Eleven years ago, the former Toldot Aharon Rebbe, Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Kahn, passed away. His death was followed by the event that the group members didn't choose the older brother, Rabbi Shmuel Yaakov Kahn, as the new Rebbe, but instead they chose his younger brother, Rabbi David Kahn. The result was that Rabbi Shmuel Yaakov was upset and founded his own group called Toldot Avraham Yitzchak. Many members from Toldot Aharon joined him but, nevertheless, the Toldot Aharon remain the larger group of the two.
The Toldot Avraham Yitzchak still use the Toldot Aharon Sidur, the Kehilla u'Beracha although they later introduced their own Sidur. Furthermore, they even keep the clothing style and it is hard to tell, who is who when you meet them in the streets. Women and men of the two groups are hard to differentiate.
The traditional head cover, I am going to describe, does fit into the two groups and not only Toldot Aharon.
As I mentioned before, you can spot out different types of Toldot Aharon women from far away. The more "rebellious" or in better words, the more modern type with the traditional Yasameh not covering the woman's neck.
The "Yasameh" is a kind of a Shmattes worn on the head. During the week it has a black colour and on Shabbat and the holidays it has a white colour.
It is important to mention though, that there are different kinds of Yasamehs. Some seem to be more like a hat and other look like a small Shmattes. Somehow the headcover shows the identity of a Toldot Aharon woman. As I wrote before, the more modern woman with a headcover not covering her neck. The second type is a Yasameh which has an attached neckcover in the back. Both types are very common among the women.
The third type is a mostly black unusually long head cover reaching with its ends to the breasts. This kind of cover does cover the head and the breasts in one piece. You won't see this type of cover too often but in case you do, you will realize that the woman wearing it keeps the Toldot Aharon Takanot in a very strict way. It is the most conservative way to express one's tradition.
What I do not mention here is the "Spitz". However, it is very common to see them on Shabbat.
What my friend and I also realized was that those women (Toldot Aharon and Avraham Yitzchak) wear something under their Yasameh. First, we couldn't figure out what exactly it was and I don't feel like going up to one of the women and asking her what she wears under her headcover. However, eventually we found out and the reason for this is very peculiar to me.
Many of the women have the custom to put a piece of foam under their Yasameh. You can see this at the back of the head. They put it on the head (between the head and the Yasameh) and the foam makes the Yasameh standing up a little. The official reason I heard is that the women think that it is more attractive. I don't know if this is the real reason for it.
What I further noticed is that there are different kinds of foam. In other words, different shapes of foam. For example, there is a rather long piece of foam in the shape of a rectangle (about 3 - 4 cm long). The second kind I noticed was a piece of foam in the shape of a horseshoe (about 2.5 cm).
It goes without saying that most group members of the two groups still shave their hairs one or two days after the wedding. I don't really understand why so many outsiders are so curious about this fact. Once you grow up in such a group, you know exactly what to expect after your wedding. Of course, everybody reacts in a different way when she finally sees herself bald. And I am sure that many of these young girls are in shock. Others take it easy.
I cannot understand why people only asked about the first shaving after the wedding. As this is an ongoing lifelong process, what about the women's feelings after a few months or years ? I do believe that even after five years it has an effect. If good or bad, I cannot say, but it definitely has an effect.
As soon as I have the possibility of speaking to the women more openly, I will let you know more about the headcovers.
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