Responsum: On Reciting the Shema‘ in the Presence of Bareheaded Women

‘Arukh ha-shulḥan, oraḥ ḥayim § 75:7

And now come and let us shout out against the licentiousness of our generation, on account of our many sins. For it has now been many years that the daughters of Israel have acted licentiously with regard to this sin, going out bareheaded. And all the protests that have been raised concerning this have not been of any help or use. The [leprous] scab has now spread, for the married women goes with her hair uncovered just like the unmarried girls. Woe to us that such has happened in our days! Nevertheless, as a matter of law it is our opinion that it is permitted for us to pray and to bless in the presence of their bare heads, since most of them go around that way these days, and it is on a par with the parts of a woman’s body that are normally exposed. As the Mordechai [Mordechai ben Hillel ha-Kohen, ca. 1250–1298] said in the name of Raviah in § 83: “Those things that we mentioned as forms of nakedness [one of which is women’s hair] all apply specifically to body parts that are not normally exposed; but concerning an unmarried girl who habitually goes bareheaded, we have no concern, for it does not awaken impure thoughts.” Since among us the married women practice similarly, here too it does not awaken impure thoughts. (the Rif and Rambam completely omitted the law of a woman’s hair and voice [being considered nakedness], because they thought this does not apply to recital of the Shema’. See the Beit Yosef.)