Sudra (headdress)

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Yemenite Jew wearing a sudra, 1914

The sudra (Aramaic: סודרא‎ suḏārā; Hebrew: סוּדָר sudār) is a rectangular piece of cloth that has been worn as a headdress, scarf, or neckerchief in ancient Jewish tradition. Over time, it held many different functions and is today sometimes understood to be of great cultural and/or religious significance to Jews.

It is mentioned in various ancient and medieval Jewish and Christian religious texts in Aramaic and Koine Greek, written in or around the Near East. Among them are the Gospel of Luke, the Targum Neofiti, the Peshitta, the Babylonian Talmud (this text makes numerous mentions of the sudra and is an important source for the role it played in Jewish life at the time), and the Targum Pseudo-Jonathan.

Etymology

The English sudra derives from Jewish Aramaic סודרא‎. It in turn derives from the

Latin: sūdārium, lit. 'cloth for wiping away sweat, handkerchief' deriving from the adjective sūdarius from sūdor and the suffix -ārium meant to denote purpose in this case.[1][2][3][4]

The Babylonian Talmud presents what Jastrow calls a "

Biblical Hebrew: ס֣וֹד יְ֭הוָה לִירֵאָ֑יו, romanized: sud ʾadonay lireʾāw, lit. 'The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him', a section of Psalm 25:14.[5][6]

History

Prominence in the ancient Near East

The exact historical origins of wearing a piece of

stocking cap.[9]

Statue of Gudea wearing a turban-like garment from c. 2400 BCE[7]

In Judea and the Roman Empire

The sūdārium was kept much like a pocket handkerchief but mainly used for wiping away sweat, as the name implies. It was a modern invention around the time of

romanized: soudárion replacing older terms. It can be found in texts dealing with events in Province of Judaea like the Gospel of Luke for example, where a servant stores money in a such a cloth.[10] Besides being used to wipe away sweat it was also worn around the neck as a piece of clothing akin to a scarf. In the Latin-speaking empire the term ōrārium came to replace sūdārium during the Augustan age. This piece of cloth when waved in the air also came to be used to signify applause in Rome, replacing the lappet of the toga used previously for this purpose. Wilhelm Adolf Becker argues against the use of the sūdārium being used used to wipe one's nose.[3] The sūdārium also came to be part of Roman military armor, commonly called focale in its function as a neckerchief to protect against chafing by the armor.[11] This use of the sūdārium in Roman military attire is sometimes seen as precursor of the modern necktie.[12][13]

Mesopotamia

In the 5th century when the

Classical Syriac: ܘܰܐܦ݁ܰܘܗ݈ܝ ܐܰܣܺܝܪܳܢ ܒ݁ܣܽܘܕ݂ܳܪܳܐ, romanized: wa-ppaw ᵓasīrān bə-sūḏārā, lit. 'and his face bound in a sudra'.[14] This meaning is reflected in the names of the relics of the Sudarium of Oviedo and the Sudarium of Veronica.[15]

Katz, Houtman, and Sysling provide insight as to why a burial cloth, as well as a headdress would be called by the same name. While discussing the meaning of

Jewish Babylonian Aramaic: משיכלא, lit. 'cloak'. Thereby elucidating the Palestinian-Aramaic use of the term sudra, as a broad term for textile sheets used for coving the bodies of human beings.[16][17] Sokoloff corroborates this broader use stating the sudra to have been a "piece of cloth [...] employed to tie and cover a variety of items" apart from a garment.[a][4]

Babylonian Talmud

The

Jewish Babylonian Aramaic: רמו ליה סודרא בצואריה וקא מצערו ליה, romanized: rmu leh sudrā vṣwāreh uqā mṣaʿʿaru leh, lit. 'They threw a sudra around his neck and tormented him'.[25][26][27][28][29]

Styles

The Babylonian Talmud states fashions of wearing the garment, as well as who wore it. Several tractates thereof describe it as being wrapped around one's head.[4][30] Berakhot 60b:5 additionally provides a prayer to be recited upon attiring the garment in this fashion ברוך ... עוטר ישראל בתפארה.[31]

Sudra worn around body and neck

Another fashion of wear mentioned therein is wearing the sudra around one's neck, Marcus Jastrow suggests that it also had been worn over one's arms. The Orach Chayim section of the Shulchan Aruch, a collection of Jewish religious law from 1565, states that the Arabic name of the sudra worn this way is שי"ד; סודר שנותנין על הצואר במלכות א"י שנקרא בערבי שי"ד וכן ביק"א שהיו נותנין בספרד על כתפיהם פטורים, lit. 'A sudra which is worn upon the neck in the kingdom of the Land of Israel named in Arabic Šīd, also the Bīqa, which was worn in Sephard (Spain) over their shoulders are exempt [from the requirement of tzitzit]'.[32][26][33] The 10th century commentator Rashi states: וסודר שבצוארו - ותלויין ראשיו לפניו לקנח בו פיו ועיניו, lit. 'And the Sudra is arranged on one's neck – and the ends thereof were used to wipe one's mouth or eyes' commenting on this passage.[34][26]

