Does G-d Care How You Dress - Or Who You Become? | Tetzaveh & Purim

Okay friends, paras. In last week's parsha, we unpacked the the construction of the Mishkan or at least the Mosha collecting the materials, the donations for the construction of the Mishkan. And in this parha we are commanded to put together the clothing the clothing of the kohanim and more particularly the clothing of the kohhen. Um the these the kohanim are referred to in the talmud as theim as the representatives the ambassadors of the Jewish people. Not everybody's going to go into the Mishkan or into the Ba Mikdash or at least in all parts of it. It's not an equal access, but there's going to be representatives who are going to serve God in our behalf and create that connection for us. And Rashi even highlights in this week's para that the word cohen itself means a means to serve. Kohanim are service people. Their job is to serve. Their job is to serve God and to serve God on behalf of the Jewish people that doesn't exempt every individual from serving God. But there's a specific framework in which the Cohen serves God in the Mishkan or in the B mikdash in the tabernacle, the temporary dwelling place or in the permanent one in the B mikdash. And the Torah describes in elaborate detail the clothing that the kohanim wear, the clothing that the co wears. Why are we so particular about the clothing? Like why is that a big deal? What exactly they wear? On a very simple level, the provides a very basic insight, very classic style insight. The loosely translated as the book of education going back um probably 800 years ago is a book that goes through categorically each mitzvah in the Torah. Tells us what the mitzvah is, what the biblical source is, where you could learn more about it in the Talmud, and then gives ethical explanations or rational explanations to the mitzvah. And he does this for all 613 mitzvah in order of the Torah as it appears. And the writes that the kohanim have to focus. They have to focus on God. They have to focus on their service. They're representing everybody. And if you want to serve properly, you have to act like a man of service. So there's a uniform to help create that environment. The strongly asserts and he says this so many different times that our hearts follow our behavior. And when we dress a certain way, we're going to act a certain way. If we're going to act a certain way, we're going to have a certain attitude. And that attitude becomes identity. And in order for the kohanim to be people of service, they have to dress royal so they could treat their relationship with God as such. The Ramban on the Torah has a similar explanation creating this environment of royalty because this is a dwelling place, a home for God. And we wanted to not just, you know, part of part of spiritual connection and holiness is realizing the impact or the experience that h that feels like in the physical world, which is where the royalty comes from. The truth is as as I was reading this parha, there's a part of this that didn't sit well with me because clothing are superficial. And it seems to me that it's unusual, a little strange that the Torah is expending so much energy on something that seems so superficial. I once heard from a rabbi. It's a He's a rabbi. I forgot his name. Um, but I heard him speak once. He's a rabbi in Tene, New Jersey. And he's a traditional Orthodox rabbi. wears a suit, wears a black hat, has a beard, and shortly after October 7th, he was in Israel on a mission trip, leading a mission trip, helping soldiers, helping families, being there to support people, as many Jews from all walks of life did and continues to do to support people after the war. He found himself at a hotel and the hotel had a shaw there and they were praying and he got a text from his wife, his wife in America and he doesn't want to text in the sh so he walks outside. Right. He's wearing his talis fill in and he answers for text. And one of the people working in the lobby, looks at him and says, "You can't be here." Says, "What? He was staying at the hotel." She didn't know that. You can't be here. I like what are you talking about? She says, "We we don't allow collectors to roam the lobby." She thought it was some rabbi at the Shaw just collecting funds. And he was so deeply hurt because like why are you reducing me to my clothing? Like why why is that the definition of who somebody is? just generalize people and he was sharing the story in a different context but I was this story just came to mind when I'm reading this para it's like why are we we're talking about holiness we're talking about connection to God in the holy of holies in the temple what we tried to experience at Mount Si wasn't sustainable so God said build a temple and I'll dwell there And we seem to put our connection to God and tie it to how we look, which is what clothing represents. It just seems so superficial. Up until this point in Jewish history, where else does clothing appear in the Torah? It's not a good context. Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve wore clothing. When else do we have clothing in the Torah? Like discussed specific in in and the type of clothing. So, Adam and Eve, Adam and Kava, ate from the tree of knowledge. And prior to eating from that tree of knowledge, they were completely naked. That's what the Torah says. Well, why weren't they dressed? Because like, why would you be dressed? What would the reason to be dressed be? The only reason to be dressed is to be modest. But the only reason why you need to be modest is because you have shame. But you only have shame because you've internalized an evil inclination. That didn't happen yet until they've eaten from the tree of knowledge. Only once they eaten from the tree of knowledge, they immediately covered themselves in fig leaves. Rashi implies from there that it was the fig leaf with which they had the fig with which they had sinned, not the apple. And it is that tree that they used to cover up their sin. Other opinions, there's different, there's a big debate about in the TS. Other opinions say it was a different fruit. Nonetheless, they immediately covered themselves up. That's where we know about clothing. From then on, human nakedness became a source of shame and intimate intimacy became something taboo because the mind at this point is perverted by the har. Well, that's the context of clothing. And now we're focusing in such great detail on the clothing of the Coen God or of the Cohanim. Let's look where else we have clothing later in history. The clothing in our para are described as it's for the honor and for the glory of the Cohen and the Cohen. If you look at the migilla the purm story in describing the clothing Akash had worn to his royal party which was the start of the persecution of the Jewish people because they had went to that party which was highly inappropriate. The Torah uses a similar the migillas sorry uses a similar phrase for honor and glory. And the Talmud says why the same phrase as describing the Coen God's clothing because you know what reward to that party? The Coen God's clothing and commentaries get deep into this. It was a way of mockery, mocking the Jewish people, which was one of the reasons why it was so bad that Jewish people came to this party in the first place. Aver was trying to make a mockery of of of Jewish hope. Really, this was between the it was this was during the porm took place during the Babylonian exile between the first and second basikdash. That exile was supposed to last 70 years. Akash assumed the 70 years were over. He miscalculated and he threw a party celebrating that he's going to be in dominance forever. And as a way of mocking hope, he wore the Cohen Gudl's clothing. But here's what the commentaries explain. Why does the Torah tell us or the migillah tell us what he was wearing? To emphasize that it was about him. It was about showing off. It wasn't about his kingdom. It wasn't about his people. It wasn't about his guests. It was about him. It was a party celebrating him. It was one big ego trip. So it tells us about his clothing. It sounds like to me that clothing, the focus on clothing is not necessarily a good thing. Give me another example. Sleep is disturbed. That night the king's sleep is disturbed. He looks through his journal. He realizes that Morai had saved his life. He needs to reward Morai. He sees Hammon roaming around. He says, "Hammon, how should the king treat someone whom he wishes to reward?" Hmon assumes that the king is referring to him. And what does Hammon request on his behalf? Why don't you dress up this person you want to reward thinking that it's him in the royal clothing and parade him on the royal horse. He ended up doing this to Morai. But again, Hammon wanted clothing for his ego trip for himself. It seems to me that clothing is associated with how we want others to see ourselves, which is the most fake version of ourselves. It seems to me that clothing in its inception with Adam and Eve is associated with covering up the body. It's sh it's a it's a product of shame. And if that's the case, why are we expending so much energy in detail in the precision of the Cohen God's clothing and the Cohen's clothing? There's a commentary known as the Umar. And here's what the explains. says that we're missing context. Little bit of context because when Adam and Eve wore clothing for the first time, there were actually two phases of their wardrobe. There was their original wardrobe and then there was their God-given wardrobe. This is what the Torah says. When they had first sinned, they immediately developed selfawareness. immediately felt the need to cover up and they wore fig leaves. God then kicks them out of the garden of Eden chastises them. They get their respective punishments and then God dresses them in cost in these leather garments. God created for them leather clothing, nice clothing. Tarumlas, the UNL Aramaic translation says