 - books.google.co.cr/… - has a story (no source given) which illustrates the idea that the kippah is the second covering. I'll translate it here: A Maskil came to the Chassid R' Chaim Leib of Sosnitz (a Chassid of the Tzemach Tzedek) with a question. "Tell me, my teacher, what is the reason why chassidim and men of action cover their head with a hat and a...
    – Menachem
    Commented Jul 8, 2012 at 2:47
  • ...kippah underneath it? Is it not enough for a jewish person to wear only a hat, like everyone else (K'Derech HaBri'ot)?" "Go see," answered R' Chaim Leib, "a person in his house has has a ceiling and a roof above his head, while an animal in a barn has only a roof above its head."
    – Menachem
    Commented Jul 8, 2012 at 2:49
  • @Alex Do you have any information e.g. a title for this index
    – SAH
    Commented Aug 20, 2018 at 0:04

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