“So, if I wear a leather kippah or a knit kippah, it means that I have to have certain beliefs and actions?! Are you saying that it’s not possible to wear a knit kippah and have the same hashkafos and actions as a “yeshivish person?”
The Wolf “
If you were wearing a Yankees T-Shirt would it indicate with certainty that you were a Yankees fan and hate the Mets?
Not with certainty, however it would be pretty hard to convice people otherwise. Why would you be wearing such a unifrom.
The same with a yarmulka to some extent. Why would someone wear a kippah serugah if they did not identify with the group that wear kippot serugah?
Why would someone specifically not wear a velvet yarmulka if they considered themselves akin to the black velvet wearing group?
A yarmulka is used to identify a person as a Jew (even if that is not the purpose of wearing a Yarmulka, it is used as such by others). Which yarmulka you use to identify yourself certainly says alot about what type of jew you want to be identified as. To claim otherwise is the same as wearing a team t-shirt and sayong that you do not identify with that team. It maybe so, but you would be hard pressed to make a believable case.
And the yarmulka itself (Assuming that it covers the head and is not initself a joke, i.e. with a picture of Bart Simpson mooning someone) is not better or worse than the next (two layers is a difference though according to many). But each person has to attach themselves to a kahal, individual service is far from the optimum this is but another way of indicating your attachement and belonging with a specific kahal.