precious nice clothing. Why? So the major says that God wanted to take care of him. They're being kicked out of the Garden of Eden. They sinned. And by the way, their sin was was huge. This was original sin. like sin existed because of them. Literally everything there the whole world changed because of them. The way the midish puts it is God's presence God's divine presence was part and parcel of this world. It was available in this world. Theina the divine presence was here. The world was a garden of God and their sin drove that away. It didn't come back until the giving of the Torah, until the creation of the Mishkan, where God says, "Finally, basil have come home to my garden." They've removed God's presence from this world through sin. They've profained the world through sin. And God says, "You're going into a dark and scary world. I'm still going to take care of you. You're still precious. You sinned. You messed up big time. And now you're on a mission, you and the people after you to bring this world back to where it originally was. Because the world was a garden of God, but by default, and it's now going to become a garden of God by intention, by design, by human design, by human intention. So God dresses them up for the mission. I'm going to take care of you. I still value you. I need you guys. You're going to represent me. This is what the surah amor says based on the midashim. Which means clothing does actually have a very positive context. It represents God's relationship with humankind with Adam and Kava. A relationship so strong that they had just sinned. So, uh, there they just sinned so gravely. I don't know if that's the word. They they just committed such a big sin, the very first sin. Like, just don't eat the piece of fruit, man. They indulged. They've introduced indulgence to the world. And it went downhill from there. It ended up in God. It ended up with the flood of Noah and God having to destroy the world. Yet, God dresses them up. I still value you. I'm still going to take care of you. You're still on a mission. You're still on a mission and you're going to dress to reflect that mission. That's what the Torah Mora says. Then he explains that the coen and the kohanim are finally stepping in the shoes of Adam because they're also on a mission and every Jew is on a mission to make this world divine. to build a sanctuary and serve God in that sanctuary and channel God down into this world to make him feel more comfortable in this world. And we have to dress to reflect that mission. Like Adam, we make mistakes. We get thrown into a real world. And God says, "I'm not going to just exist by default. You're going to make me feel more welcome by intention. And we dress in a way that reflects that mission. But what does that dress represent? It's not just clothing. We know this from chapter 4 of Tanya. The cabalists explain that clothing is a euphemism. A euphemism for thought, speech, and action. A euphemism for behavior. Personality is hard to change. You could change your personality. You don't always need to, but theoretically you could change your personality, but that's hard. It's hard to genuinely love God on demand if you don't. You could do it. It's hard to genuinely love people and love their soul on demand. If you don't, you could do it. You learn the Tanya, you'll learn how to do it. You'll learn other books, you'll learn how to do it. But action is something everybody could do. You can be nice. We can do the mitzvah. Anybody could put on a garment. That's something you can do. And that's why mitzvah and action in general is euphemistic for garments. And when we're describing garments and the need to wear garments in our service to God, what we're describing is the need for action, the need for engagement, the need for presence. The way the Maharal puts it is we all have garments that we're not proud of. We have actions. We've done things that we're less than proud of. And how do we cut out those behaviors? How do we cut out those habits? So, what most people will think, and I I mean this is just not true, and you'll soon see why. Most people think, learn about what you're doing wrong, which it sounds logical. Learn about what you're doing wrong so you could stop doing it wrong. And that could work. But there's a shortcut. People don't like shortcuts because they don't believe in them. There are but there actually is a shortcut. Instead of focusing on how to strip away bad clothing, bad behavior, start putting on good behavior. Start putting on good clothing. You can't do something good and do something bad at the same time. You can't be nice and not be nice simultaneously. You can't assume two identities simultaneously. And when the cog and when the kanim in general are told to wear their garments when they serve God, what they're being told is that when you are creating a space for God in this world, you're creating a temple and you're serving God in this world. Make sure your actions are aligned with