Titzaveh: Clothes

 

Much if this week’s parsha describes the Kohanic garb, the costume of the high ( and not so high) priests. The high priest wore eight items specified in the parsha. This uniform was required to perform the service. The emphasis on the sartorial leads to the question: what are the meanings of clothes?

The first act of  Adam and Eve after ingesting the mind altering fruit of daath (knowledge? Opinion?) is to make clothing. The first humans had gotten by without covering themselves, but when their eyes were opened, the first thing they noticed was their nakedness… and the need to cover it.  The first sentence after consuming the forbidden fruit:

 וַתִּפָּקַ֙חְנָה֙ עֵינֵ֣י שְׁנֵיהֶ֔ם וַיֵּ֣דְע֔וּ כִּ֥י עֵֽירֻמִּ֖ם הֵ֑ם וַֽיִּתְפְּרוּ֙ עֲלֵ֣ה תְאֵנָ֔ה וַיַּעֲשׂ֥וּ לָהֶ֖ם חֲגֹרֹֽת׃

Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they perceived that they were naked; and they sewed together fig leaves and made themselves loincloths.

The first function of clothing was to cover nakedness, to keep  secret aspects of appearance, to provide privacy and mystery.

When Gd confronts the first couple after they had violated the only commandment they had, the Human reveals the transgression by declaring that nakedness is  the reason he is hiding. (By the sequence of the text, he is no longer physically naked). The answer prompts Gd to ask

וַיֹּ֕אמֶר מִ֚י הִגִּ֣יד לְךָ֔ כִּ֥י עֵירֹ֖ם אָ֑תָּה הֲמִן־הָעֵ֗ץ אֲשֶׁ֧ר צִוִּיתִ֛יךָ לְבִלְתִּ֥י אֲכׇל־מִמֶּ֖נּוּ אָכָֽלְתָּ׃

“Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat of the tree from which I had forbidden you to eat?”

The idea of clothing is revealing. The concern about nakedness uncovers the crime. The scene closes, after the pronouncements that curse the man, the woman and the serpent,  with an ironic and appropriate act of kindness.

וַיַּ֩עַשׂ֩ יְ לְאָדָ֧ם וּלְאִשְׁתּ֛וֹ כׇּתְנ֥וֹת ע֖וֹר וַיַּלְבִּשֵֽׁם׃ {פ}

And the L-rd G-d made for the man and his wife skin-vestments and He clothed them.

Gd clothed the naked people in one of the eight priestly vestments, the one that covers the entire body, the tunic.

 

Jacob/Israel borrowed his older brother, Esau’s, clothes as part of the ruse to obtain father Isaac’s blessing. In that story the aroma of the clothes helped deceive blind Isaac that the son before him was Esau. There is an implication that these garments were used in the ceremony of service.

The kitoneth כְּתֹ֥נֶת reappears in the story of Joseph.

וְיִשְׂרָאֵ֗ל אָהַ֤ב אֶת־יוֹסֵף֙ מִכָּל־בָּנָ֔יו כִּֽי־בֶן־זְקֻנִ֥ים ה֖וּא ל֑וֹ וְעָ֥שָׂה ל֖וֹ כְּתֹ֥נֶת פַּסִּֽים׃

Now Israel loved Joseph best of all his sons—he was his “child of old age”; and he had made him an ornamented tunic.

This tunic clearly had relational significance. It conferred specialness to Joseph, perhaps primogeniture, the rights of the first born ( of his mother Rachel), perhaps a regal designation.

It is in our parsha that clothes reappear. This is an example of “clothes make the man.”  The costume was a requirement for the service. The high priest had to demonstrate by this raiment that he represented the diversity of the tribes of Israel when he performed the service

וְהִלְבַּשְׁתָּ֙ אֶֽת־אַהֲרֹ֔ן אֵ֖ת בִּגְדֵ֣י הַקֹּ֑דֶשׁ וּמָשַׁחְתָּ֥ אֹת֛וֹ וְקִדַּשְׁתָּ֥ אֹת֖וֹ וְכִהֵ֥ן לִֽי׃

Put the sacral vestments on Aaron, and anoint him and consecrate him, that he may serve Me as priest.

 

When the anointing oil was unavailable, in the second temple. the High Priest was inaugurated into his office by dressing in the holy garments. This fashion statement not only impressed those who saw, it encouraged and elevated the man who wore it

 

 These clothes were the stuff of Alexander the Great's dream. 

 

Baraita in Yoma, 69a (identical with Megillat Ta'anit, iii.):

"When the Samaritans had obtained permission from Alexander to destroy the Temple in Jerusalem, the high priest Simon the Just, arrayed in his pontifical garments and followed by a number of distinguished Jews, went out to meet the conqueror, and joined him at Antipatris, on the northern frontier. At sight of Simon, Alexander fell prostrate at his feet, and explained to his astonished companions that the image of the Jewish high priest was always with him in battle, fighting for him and leading him to victory. Simon took the opportunity to justify the attitude of his countrymen, declaring that, far from being rebels, they offered prayers in the Temple for the welfare of the king and his dominions. So impressed was Alexander that he delivered up all the Samaritans in his train into the hands of the Jews,

Clothes contain an element of the dream. They attempt to provoke the dream of the viewer and, thus, betray the intention of the wearer.  The self-awareness of Adam and Eve necessitated clothing, Joseph coat of many colors came from dreams shared with his father Jacob, and the envy it generated was intentional.  The sartorial splendor of the High priest embodies the dream of a unified, glorious, pure and holy people.

 

When people wear uniforms,  they are soldiers. If they kill in their street clothes they are murderers. When the judge sits in robes, she is justice. Take them off and the opinion becomes a theory.

When my father was running away from the uniformed German soldiers, he saved himself by trading his Soviet uniform for the clothes of a scarecrow. Even the birds recognize the dangerous humans by their clothes.