So ingrained is the idea that feet cannot be bare that:
There are religious Jews that go well overboard trying to comply with Jewish law.
When it says in the Old Testament that the side of the head hair should not cut in a manner to effectively create a Mohawk, devout followers go for overkill by growing long sidelocks just to be sure. Along with the prohibition of Mohawks there is a rule against inking the skin as well, which they strictly follow.
Since it is also ordered that males must cover their heads when mentioning G-D's name in prayer, they not only wear a skull cap all day just in case, but also wear a larger hat over it for extra coverage. The skull cap is still there JUST IN CASE the hat falls off at the wrong time.
The list of over kill goes on and on, but one commandment is strikingly ignored:
The one requiring Jews to go barefoot ALL DAY on fast days and when walking home from the cemetery after a family member's funeral.
I have seen several explanations for the lack of leather on these days, but ALL of them are attempts to justify not going barefoot.
All this time spent living up to the rules, but being barefoot is deemed so impossible that even the most pious will not consider following that rule.
This guy's article from July was re-published this past Thursday in a print edition just in time for next Saturday's Yom Kippur fast day. He gets it closer than the other modern authors on the subject, but even he still sidesteps spelling out the real meaning of the commandment not to strap leather (the only kind they had back then, the Talmudic time folks he mentions came 1000 years later) sandals on one's feet.
http://www.jns.org/latest-articles/2014/7/14/sneakers-on-tisha-bav-when-spirit-and-letter-collide#.VCg0lfldXuI=
There are religious Jews that go well overboard trying to comply with Jewish law.
When it says in the Old Testament that the side of the head hair should not cut in a manner to effectively create a Mohawk, devout followers go for overkill by growing long sidelocks just to be sure. Along with the prohibition of Mohawks there is a rule against inking the skin as well, which they strictly follow.
Since it is also ordered that males must cover their heads when mentioning G-D's name in prayer, they not only wear a skull cap all day just in case, but also wear a larger hat over it for extra coverage. The skull cap is still there JUST IN CASE the hat falls off at the wrong time.
The list of over kill goes on and on, but one commandment is strikingly ignored:
The one requiring Jews to go barefoot ALL DAY on fast days and when walking home from the cemetery after a family member's funeral.
I have seen several explanations for the lack of leather on these days, but ALL of them are attempts to justify not going barefoot.
All this time spent living up to the rules, but being barefoot is deemed so impossible that even the most pious will not consider following that rule.
This guy's article from July was re-published this past Thursday in a print edition just in time for next Saturday's Yom Kippur fast day. He gets it closer than the other modern authors on the subject, but even he still sidesteps spelling out the real meaning of the commandment not to strap leather (the only kind they had back then, the Talmudic time folks he mentions came 1000 years later) sandals on one's feet.
http://www.jns.org/latest-articles/2014/7/14/sneakers-on-tisha-bav-when-spirit-and-letter-collide#.VCg0lfldXuI=
