QUESTION: There’s a fashion in society now to wear baseball caps. I was wondering if you think someone should be allowed in the beis hamedrash wearing a baseball cap and davening in a baseball cap?
ANSWER: Should you be allowed in a beis hamedrash with a baseball cap? I’m not gonna say anything. It depends on the beis hamedrash. But I’ll say this. He shouldn’t wear a baseball cap in the street either. A baseball cap with a team on it, the Yanks or the Mets, means you identify yourself with people who have no heads, people who underneath such a cap have empty minds.
You’re identifying with people who go to baseball because they want to see a fellow with a bat, and he slams the ball, and everybody goes wild on this ‘tzaddik’. A home run! Such meshugaim! It’s an empty world. You want to identify with that world? And therefore, you should never wear a team’s baseball cap, even outdoors, no matter what.
Reprinted from the Parshas Vayikra 5785 email of Toras Avigdor based on a Thursday night lecture taped in July 1999..
