Wiktionary
n. A type of traditional headgear worn in families of many Hasidic rabbis, by unmarried children on Shabbat and by rabbis on special occasions. It is a made from brown fur (as opposed to a spodik, worn by Polish Hasidic dynasties, which is fashioned out of black fur).
Wikipedia
A kolpik is a type of traditional headgear worn in families of some Chassidic rebbes (Hasidic rabbis), by unmarried children on Shabbat, and by some rebbes on some special occasions other than Shabbat or major holidays. The kolpik is made from brown fur, as opposed to a spodik, worn by Polish chassidic dynasties, which is fashioned out of black fur.
It is seen as an intermediate level garment between Shabbat and weekday dress.
The days that some rebbes don a kolpik include:
- Rosh Chodesh Meal
- Hanukah
- Tu BiShvat Meal
- Isru Chag Meal
- Tu B'Av (most do not, but some do)
- Meal served to the poor a few days before a child's wedding
- Yartzeit Meal
Rabbi Shaul Shimon Deutsch, the Lyozner Rebbe in Boro Park wears a kolpik on Shabbat, following a previous minhag of the Rebbes of Chabad.
The word originated from a Turkic word for this kind of hat, kalpak, (also spelled calpac).
Joseph Margoshes (1866–1955) in his memoir A World Apart: A Memoir of Jewish Life in Nineteenth Century Galicia writes regarding Rabbi Shimon Sofer's election to the Imperial Council of Austria: