Hi Deb, I'm sorry to bother you, but I have a completely off topic question about Judaism, and I'm hoping you can answer it.

I know that religiously observant married women cover their hair. What happens if a woman is widowed or divorced? Does she still cover her hair, or is she counted as "single"? Is that true no matter the age of the woman? If a woman is 60 years old and never married she can still wear her hair uncovered?

Again, sorry to bother you, but I'm wondering. Thanks if you can help me. Thanks in any case!

The "stam" halacha - the basic law - is that once one begins an observance, one does not stop. Also, since the idea is that a married woman covers her hair because she has now experienced something a never-married woman has not. (Yeah, I know, but in groups that follow this, that's more often than not the simple truth.) Obviously, under both those counts, a widow or divorcee would continue to cover her hair - especially one with children. My landlady is a divorcee, and she still wears a sheitel, a wig. (As another example, Eastern European Ashkenazi men customarialy do not wear a tallit, a prayer shawl, until they get married. If the marriage ends, they still continue to wear the prayer shawl.)

However, there are opinions that would permit a widow or divorcee to not cover her hair at least under certain circumstances - dating, for example, or looking for employment. On the other hand, a never married woman of whatever age would probably not cover her hair.

Meanwhile, I'm staring at what might be a slippery slope - I may be getting a hat fall in the near future. This is a wig with no hair on top, designed to be worn with (wow!) a hat. Because that's a very pretty look with certain hats. And my husband, who does not like wigs, approves of this because it's clear that the hat is there to be the real cover and the wig is just for show. Also,they're way cheaper than a full wig. And, yeah, I'm tired of not having hair (which sounds strange when you realize I do have hair and it reaches my waist.) But it would be so nice for Shabbat, you know?

But. Next thing you know, I'll be getting a headband wig - a 3/4 wig with a headband instead of a hairline, which makes it also way cheaper than a full wig, but doesn't require a hat.

Then I'll be spending enough to buy a laptop on a full wig, and, because of my husband's scruples, wearing a hat over *that*.

Or maybe I'll stick with my long turbans and my hats.

Thank you very much for clearing that up for me. I appreciate you taking the time!

Well. Let's consider. My job is answering the phones. The phones are not working.

I got nothing but time. :)

Also, and this should be an icon...

"It's a Jewish thing. If you have a few minutes, I'll explain it to you."

DSL is a dedicated line. The others go through a different switch. Hence the one can go down when the others don't, or vice versa.

Hoping everything works itself out.

Thank you! That makes sense.

I've had the exact same thing happen to me - and I got something like a third of my monthly phone bill reimbursed because of it.

I called - using my neighbor's phone! - at something like 7:30 on a Friday to report that I had no residential dial-tone. I still had DSL service on the same line - just no dial-tone. I got to talk to phone people (first-line) several times on Saturday - I had friends over, I got to borrow one of their cell-phones. One of the nice people I talked to told me that the service tech had flagged the call 'Home DSL - no work on weekends'. As near as I could figure out after the fact, I got dial-tone back about 10AM Monday - so I had no residential service for 2.5 days. On Tuesday, I mailed a letter to the President of QWest (maybe it was Northwestern Bell at the time), with copies to the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission and the office in Arizona (or wherever it was) that the phone answering people were.

I got a credit for the 'over 24 hours' that I was out of service, and an additional $5-10. I did not get told that they had fixed their procedures - but if it ever happens again, I'm going to insist that the ticket get written up as 'No Residential DIAL-TONE' - accent the 'DIAL-TONE'! And when it doesn't get fixed over the weekend, I'm sending mail off bright and early Monday morning.