Perhaps you are like me . . . I knew the term "orthodox", but I never really thought about the meaning of the word. Well, it means "correct belief" or "straight teaching". The origin of the term comes from two Greek words. (What, not Hebrew?) Orthos means "correct" or "straight" while doxa means "teaching" or "worship". It makes sense that Orthodox Jews are the conservative segment of Jewish society, holding to original and traditional ideas. (If you are old enough, you can't help but think of Zero Mostel singing Tradition at this point.)
All Orthodox Jews have a few things in common. For starters, they keep Shabbat (their Sabbath day) holy. They must eat kosher food (and there are a whole lot of rules about which foods can and cannot be eaten). They study the Torah, the word of God given to Moses on Mount Sinai. And, they believe in the coming Messiah who will bring all Jews back to Israel and rebuild their Third Temple in the holy city of Jerusalem.
There are also differences that divide the Orthodox Jews into smaller groups, each with their own customs and traditions. The two main groups are the Haredi Jews and the Modern Orthodox Jews.
Haredi Jews comes from the word "trembling" or "fervent". They are strict in following their beliefs. Men often wear all black while the women dress very modestly, covering their hair and wearing long dresses. You might think all Haredi Jews are alike, but they can be divided into three sub-groups.
Hasidic Jews Subgroup 1: These believers came from Eastern Europe in the 1700s. The Hasidic Jews are made up of hundreds of independent groups. Each group has its own rabbi (rebbe), style of dress, and religious beliefs. On Shabbat and other special days, Hasidic men wear a shtreimel, an amazing fur hat that looks kind of like a fur cylinder. I never had the courage to ask a complete stranger on the street if I could take a photo of him and his shtreimel, but I certainly wanted to.
Litvaks (Yeshivish) Subgroup 2: These Jews also originated in Eastern Europe from Lithuania, Belarus, Latvia, and parts of Poland, Russia, and Ukraine. They have their own unique dialect of Yiddish and their own take on liturgy.
Sephardic Haredim Subgroup 3: The name of this group comes from the Hebrew word for Spain. This group formed on the Iberian Peninsula around the year 1000 AD. In the late 1400s, they were expelled from the area and moved to England, the Netherlands, North Africa, Turkey, the Eastern Mediterranean and Balkans. They had their own unique language called Ladino.
Modern Orthodox Jews try to combine traditional Jewish values with the modern world in order to be part of today's society. They believe in halakha, the Jewish law which came from God, but they also want to take part in education, science, and culture.
My very brief explanation of these groups would probably offend Orthodox Jews who see how minimally I described them. I tried to give the uninformed (like me) a little bit of background information. I'm the first to admit that my knowledge is insufficient. Mostly likely, members of each group can identify who belongs to what group at first glance. I never could. But, there were some traditions that fascinated me.
I already mentioned the shtreimel. However, the kippah (yarmulke or koppel) is the most common type of headgear seen among Jewish men. It is worn to show reverence to God. The kippah is a brimless skullcap that can be made of cloth or woven. From my observations, Orthodox men wore them all the time, even if they were beneath a shtreimel or another hat. I was delighted to wear a kippah during one of the Shabbat meals that I enjoyed while in Jerusalem.
I also loved the tzitzit. These were tassels that men wore on the four corners of their garments. I observed them dangling near a man's belt. Their purpose it to remind the wearer about the commandments of the Torah and remaining faithful to God. The origin of the tradition comes from Numbers 15:38-41. "Throughout the generations to come, you are to make tassels on the corners of your garment, with a blue cord on each tassel."
If there is a runner-up to the shtreimel that fascinated me, it is the payot. Payot is the Hebrew word for sidelocks or sideburns. And, as it turned out, the Hasidic Jews wear both the shtriemel and the payot. Why the sidelocks? There is a commandment, Leviticus 19:27, for Jewish men not to cut their hair past the half-point of their ears. So, those who follow this commandment let that hair grow quite long. They keep these locks neat by curling them.
Just like the shtreimel, I couldn't run up to a stranger on the street and ask to take a photo of their payot. And, alas, none of the Jewish muralists I worked with sported those sidelocks. After two and a half months in the Holy Land, I gave up ever hoping to find a portrait with a payot. I headed to the airport in Tel Aviv to return home without that photo. However, once again, I learned that I can take photos with a phone that I can never take with my expensive camera. Everyone always has their phone out these days. Nobody is suspicious if it is out for a very long time. Since I was at the airport hours before departure, there was plenty of time to find an unsuspecting subject. And, patience paid off. Just shortly before boarding the plane for home, I snapped the picture I had waited for so long. Yep, Payot Patience.