TETZAVEH 5782

Let’s Dress Up Again for Shabbos

Let me begin with a question: When was the last time you put on a suit and tie or one of your favorite dresses? Covid has changed our entire way of dressing. We now dress down—much more informally—especially if we do much of our work at home. And when we work at home, who knows what we’re wearing? On Zoom meetings, or the like, the camera blocks out most of our appearance, and as long as we’re wearing a shirt, we might as well be also in our pajama bottoms and slippers. We don’t give much thought these days to our clothing.

Remember the pre-Covid olden days when we thought a good deal about what we wore? For me, when it came to clothing, all I had to do was to remember 3 rules:

1. Wear the right colors: No wearing black after Memorial Day; no wearing white after Labor Day; and no turning red when you see the bill. 

2. You’re hip if your clothes are referred to as “unstructured and baggy.” You’re not hip if your body is described this way!

3. And for Gd sakes, dress appropriately for your age. Don’t do punk, grunge or hip hop if you’re also wearing Depends!

Shakespeare was said to have remarked: “Clothes make the man.” The truth is Shakespeare never said this! What Polonius in Hamlet said was: “For the apparel oft proclaims the man.” It was Mark Twain who actually said, “Clothes make the man.” He went on to add: “Naked people have little or no influence on society.” It’s hard to argue with that logic, although I’m told several influencers on TikTok are practically naked! 

This morning’s Torah portion describes in detail the special clothes priests wore in the Temple. There were 4 garments (Ex. 28): linen trousers, a tunic, a belt and a turban. The High Priest wore additional garments: the ephod (the breastplate), a robe and its bells, and the tzitz—the band for the forehead that proclaimed: Kodesh laHashem (Holy to Gd). Wearing these garments made the priests more aware of their special role as it told everyone the priests were holy and unique and it made the Priests feel that way as well! 

It’s true. What you wear can change you. Wearing a MAGA hat says something about you and what you believe—just like wearing a black hat and a black suit with tzitzit hanging out also says something about you and what you believe. Even the kind of kipa you wear or lack of says something about you. In the ultra-Orthodox community, the kipa will generally be large and made of black velvet. The smaller, knitted—often colorful—kipa is a sign of a Modern Orthodox Jew. 

And for a woman, a sheitel (wig), a tichel (scarf) or hat and a long dress indicate one is part of the ultra-Orthodox community…while a dress or skirt above the knee or pants indicates a more modern approach.

But if clothes make the man—and the woman as well—perhaps all of us who spend so much time at home dressing a little schlumpier, should take this to heart. Let me tell you about Admiral Richard Byrd, the famed polar explorer. In his book titled, Alone, he tells of his expedition to the Antarctic where he was going to be alone for 4 months. At 1^st he was indifferent. He wanted, “to know or think of no one, just to be alone.” But soon he noticed that he began to eat without a fork, and then with his hands, and then directly from the can. He stopped getting dressed in the morning. He showed us how easily one can degenerate into the primitive—even to the level of an animal. “And only then,” he writes, “he became conscious that he was not alone.” What made the difference for him was the realization that Gd was there with him. And so, his decency and self-respect had to be restored and maintained—if not for himself, then for Gd.

Maimonides, in writing about the special clothes of the kohanim (Hilchot Klei HaMikdash, 10:4) gives the clear impression that these are manifestations of the royalty and majesty of the priestly role. Without these clothes, a kohen is just an ordinary Joe—one of Gd’s subjects—but without any regal status. With the clothing, he’s not only bedecked with “dignity and adornment,” but has become a prince!

Who made the 1^st clothes in history? After the sin of eating the forbidden fruit, Gd made Adam and Eve clothes (Gen. 3:21) and cast them out of the Garden of Eden. Nechama Leibowitz comments: Everything in the way of culture and civilization was given to man to discover and develop on his own, with his own capacities...Neither the discovery of fire nor farming nor building houses was revealed to man by Gd. Rather, he was required to invent all these procedures on his own. Only clothing was given to him from Above.

Gd made clothing for man, teaching us that clothes are significant. And, therefore, we shouldn’t treat our clothes lightly for clothing makes the man. So, when we dress schlumpy then—pandemic or not—what does that say about us as human beings, an image of Gd?

With this in mind, I decided to make an investment in the future, to get back to myself. So, I went and I bought this beautiful tie. I think as the Covid pandemic wanes, all of us should go out and buy something nice to start wearing.

When the High Priest performed the Temple service on Yom Kippur, 1^st he offered a sacrifice on behalf of his family wearing white linen garments. But after that, the Torah (Lev. 16:23) tells us he had to put away these garments. Why? Rashi explains that this teaches us he could never use those garments again. Every Yom Kippur he had to get brand new clothes to offer a sacrifice to Gd. Why? Gd wanted to make sure that each year when the High Priest offered his sacrifice, he wouldn’t feel: “Here we go again—the same old same old.” The High Priest should have something new to help uplift and make the day feel extra special.

So, I got something new, and I’m not finished. I hope you can make every day special—especially Shabbos—not only by how you act, but also by the sense of decency you exhibit by what you wear. So my friends, let’s begin to dress up again--especially for Shabbos. Amen!