Latin: Cidarim linteus est quod repites iudeorum die sabbato super caput habent ualde mundum., lit. 'The Cidarim is a cloth which Jews keep over their heads during day of the Sabbath'.[35][36] This Cidaris was a turban-like headdress worn by the Kings of Persia and as stated before also the rabbinical authorities.[37]

According to Lier, Targumim suggest Moses wore a sudra on his head, specifically his radiant forehead. Concealing the nature of the Israelite god, except when revealing the Ten Commandments, when he is meant to have removed his sudra from his forehead according to Lier.[29]

There is textual evidence for its use as footwear.[4][38]

Decline

Amongst

Qasimid State, which prohibited Jews from wearing anything resembling said ʿAṭarot, that is, from wearing any sort of cloth to cover their heads. The goal of this decree was to humiliate Jews by depriving them of a respectable appearance by forcing them to use their clothes to cover their heads. The situation was remedied with the Jewish community in Yemen bribing government officials. The solution achieved through this act of corruption allowed Jews to wear cloths on their heads again, but they had to be shabby cloths.[39][40]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Being used to wrap jugs, tefillin, money, and foodstuffs according to the Babyloanian Talmud. [18][19][20][21]

References

  1. S2CID 239370393
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  2. ISBN 978-90-04-30488-8
    , retrieved 2022-09-18
  3. ^ a b "A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), SUDARIUM". www.perseus.tufts.edu. Retrieved 2021-09-12.
  4. ^
    OCLC 1015128901
    .
  5. ^ "Jastrow, סוּדָרָא 1". www.sefaria.org. Retrieved 2022-09-20.
  6. ^ "Shabbat 77b:11". www.sefaria.org. Retrieved 2022-09-16.
  7. ^
    OCLC 18723697
    .
  8. ^ Ethnic Dress in the United States: A Cultural Encyclopedia, page 293, Annette Lynch, Mitchell D. Strauss, Rowman & Littlefield
  9. ISBN 978-0-521-09749-9
    . Retrieved 17 April 2013. traditional Jewish head-dress was either something like the Arab's Keffiyeh (a cotton square folded and wound around a head) or like a turban or stocking cap
  10. ^ "Luke 19:20, Novum Testamentum Graece (NA28)". www.academic-bible.com. Retrieved 2021-09-12.
  11. ^ Nic Fields, The Roman Army of the Principate 27 BC-AD 117 (Osprey, 2009), p. 25.
  12. ^ Daniel K. Hall, How to Tie a Tie: Choosing, Coordinating, and Knotting Your Neckwear (Sterling, 2008), p. 8.
  13. ^ Oscar Lenius, The Well-Dressed Gentleman (LIT Verlag Münster, 2010), p. 93.
  14. ^ "The Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon". cal.huc.edu. Retrieved 2022-09-20.
  15. ISBN 9783515082419
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  16. ISBN 978-90-04-17842-7
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  17. JSTOR 24328443
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  18. ^ "Shabbat 148b:1". www.sefaria.org. Retrieved 2022-09-18.
  19. ^ "Sukkah 26a:14". www.sefaria.org. Retrieved 2022-09-18.
  20. ^ "Sanhedrin 48a:5". www.sefaria.org. Retrieved 2022-09-18.
  21. ^ "Gittin 68a:1". www.sefaria.org. Retrieved 2022-09-18.
  22. ^ "Bava Metzia 7a:9". www.sefaria.org. Retrieved 2022-09-16.
  23. ^ "Bava Kamma 119b:14". www.sefaria.org. Retrieved 2022-09-16.
  24. JSTOR 24331408
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  25. JSTOR 24164401
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  26. ^ a b c "Jastrow, סוּדָר". www.sefaria.org. Retrieved 2022-09-16.
  27. ^ "Avodah Zarah 4a:11". www.sefaria.org. Retrieved 2021-09-12.
  28. ^ "The Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon – TgPsJon Exod chapter 21:16". cal.huc.edu. Retrieved 2022-09-16.
  29. ^
    ISBN 978-90-04-52138-4
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  30. ^ "Berakhot 51a:20". www.sefaria.org. Retrieved 2022-09-16.
  31. ^ "Berakhot 60b". www.sefaria.org. Retrieved 2022-09-16.
  32. ^ "Shulchan Arukh, Orach Chayim 10:10-12". www.sefaria.org. Retrieved 2021-09-14.
  33. ^ "Shabbat 120a:8". www.sefaria.org. Retrieved 2022-09-16.
  34. ^ "Rashi on Shabbat 120a:8:12". www.sefaria.org. Retrieved 2022-09-16.
  35. ^ "Tosefta Kifshutah on Shabbat 5:11:1". www.sefaria.org (in Hebrew). Retrieved 2022-09-16.
  36. ^ Goetz, Georg (1894). CORPVS GLOSSARIORVM LATINORVM (in Latin). Leipzig: SOCIETATIS LITTERARVM REGIAE SAXONICAE. p. 12.
  37. OCLC 909831201
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  38. ^ "Yevamot 102b:19". www.sefaria.org. Retrieved 2022-09-18.
  39. OCLC 44706373
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  40. ISBN 9004096841
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