Why do people still wear black hats?

Speaking of a “large Black Hat with the wide brim”, there might be a problem with such wide brims on Shabbat. IIRC Rav Ovadia paskens that one should not wear a hat with a brim wider than a tefach – bohen ohel. There is also a source for it in the MB.

Here is what I think about hats:

I used to think it was silly, and that I just wore it because that was the convention of how “we” dress, and I wanted to associate myself with the people who dress that way.

But, I think it really does make sense now.

Ask yourself: In almost every society until recently, some type of hat has been accepted as a part of normal dress. Mexicans wore big straw ones, polish wore fur ones, arabs wore keffiahs, chinese wore chinese ones, etc.

Hats have always been part of the way one dresses, part of being dressed.

Why? I don’t know. But there is clearly some reason that a mensch covers his head.

So, I don’t understand it, but I’m ready to accept that a reason exists.

What do you mean grapple with it? If they allow it, that’s the psak.

its out of style now and nobody wears them so why are we continuing to wear them…

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Because we are SUPPOSED to stand out! In 20 – 25 years man to woman marriage will be out of style, and we will still be doing it. Kashrus is unfortunately out of style for 80 plus percent of Jews – we are still doing it. Shabbos – make it 90% etc etc etc. The hat is a symbol now, wherever it came from in the past, it makes a statement that our tafkid is to do a lot of things that stand out and are not in style.

Sources:

*) Dressing in black (including the hat) – Shach YD 178:3

*) Wearing a hat (even not during davening or making a Bracha) – Maharsha Shabbos 156b

Chen, the Shach you quote is sourced elsewhere, for one whose yetzer is overcomming him, he should dress in black, and cover his head in black(atifah not necessarily a hat) and self impose galus. This is the derech/ self help for someone who is losing it, ( maan detakfei yitzrei) and the Rambam’s concept of going to an extreme, in order to distance from the aveirah,(flashy clothes, gaavah, aping the idolaters) so as to come back to a middle path, it was not the norm for chazal, nor was it so in the Shach’s time. The hakpoda was not to wear red. But you can play games with pulling non-congruent ideas out of SA and the nosei kelim. I can prove to you we should wear whites and colors on shabbos, with the same level of hechrech: OC 559:8 SA and Rama.

Abelleh:

If you were a uniformed officer in the military and you ran into another uniformed officer, you could immediately start conversing with him about military and geopolitical matters. OTOH, if another person in street clothes walked up to you and started talking to you about military matters, you would rightfully respond to him as if he was unsophisticated in military matters. If you realized in mid-conversation he was an officer too, you would change the perspective and nature of your conversation.

Much the same as you described your experience above.

The fact that these people in said uniform assume that they have more Torah knowledge than a “pedestrian” out of uniform is, not only arrogant, but wrong.

Oh come on. The facts are true and based on very clear statistics.

There are more people learning for longer who dress like that. If we make the simple assumption that learning more is a good indicator of knowing more, we can easily say that a stranger has a better chance of being a talmid chochom if he is dressed like that.

That doesn’t mean it makes you a talmid chochom or is necessary to be one. It is just a siman.

Much like a fellow in a tweed jacket walking in Harvard Yard is more likely to be a professor than a guy in a suit in Manhattan. Wearing a tweed jacket doesn’t make you a professor, and wearing a suit doesn’t make you not one. It isn’t even a uniform. But if you’re looking for a professor, take my advice.

Thanks.

I think along with wearing a black hat comes a bit of arrogance.

Very unbecoming.

No, you are the one with a complex. My black hat came with no arrogance. It was simply something I started wearing just like everyone in my family and shul.