11. Yarmulkes

3:5 A person should be careful not to put on two garments simultaneously, as it is believed to be spiritually harmful, causing memory loss.

3:6 A man is not permitted to walk four cubits (approximately six feet) or to recite blessings or words of Torah with his head uncovered. The Mishnah Brurah says that this is the case under a roof and all the more so under the open sky (2:10). He writes further that the pious won’t go even less than four cubits while bareheaded and he quotes the Taz that the accepted practice in our day is not even to lounge about the house with one’s head exposed (3:11). Finally, he tells us that while covering your head with your hand may work in a pinch for hanging around the house, it is insufficient when it comes to davening or learning Torah (3:12). It is proper to train young boys in this matter as well so that they may come to be in awe of God. (That’s what the word “yarmulke” means in Aramaic – yerai malka, awe of the King.) The Talmud speaks of the mother of Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak. She was warned that her son was doomed to be a criminal. She taught him to always cover his head out of deference to the Almighty and he grew up to be a great Sage (Shabbos 156b).