…’Cause everyone’s crazy ’bout a sharp-dressed man.1
As we begin the book of Vayikra/Leviticus, Aaron and his sons will finally begin using the elaborate vestments prepared for them as worship is inaugurated in the Mishkan, the Tabernacle. Regarding this attire the Torah instructed:
Make sacral vestments for your brother Aaron, for dignity and adornment. Next you shall instruct all who are skillful, whom I have endowed with the gift of skill, to make Aaron’s vestments, for consecrating him to serve me as priest. Exodus 28: 2-3
The great medieval commentator Rashi, emphasizes the final phrase:
To sanctify him in order to induct him into the priesthood by means of the garments so that he will be a priest to me.2
The clothes it seems are inherently transformative. Aaron steps into the phone booth, puts on his priestly vestments, and emerges as the Kohen Gadol, the High Priest. Rashi’s assertion regarding the Kohanic vestments clearly follows the passage below from the Talmud:
If one serves as a priest without the full priestly vestments, his service is disqualified. At the time their vestments are upon them their priesthood is upon them. If their vestments are not upon them, their priesthood is not upon them.3
The Talmud goes beyond Rashi, requiring the vestments not just for the moment when the individual is elevated into their new position, but they must be fully attired whenever they are acting in their Kohanic capacity.
The Ketav Sofer4 explains this necessity as follows:
There are two ways in which garments set a person apart from others: they affect one’s attitude toward oneself and toward others.
This idea is also reflected in Megillat Esther, which we will read in a few days on Purim.
On the third day, Esther put on royal apparel and stood in the inner court of the King’s palace. Esther 5:3
In approaching the king for an unscheduled audience, Esther dresses to affirm her standing as queen and remind the king why he had elevated her to that role. Recall that later in the story, Haman suggests that a person whom the king wishes to honor be dressed in robes previously worn by the king and that by the end of the tale we read:
Mordechai left the King’s presence in royal robes of blue and white, with a magnificent crown of gold and a mantle of fine linen and purple wool.
Esther 8:15
Mordechai’s new clothing is here a reflection of his new standing and stature in Ahchashverosh’s kingdom, a reality communicated to everyone by his attire. The vestments, whether Kohanic or royal, were external to the individual and transferable to all successors. While this satisfactorily explained these passages in context, various commentators sought a deeper meaning. The Malbim,5 using his unique methodology of interpreting Torah6, writes:
Now the garments ordained were evidently external ones and the text is concerned to relate how the artisans perform their work. But they, in truth, symbolized inner vestments. The priests were to invest themselves with noble qualities that are the vestments of the soul. These vestments the artisans did not make. But God commanded Moses to make these holy garments, that is to instruct them in the improvement of their souls and their characters so that their inner selves should be clothed in majesty and splendor.
With vestments now a metaphor for how the Kohanim were expected to adorn their inner selves, the same set of expectations were seen as norms to which we should all aspire. This model embraces the divine expectation articulated at Mt. Sinai that we be a “mamlechet kohanim”, a nation of kohanim, a people who, as Rabbi Louis Finkelstein7 opined, “has expectations of its laity greater that many traditions impose of their clergy”.
Shabbat Shalom –
Rabbi David M. Eligberg
1 With apologies to ZZ Top for changing the lyric slightly.
2 Rashi, Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki, (1040-1105, France) on Exodus 28:3.
3 Talmud, Zevachim 17a.
4 Rabbi Abraham Samuel Benjamin Schreiber, 1815-1875, Hungary. Known as the Ketav Sofer, the title of his major work.
5 Malbim, Rabbi Mayer Yehuda Liebush ben Yehiel Michal Wisser, 1809-1880, Russia.
6 Prof. Mordechai Cohen of Yeshiva University describes Malbim’s methodology. “Malbim devised a unique approach to demonstrate the sanctity of scripture resulting in a wide-ranging, comprehensive commentary …. that infuses traditional Hebrew linguistic, philosophical, and mystical learning with contemporary concepts from science, psychology, epistemology, logic, and metaphysics.”
7 Rabbi Louis Finkelstein was a Talmud scholar and Professor of Theology at The Jewish Theological Seminary. He was appointed chancellor of JTS in 1940 and remained in that role until 1972.
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