Shua Friedman, National Ambassador of Education, Southwest NCSY
Jews and clothes go together like Donald Trump and money. That may not seem like an obvious (or accurate) statement, but it’s true! On Shabbos, we try and dress a little bit fancier than we do during the week. Some men wear a super shnazzy suit with crazy tie-to-sock color coordination, maybe even a black hat, and some women put on their best dress with heels that both match their dress, but are also way too tall.. The way both women and men dress during the week is also discussed halachically through the laws of Tzniut. On Yom Kippur, you see almost everyone wearing white, signifying the direct application of fashion into customs.
So let’s segway into the parsha for a bit. This week’s parsha, Tetzaveh, we see the biblical application of clothing and fashion. The Torah discusses the clothing worn by the priests and the High Priest, Aaron. The Torah gives us all of these details of the fabrics, designs and accessories that the priests worse. So here’s my question: Why??? Why is the Torah wasting words on the details of the clothing of the priests? Why does it matter? It isn’t like it’s just one sentence saying “Aaron wore a long robe of this color,” the pasukim go into deep, intensive detail about all of this.
Now, for all I know, there are commentaries by the likes of Rashi and Rambam on this, but I would like to share my own hypothesis as to why the Torah is seemingly obsessed with fashion, and if you know me, this is weird. (No, it isn’t weird that I have my own idea for once in my life. I like to think at least occasionally I think of something good on my own.) I just know absolutely nothing about fashion or clothes. In fact, this year was the very first year that I decided to go shopping for clothing somewhere other than Walmart or Old Navy. The reason I made this adventurous and dangerous leap, was because of one magical pair of pants. Obviously these pants weren’t literally magical, as I am not in somewhere like Hogwarts (yet), but they made me feel magical. They fit well, they weren’t baggy, they had a nice color to them, and they just simply really made me feel great about myself. It was a sensation that I never had before, and I couldn’t believe that it was a pair of pants which created that feeling! This feeling can be best described as confidence. I had a new swagger to my walk, a new edge to my talk, and….. I can’t think of anything to put here that rhymes. But I felt fantastic!
See, clothes have practical usage. You wear a coat for when it’s cold, you wear shorts for when it’s hot, we wear uniforms or colors to show that we are a part of a school, team, organization, etc. There are things in this world that transcend practicality though, and I think what we wear falls under that category. It may not be practical to wear a full suit to an outdoor wedding during the summer, but we do it because it portrays something about the wearer: that he or she is serious, and takes themselves seriously. When we go to a job interview, we also dress nicely because we are trying to project that same feeling of, “Look at me. I am here, and I take myself seriously.” When we dress like this, we project confidence, which in return, instills into us our own confidence.
Clothes have this transcendental power to either transform who we are, or express who we are. Wearing a suit shows seriousness, wearing a bunny costume shows silliness, and wearing a pair of khaki shorts and a polo shirt says two things: 1. You’re a prepster who is either about to go golfing or visit your fraternity friends, or 2. You are showing that you are casual.
The way we dress is not just about our own confidence though; there is an external aspect to the way we dress. What I am referring to, is the outside perception of who we are. This is what I believe to be the precise meaning of why the Torah is so elaborate in its explanation of the garbs of the priests. In this parsha, the Torah tells us that the purpose of the clothing of the priests was to be “for honor and beauty.”
The word beauty we can easily understand. Beauty implies that something looks good. But what does beauty have to do with honor?
As much as dressing ourselves is a way of expressing who we are, it is also a means of expressing our values. As Jews, we try and honour G-d in every aspect of our lives, such as through making a bracha on food whenever we eat. I believe we are also supposed to honor G-d through the way we present ourselves, because that too expresses our values. The priests were working directly for G-d! They had to be meticulous as to how they looked, because by being meticulous, detailed, and conscientious about how they presented themselves, that would translate into them being meticulous, detailed, and conscientious about the work they were doing.
That is what I believe the message of our parsha to be; that with a little bit of care, all clothing can be like priestly garments, and bring a greater sense of beauty and honor into our lives.
Have a great, and fashionable shabbos!