Faith Column by Rabbi Feldman: Spiritual Fashion

By Rabbi Menachem Feldman

It’s February, which means that for me, the excitement of winter is beginning to wear off, and I am looking for signs of spring. The store window displays on Greenwich Avenue are encouraging. Gone are the winter coats, scarves and winter hats; it seems that they are beginning to make room for spring fashion. The transition leads me to think about how Jewish ideas, and Biblical Hebrew, can offer deeper insight into the multi billion dollar clothing industry.

On the surface garments can be perceived as merely superficial and shallow; yet, Jewish mysticism teaches, they have a profound energy and contain the secret to self improvement and spiritual refinement.

There are two words in Biblical Hebrew for garment: the first is “Beged” which is derived from the word for betrayal. The connection between garments and betrayal is multi-layered. Starting from the beginning of history the garment is intertwined with betrayal. The Torah tells us that garments became necessary only after the sin of the tree of knowledge, when Adam and Eve betrayed their G-d, themselves and their innocence.

In addition to their emergence as a result of betrayal, the function of garments is also a form of betrayal and dishonesty. The very purpose of a garment is to conceal the inner core and portray an external facade. In fact, a rich person can dress as a pauper, and the pauper can dress as a rich person, a person who feels sad can dress in celebratory garments, and a happy person can don a mourner’s garments, thus betraying the truth, betraying one’s inner feelings and projecting an external image inconsistent with one’s inner feelings and reality.

The soul, just like the body, also has “garments”. The Kabbalah teaches that the soul has an inner “personality”, its emotional and intellectual composition, as well as “garments” its ability to act, to speak, and to think a given thought. Thought, speech and action are called the garments of the soul because they are not the soul itself and, like the body’s garments, they can betray the inner makeup of the soul. A person can act, speak or think in ways that are inconsistent with and betray his own inner self.

Yet, garments, and the betrayal they represent, are necessarily negative. In fact, the second word for garment in Hebrew is “Salmah” which comes from the word complete. The Hebrew language is conveying a deep truth: the garment, the ability to betray one’s inner feelings and perspective, can and should lead a person to be wholesome and complete. That’s because garments have an influence on how we feel on the inside. The reason people spend so much on clothing is because clothing has an impact. Although initially donning clothing is an external act, the garment has the power to influence one’s mood and feelings.

The same is true regarding the “garments” of the soul. A person can feel cruel yet he can don a garment of kindness by taking a kind action. A person can feel sad yet he can smile and act happy. Initially, that action is a betrayal of the inner feeling, but, over time, the betrayal leads to completion, the external action will affect the inner feeling.

This explains why the Torah commands that the high priest wear eight beautiful garments when he performs the service in the temple. As G-d commands Moses:

You shall make holy garments for your brother Aaron, for honor and glory (Exodus 28:2).

One may wonder why garments are critical to the Divine service? Aren’t beautiful garments superficial and a symbol of vanity? Why doesn’t G-d focus on the priest’s internal, emotional and spiritual state rather than on the external garments? The answer is that the garments represent thought, speech and action, the garments of the soul. The Torah is teaching us that if we want to come close to G-d we should don beautiful garments. We should focus on positive garments, on positive action, even if those garments are a betrayal of our internal feelings. Because, ultimately, the beautiful garments, the positive action, will bring wholesomeness and completion to the internal soul, and our heart will be transformed by the garments.

Rabbi Menachem Feldman lives in Greenwich with his wife Chani and their children. Rabbi Feldman is the director of Jewish Learning at Chabad of Greenwich.

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