Should we dress up – or dress down?
Shabbat Shalom to all our readers.
A kohen in the mishkan and later in the Temple is marked out by his specially-assigned uniform. Only he (and especially the kohen gadol) is assigned special garments of splendour. Indeed that is why they are called “bigdei kodesh”.
Normally translated as “holiness”, kodesh actually means “separateness”. With the exception of tzitzit and tefillin, neither of which is an actual garment (although tzitzit require to be attached to a garment) the Torah does not assign to the rest of Am Yisrael any particular clothing to honour God.
The Leviim are not allocated any uniform. Even Moses, leader supreme, had no authorised robes of office. A Gerer Chasid might imagine Moshe Rabbenu in a furry spodick and bekishe (chassidic coat), a Chabadnik will picture him in a black full length kapoteh, a yeshivishe Jew will perceive him in a fashionable suit and a fedora, a Sephardi will depict him in a turban and flowing robe and a Modern Orthodox Jew may conceive him in a kippah srugah and open-necked white shirt.
What does this say about the Torah’s eclectic approach to dress?
A non-negotiable sine qua non is that clothes ought to be modest. This applies for both women and men. Few realise that the Torah principle of modesty in dress has its source in the very opening chapters of Genesis. After Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit “they sewed together a fig leaf and made themselves aprons” (Bereshit 3:7).
But, as Rabbenu Bachya comments, they were not spiritually comfortable with these scanty aprons and God “made them garments of skin and (properly) clothed them” (3:21).
What were these “garments of skin”? Rashi cites two Midrashim one of which explains they were “garments smooth like a fingernail attached to the (entire) skin” and the other that they were made “of something which comes from animal skin such as rabbit-wool which is soft and induces warmth”.
Either way it is clear a pattern is being set for human society that clothes are intended to cover the body, not leave sizeable parts of the body exposed.
However, this does not set down parameters of formality or informality, smart-wear or casual wear, elegance or simplicity. In short is the Jewish ideal to dress up to the nines when the occasion demands it, or is it to dress down? Or something in between? Or doesn’t it matter?
A fascinating passage in the Talmud (Shabbat 10a ) discusses the dress habits of a few of the Amoraic Sages when praying. “Rava bar Rav Huna would don fine footwear and pray, citing the verse ‘Prepare to meet your God O Israel’ (Amos 4:12).”
Rava [on the other hand] would cast off his cloak, clasp his hands and pray. He said one must appear “like a servant before his master”. Rav Ashi said: “I observed that when there was suffering in the world Rav Kahana would cast off his cloak … and pray … but when there was peace he would dress, cover and wrap himself elegantly and pray” [citing both of the above explanations].
We have here two diametrically opposed perspectives. The first is that by dressing elegantly one honours God. After all if a humble citizen of the realm is invited to meet the Queen he would hardly appear in a sweatshirt and jeans. The second is that by dressing too elegantly one exhibits unacceptable pride. If a servant of the King tries to match or even upstage the king in his manner of dress he is demonstrating insolence and contempt.
Rav Kahana melds the two approaches by saying there is a time and a place for each. A period of global unrest (and maybe recession or even a pandemic) is not the best time to flaunt any affluence with which one may be blessed. However at a time or in a location where peace and prosperity reign, elegance of dress may legitimately be seen as acknowledging the bounty of one’s Creator.
The bottom line: it depends on one’s intention. The practice, now moribund, of shules imposing a formal dress code on its members (in the Anglo-Jewry of yore a guy without a tie would be barred from receiving an aliyah!) is spurious. A Rava bar Rav Huna may deem sartorial elegance before God indispensable while for his more famous namesake it smacks of arrogance.
It would seem that whether hippy or hipster, the important thing is to direct one’s heart to heaven!
Adapted from The Cosmic Diamond, one of Rabbi Ingram’s four parasha books.
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