Kimchis’ Secret
The Gemara (Yuma 47a) brings that there was a woman, her name was Kimchis, who had an especial privilege. She had seven sons, and all of her seven sons became kohanim gedolim. Now to have a son a high priest would make any woman proud. Even if you have a cousin who is a kohen gadol, a fifth cousin, you’ll tell people about it. And she had seven sons and all of them served as kohanim gedolim. That was a record! It was a remarkable thing in our history. Kimchis was the wonder of the nation.
And everybody understood there was something here. It wasn’t pull, protektzia that got her children so far. There had to be something there, some reason.
And because it was so unusual, the Chachomim interviewed her. It was an important question for them. They saw that this was not an accident and so they asked her, “What happened that you had this merit of having seven sons who were high priests?” They wanted to know the story, the backstory.
Well, this is the story. Kimchis said as follows: “יƒרָﬠׂ¿ ̆ י≈ﬠ¿לַ ̃ יƒ ̇יּ≈ב ֹ̇רוֹו ּ̃ו‡ָר ‡ֹל יַמָּיƒמ – All my life my ceiling never saw my uncovered hair.” Now in a woman’s own room if she allows her hair to be exposed, there’s no reason to criticize her, but Kimchis made it her business that even if she had to comb her hair, it was always underneath a headcloth. An extreme thing! The ceiling boards never saw her hair. “And because of that I merited such nachas.” That’s what Kimchis was saying.
