Covered heads, kippahs

Q. In Leviticus 10.6 it says that Aaron and his sons were not to uncover their heads, neither rend their garments "lest you die and wrath come upon all the people: but let your brethren, the whole house of Israel, bewail the burning which the L-rd has kindled." Do you think this verse is why Jewish men wear "kippahs" today, or were only the priests to cover their heads?

A. This statement comes right after Aarons 2 sons were killed for offering strange fire before the L_rd. What G-d is telling them was they were not to mourn for them. The priests wore headcoverings, a turban style covering because they had the anointing oil on their heads and this was a second covering over the first covering (oil) that had the glory. They were told not to mourn because this would have made it look like G-d was wrong in what happened, and of course He wasn't, so they were not to give that impression. There is no commandment for men to wear headcoverings in prayer or worship in the scriptures, only the priests. Where this comes about is a long story, but with the failure over the years of the priesthood, teachers and sages emerged. THis came about after the Babylonian captivity, and these sages were the ancestors of what became the Pharisee's.

The Sadducee's were mostly made up of the priestly clans. Needless to say, there evolved a bitter rivalry between the two groups for the attention of the people. The Pharisee's began to say that "all the people were a kingdom of priests" and began to take some of the Torah commands for priests and apply them to the people, and wearing a headcovering was one of them that has survived to this day. Ritual handwashing, which Yeshua criticized, is still done today also. Basically, the Pharisee's usurped authority from the priests, along with certain commandments that were only meant for them.

The kippah is a circular piece of cloth that most people have seen. I believe this shape comes from what people saw in the Babylonian captivity. Babylonian worship included worship of the sun, and the circular shape on the head was done by either cutting the hair or wearing a round headcovering. This was to represent the sun disk. Well, this shape caught on among the ignorant and it has been passed down and seen today in Judaism and your more liturgical churches like the Catholic church. That's why the popes, cardinals ,bishops wear the same thing you see on Jewish men, they both have Babylonian roots.

Q: In Leviticus 10.9 it says that Aaron was not to drink wine when he goes into the Tabernacle. Is this why some Christians won't drink wine and only grape juice?

A. Christianity did not have a problem with wine, and most Christians today don't have a problem with it. It is not a sin to drink wine, or strong drink. The sin comes from the abuse of it. Early in the 20th century, the fires of prohibition were flamed by articulate preachers who used the Bible to decry the use of alcohol and that it was the root of all evil,causing legislators to to make laws "prohibiting" alcohol. This certainly has not been the overwhelming view of Christianity over the centuries, and certainly was not G-d's view of it. There are passages awarding about the abuse of alcohol, but others saying it was a gift from G-d, it was offered in the Temple, you were commanded to buy it with tithe money at Sukkot in Deut 14.22-27. What happened was people took the negative scriptures about alcohol to prove their point, neglecting the positive ones. Well, these ministers trained others, and they trained others and this view gets passed down through certain denominations today.