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What is the meaning behind the black hat? Why did people start wearing black hats?
Good question! In the fifties everyone wore hats; it was a standard mode of respectable dress. Starting with President Kennedy, hats went out of style. However, the communities associated with Yeshivos kept the hats to give their appearance a sense of dignity, just like businessmen who wear suits. Eventually, Yeshiva people were the only ones wearing black hats and so it became synonymous with the Yeshiva community. Those who wear black hats today do so as a way of identifying with that community.
That explains the Black Fedora. Many of those who follow the customs of the Chasidic community wear other forms of hats, many of them black. The Chasidic hat customs stem from the European communities today’s Chasidim are descended from.
The color black was chosen probably because it’s more conservative, in line with the Jewish values of modesty.
Rabbi Meir Goldberg
I was wondering what the meaning behind all the different types of kippot (skull-caps) are and why different type of people wear different type of kippot.
As with black hats, there is no intrinsic meaning. It became customary for whatever reason that certain groups wear certain kippot. Eventually people started to identify certain groups with their kippot.
Rabbi Meir Goldberg
Comment by ATR — September 8, 2006 @ 11:29 am