those values. Spend less time fighting what you shouldn't be doing and focusing on what you should be. This is the way the Maharal frames it. And I'll I'll give you two examples from the from the Tanakh. Example number one is Noah. Noak. God tells Noah that he's going to wipe out the entire world. Save yourself on that ark. He's on the ark for reigns for 40 days, 40 nights, but he's on the ark for an entire year. He finally gets off. He goes, "Woo, I need a drink." And he plants a vineyard. And he gets trashed, passes out naked in his tent. That didn't go well. Um, as we all know what happened next. Um, if you don't know what happened next, read the Bible, man. Um, it it didn't it didn't go well. Commentaries dive into why he got drunk. What was the reason? Some say cuz he was cooped up. He needed he needed to relax. The Zoyahar has a very fascinating explanation. Again, not for now. We could have a whole class on this, but he was trying to rectify what Adam Harishan did wrong. Adam Harishan, Adam and Eve developed selfawareness through sin. And that ultimately 10 generations later led to the destruction of the world. And he wanted to abolish self-awareness. So, he got drunk. And the Zahar says, "Well, it doesn't work that way. You can't use substances to do that. You have to find freedom internally." Okay? So, different commentaries explore what he did wrong. But what does Rashi say? If you look when the Torah says and Noah planted a vineyard. Rashi says just very simply, he should have planted something else. That's it. We could get into the reason of why he did that, but yeah, tobacco instead, right? But that's but but if he w but if he if he wasn't doing that, if he's doing something else, then he you you have one field. You can't have a vineyard and something else in the same field. So if you're focused on planting something else, then you're not focused on the vineyard. You're not focused on the problem. If you're focused on the light, you're not focused on the dark. They can't coexist at the same time. They could take turns existing, but they're not going to dominate at the same time. The Cohen is told to wear his clothing. Put on good clothing to fight the bad clothing. Put do good things to fight bad things. Add in more light to fight darkness instead of just fighting darkness. I'll give you another example, one more example, a timely example. Going back to the story of Purim, which there seems to be a running theme of clothing from trying to show off at the party to him, clothing were um was a form of of external ego to Hammon wanting the clothing to then Morai getting the clothing that he didn't necessarily want. And then it's Esther's turn to finally go into the king to to invite herself to the king, which she was hesitant about first at first to plea on behalf of the Jewish people. She tells the king, "I'd like to invite you and to a banquet, just you two." That's where she shares the news. This man wants to kill my people. That's where the whole story turns around. The moment before Esther goes into the king was a very pivotal moment. It was a very scary moment. She's being invited to She's not being invited to the king. She's barging in. And two things could happen. Number one, she's selling herself. At this point, she was just abducted. She didn't do anything wrong, but now she's kind of selling herself or potentially selling herself. Or the king says, "I didn't ask you to come here." What does she do before going into the king? The migilla says she puts on royal clothing. Again, this seems to be this running theme of clothing. But if you look at the text, it doesn't actually actually say she put in on clothing. It says she put on royalty. Rashi and many of the other commentaries explain, okay, it means royal clothing. That might literally be what happened historically, but it doesn't say that. Doesn't say she put on royal clothing. It says she put on royalty. She assumed a certain identity before coming in. Maybe it was through clothing, but maybe it's what clothing represent, a deeper identity. And it's ironic because clothing is in the cabalistic analogy we're giving is behavioral. But the Tanya explains that in some ways clothing what we do is a deeper part of us and takes us to a greater place than just who we are without it. Sometimes when you dress like a million bucks, that's how people want to treat you and that's how you do business. Sometimes when we do the mitzvah, even if we're not there, we get closer to that identity. Esther who was doubting whether she should go around or not, she put on those royal clothing. She acted a certain way and that's how she fought the darkness. That's how she got rid of the doubts. And this is what the Cohen guttle is commanded to do. And this is what we're all commanded to do on a spiritual level because like the Rambam says, we're all supposed to be like the tribe of Ley, like the Kanim to be able to serve God in our unique way. That's my story and I'm sticking to