Thursday, June 7, 2007

Hungarian - Romanian chassidic clothing style

B"H

When one goes through a chassidic neighbourhood on Shabbat, he might see women wearing black stockings, black or dark blue dresses and a white apron around the dress.

Wearing a white apron on Shabbat is very common among the women of the chassidic group Toldot Aharon whose members you can find in the Mea Shearim (ultra - orthod. neighbourhood in Jerusalem) and Beit Shemesh near Jerusalem.
I was always wondering why they wear this apron and thought that it must be a certain Minhag (custom). Then my Rabbi Mordechai Machlis told the following story at one of his Shabbatot:

He said that every Shabbat, his mother used to wear a white apron around her dress. After a while he asked her why she does so and she explained that once in Hungary (also Romania), many Jews did not have too much money to buy clothes for Shabbat. They did not have a choice but wearing their daily clothes also on Shabbat. In order to make a distinction, they put on a white apron in honour of Shabbat.

Maybe the women of Toldot Aharon put on an apron for the same reason.

No comments:

Post a Comment