Shabbat Tetzaveh
Last week, we read in the Torah about the details of the Tabernacle’s construction and the significance of the materials and colours used. I focused on the importance of aesthetics in life in general, but also on the spirit of seeing the magnificence of creation and the human element. And the importance of appreciating the beauty both of the world and how we live in it.
This week, the Torah continues with the visual and chapters are devoted to the clothes of the high priest that he was expected to wear when he functioned within the Tabernacle and later, of course, in the temple.
“The apparel (clothes) often maketh the man” was Shakespeare’s Polonius’s advice to Hamlet. And the idea goes back to the Greeks. It was first recorded by the Greek Quintilian, who cited Homer, to argue that the way people dress can influence how others perceive them.
But clothes be a mark of arrogance and ostentatiousness, as well as dignity. We see today how people are judged for better or worse by the clothes they wear. Surely, we shouldn’t be judging people by externals, but we do. Not just in the way fashion and the visual dominate our societies and emphasise visuality (and wealth). Too often, dress disguises evil.
In religion, too, there are uniforms. What we wear sends signals of who we are and what we believe in and represent. And in theory, what we wear should exert some restraint upon us and our behaviour, not just exhibitionism. Although, sadly, too often we betray what we proclaim.
After the Sinai revelation, which gave the Children of Israel the constitution, the Torah then goes on to spend chapters on the visual and the aesthetic. Was it just to glorify the institution? To emphasise our allegiance to God? Or was there not a deeper meaning? For the High Priest in what he represented institutionally, or for us who are expected to wear fringes and headgear to remind us of our daily obligations?
If you read the Chapters of the Torah these weeks that deal with the tabernacle and the Priesthood, the word VE’ASITA, you should make or create, is repeated time and again. It is a commandment to do, not just to be. We exist. But the challenge is how to exist. Is it only in the externals? Or should it be internal too? We have to do, to make and to be. But we have to do it with honesty and concern for others.
We can speculate, about the significance of the institutions and conventions of our tradition. Why so much of it is no longer required or suspended. How different commentators find significance in every little detail. I’ve always wondered why it was so important for the Torah to devote so much space to constructions and clothes. Perhaps it’s a command to human beings to build and to decorate in the mystical world as opposed to the rational. Such things were important because the Torah wants us to think about and act in the small things as well as in the large things. It is one thing to have a great constitution and magnificent institutions and buildings, but it’s another thing to understand how we should be behaving within them in our daily lives and value the beauty that surrounds us.
There is a tradition of worshipping through the beautiful and the visual (Shemot 15:2). So much in our world is overlooked because we focus on the big public noise, instead of the “soft still sound.” (1 Kings 19:12). We humans add on so much that is external and we tend to neglect the internal. You might well say it was not always so. But there were enough of those who saw the difference between the superficial and the essential.
Clothes and ceremonial items have their uses and importance, but they are only a means to an end.
Rabbi Jeremy Rosen lives in New York. He was born in Manchester. His writings are concerned with religion, culture, history and current affairs – anything he finds interesting or relevant. They are designed to entertain and to stimulate. Disagreement is always welcome.
