Gadsden Kippot

TZP’s custom kippot (aka yarmulkas or kippahs) have been a big hit, thank you very much. Looks as if we’ll be carrying those in the store for a good long time.

We recently learned about somebody else who’s selling Gadsden kippot to raise money for a trip to Israel. Thought our faithful readers and members would like to know about those, too.

GadsdenKippah

You can go here to learn more or contact the seller: davidhunt -@- outdrs –period– net.

His price, as he notes, is a bit “chai” because he’s raising funds. But it looks like a nice item. No financial interest on our part. Just helping a fellow freedomista.

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8 thoughts on “Gadsden Kippot”

  1. OK, time for me to show my ignorance of the culture I visit when I come here.

    Are there circumstances under which it’s considered inappropriate to wear a kippot/yarmulke with messages on them (I’ve seen ones ornamented with what looked like patterns in silver.) I guess an equivalent question is: Is a kippot considered religious adornment?

    (I already got past realizing “chai” was meant to be read as /xai/ not /tʃai/–the latter being the Russian word for “tea” (чай). With some schooling in German but more in Russian (where the /x/ sound usually gets transcribed in English as “kh” because they also have the /tʃ/ sound English spells “ch”), I’m just multilingual enough in some very wrong languages to get myself in trouble here!)

    1. SteveinCO — I’ve asked Y.B. to drop in to answer your query. I know that in non-religious settings kippot carry all manner of designs (I recall being on a plane with some rowdy kids with Simpsons characters on theirs — very appropriate). I’m guessing there are settings where amusing or political kippot would be inappropriate, but Y.B.’s the guy who’d know.

      1. I did do a bit of poking around, and it appears that in conservative and orthodox communities males are supposed to *always* have their head covered. So it’s not just adornment for purposes of worship. But Y.B. can surely modify/amplify that, so I’ll await what he has to say with interest.

  2. A kippa is a minimal hat. The tradition of a head covering goes back to the Roman occupation of Judea & Samaria. The male Roman citizens of the time tended to be bare-headed. The Sages taught that a Jew was not a “free man” in the Roman sense, but rather was a “servant of G-d”, and should distinguish themselves, accordingly, including in dress. The practice stuck. Observance and head-coverings has not been a constant. In many times and places it made you a target for severe abuse. Still, it generally stuck. In modern times, those of somewhat less strict traditions often have decorated kippot. Although, just as one would not see a Satmar Chassid in baggy, butt-hanging surf-shorts and a mesh wife-beater, his hat tends to be plain, but formal. It is a very broad continuum. 🙂

    1. Y.B., thanks for the reply. It sounds like a (very) long standing custom. I didn’t recall seeing it in Torah (full disclosure, I read it a long time ago, and it was as part of a Christian bible) but of course that’s only part of the traditions.

      As for:

      In many times and places it made you a target for severe abuse.

      …that just tells me that it should be worn with a firearm if at all possible! (Jewish women, of course, should not feel left out: skip the kippa and wear the firearm anyway.) Black would go with the conservative garb quite nicely. Stainless, perhaps, for Reform. And it would tends to lead to a lot more politeness. 🙂

      Never again!

  3. As a former orthodox, conservative, reform Jew, yes my family cycled through them all, my integrated opinion is that in temple, no logo but a star, outside temple, as YBA says, it’s also a hat, I’d let freedom ring and say anything not crude.

  4. This Gadsden kippah would be much more appropriate and meaningful if it had just the snake and “Al Tidroch Alai” in Hebrew–like the IDF patch–that way those who know–just know—and all others will have to ask–I am still looking for such a Hebrew kippah!! דמד

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