Shabbat 57: Women's Head Coverings and Ornaments in Public on Shabbat

We begin Perek VI and a new Mishna today. The Mishna asks which items a woman may bring into the public domain on Shabbat.  It says that we cannot go out with strings of wool, flax, nor anything women use within our hair braids.  If it already braided in, it is permitted.  There is no immersion in a mikva until those ties are gone and the hair is loose.  We cannot go out with ornaments called totefet, sarvitin not sewn into our head coverings, nor with a kavul.  These terms are defined later in our daf.

We may not go out with a katla, a city of gold ornament.  No nose rings, nor rings without seals and no needles that are not perforated are permitted on women in the public realm.  If we accidentally went out with any of these things, we were not liable to bring a sin-offering.  Torah law says that we are permitted to going into the public domain wearing ornaments on Shabbat.  The rabbis were concerned that women would take them off to show someone and that they would carry the ornaments more than four cubits in the public domain, which is certainly not allowed.

The Gemara fist asks questions about the mikvah.  Huna, son of Rav Yehoshua, notes that his sisters do not remove ribbons from their hair before mikvah, and so we can assume that water gets everywhere even without severe loosening. The Gemara explains that this would be if the sisters were not also dirty.  If they washed their hair before the mikvah, of course they would have taken out these items.  The rabbis discuss whether girls even wear ornaments like in the same way as other women.  They describe piercing girls' ears but keeping the holes open with strings and not jewelry.  Women are not permitted to strangle ourselves, but if the strings are tied loosely, necklaces are permitted. 

Rav Yosef says that a totefet is a packet of spices to ward off the evil eye.  Abaye says that its status should be that of an effective amulet, which is permitted and may be moved on Shabbat.  Rav Yehuda says in the name of Abaye what a totefet is anappazainu, an ornament worn on women's foreheads.  The same opinion was taught in a baraita.  A woman may go out with a gilded hairnet that held the hair in place, and with the totefet, and with the sarvitin, ornaments attached to the haircover but sitting on her forehead or her cheeks.  A woman would never remove her head covering to show a friend her ornaments.

The rabbis discuss further: a kavul is the headcovering of a woman who is a slave. The totefet goes around a woman's forehead from ear to ear.  Sarvitin are the ornaments attached to the net that reach dow to her cheeks.  Rav Huna notes that poor women make the  from different types of coloured materials while wealthy women make them from silver or gold.  A kavul may be a cap made of wood.  A woman is allowed to wear anything at all under her haircovering.  An istema or a beizyunei is a hat or ribbon used to gather hairs that stick out from the headdress.  Diverse kinds rules do not apply to the istema because it is made with hard felt and not woven together.