Back Row Of The 'Beis

Familiar Ground

De'ah Ve-Dibbur has the complete lowdown on the background leading up to Rav Eliashiv's ruling on the Indian Wigs. It should be noted that:

Shortly before Shavuos, at the urging of some American rabbonim and with Dayan Dunner's encouragement, a prominent talmid chochom arrived from America. HaRav Feivel Cohen, author of the highly acclaimed seforim Badei Hashulchon who has corresponded with HaRav Eliashiv on several weighty halachic issues and is held by him in the highest esteem, came to present the arguments for leniency. Unfortunately the exact details of his arguments are as yet not known to the present writer.
He expounded at length. It is noteworthy that HaRav Eliashiv viewed the meeting as of such importance that in the middle he sent a message that he could not keep his commitment to attend a bris as sandek.

The split really does seem to be between the American and non-American posqim. Wigs may yet become the next gelatin.
Click here for another article on why totally natural-looking wigs are, in fact, assur according to, well, the Rabbinic board behind the Yated (not like they print things they don't agree with). Key lines:

The writer of this article called up a professional in another country who cuts and sets sheitels and is considered to be an outstanding expert in her field. She indeed spoke about the excellence of her work. She reported that her sheitels are so perfect and natural-looking, that her own daughter, who had been married for years and already had a fourteen-year-old son, was "gerret a shidduch" by a shadchan. He had mistaken her for being still single, because she looked so young in her sheitel and projected the natural image of an unmarried girl.
Although this professional probably knew no better, the truth is that rather than pride herself on such an achievement, she should have been distressed with the result of the styles and settings that she engages in. Her achievements are diametrically opposed to the will of Hashem when He commanded married women to cover their hair. Our sad response to the incident just reported must be, "Woe to us that this special mitzvah has fallen into such disfavor!"

As it turns out, there are lots of types of sheitels that are actually assur by these standards, which means that the Hareidi leadership is painfully aware of the major critique of the wig-wearing leveled against it by the Modern Orthodox. There are some more passages towards the end of the piece about how wearing the right sheitel can help prevent Islamic terrorism.

Posted by Avraham at June 3, 2004 09:16 AM