Why do Jews cover their heads when they pray?

Q: Why do Jews cover their heads when they pray?

 

A: 

Interestingly, there is no law, halacha, which indicates that one must cover the head.  we find in the medieval work, the Shulchan Aruch, that “it is a custom not to walk outside bareheaded.”  Note the word, “custom.”  In Talmudic times, wearing a head covering was not a universal practice by most rabbis.  Only a very few maintained this custom.

It has been suggested that the wearing of a head covering originated in ancient Rome where it was the sign of a servant to go out with their head covered showing their servility.  Possibly, long after the Roman Empire, the practice of covering the head continued as Jews remembered the idea of being servants…but to God not to any person.

Today the kippah symbolizes devotion and mindfulness to God and is worn in consecrated places or when we pray.  Custom has grown into virtual law as most synagogues would strongly object to not donning a skullcap for a man and in some instances for women.  The kippah is an outward symbol of one’s “Jewishness,” a distinctive trademark.  More often than ever before one sees Jews wearing kippot (yarmulkes in Yiddish) in the street as a sign of pride in their faith