Garbing our souls with dignity and beauty, with remembrance, decision, and holiness

“Make sacred vestments for [the priests who will serve me in the Tabernacle] ‘l’chavod u’ltifaret,’ for dignity and beauty.”

This week’s Torah portion, Tetzaveh, centers on the elaborate garments for the priests – especially the High Priest.

“L’chavod ul’tifaret” “For dignity and beauty.”

Take a moment – think about who in your life, people you’ve encountered in the past or whom you see regularly who embody these qualities of dignity and beauty – Are they supermodels? Your own children? Politicians? Celebrities? The pope? Yourself? What is it about these people that makes for these qualities to shine?

Some of the first people that come to my mind when I think of dignity and beauty are our Bar and Bat Mitzvah students when they are standing up here on their big day.

When we think of ourselves when we were 12-13 years old, we often don’t think of ourselves as glowing with beauty. This is the age when we develop lovely things like pimples, braces adorn our teeth, our bodies are awkwardly changing, for boys, the voice is cracking.

But when these students get up here, in their grown-up dresses or suits, they radiate – they glow. And I don’t think it’s because of the clothing. I think it’s because they feel they are important. Partly they feel important for having accomplished so much to be able to chant Torah, teach Torah, lead a service. But it’s so much more than that. Perhaps consciously, but mostly not, they feel like they are part of something big – part of a tradition that extends behind them and in front of them; part of a spiritual moment, part of a family.

We allow these 13 year olds to take up the right amount of space – to show us what they’ve got – to fully manifest in their role as leader. And at the same time, I believe most of them know in their kishkes that this is not all about them. And when they can manifest in this way, Kavodand Tiferet – dignity and beauty – shines through them and touches us.

Make sacred vestments for the priests “lchavod u’ltif’aret,”
for dignity and for beauty.

The High Priest needs to be visible as a leader – he needs to inhabit his role fully. Yet it can’t be for his own glory – but for the sake of serving a larger purpose. When he is taking up just the right amount of space – balancing his gifts of charisma and leadership with a good amount of humility, the dignity and beauty shine through, and the Israelites are able to feel that the Presence of God is with them.

Modern thinker Benno Jacob comments that clothing has a spiritual meaning. The fact that human beings even have a concept of nakedness that should be covered – is an important way in which we lend ourselves dignity. The fact that we are the only animals who wear clothes show how we are trying to reach higher – we want to stand for something greater.

Jacob writes that “The fact that God Himself gave Adam and Eve garments and clothed them indicates that clothing is not just a social convention but an extension of the work of creation, a kind of second skin given to humanity, a nobler material encasement.”
The Malbim, a 19th century commentator, looked closely at this verse –that we should make the priestly garments “l’chavod,” “for glory.” And he understands this word “kavod” or “glory,” not as something external. Rather, the word “kavod” actually refers to the soul of the priest. Read this way, the garments are actually clothes for the soul. The priests are to clothe their souls with the qualities that the priestly garments represent.

What I love about this interpretation is that it gives us a way to relate to these garments, although we no longer have the priests or the Temple. Today perhaps we can still access the qualities that the garments represented, and we can explore how we might “clothe” our own souls with them.

Let’s look at some of these garments and the qualities they represent:

Dignity and Beauty
The whole priestly outfit is meant to embody this quality.

So, how do we clothe our own souls with dignity? We remember that our bodies are a gift from God – we take care of ourselves physically and spiritually. We make sure that we are getting what we need to be healthy and happy, and sometimes this means getting help. We take care of ourselves so that we can be vessels for goodness and holiness in the world

Remembrance
Breastpiece: names of 12 tribes as remembrance before God
Stones on the shoulder-pieces – engraved with names of the tribes as remembrance before God

How do we clothe our souls with remembrance?

We allow ourselves the time and space to remember those who came before us and to find ways to keep their memories alive – through storytelling – passing on memories ot the next generation, through good deeds in their memory, by observing yahrzeit and yizkor.
We remember the history of our people– where we came from – and we keep the lessons of that history alive:
We were slaves
We were immigrants
We were refugees

We remember that we didn’t get here by our own merit alone. We belong to a people that once was made up of those 12 tribes, and we keep those names engraved on our hearts. They are a part of who we are today.

Decision/Judgment
Breastpiece held the Urim and Thummim which were instruments of judgment and decision – consulted to understand what God intends for the community to do in a given moment of decision.

How do we clothe our souls with these qualities?

Perhaps by remembering that how we manifest in the world – how we impact the world and other people – is determined in large part by the decisions we make, the priorities we set. When I’m deciding how to act in a particular moment or how to respond to a person or situation, do I ask myself – who or what am I serving in this moment? Am I serving something larger? Something higher? What is my intention?

Lastly, the golden Diadem “Holy to YHVH” – hangs on the turban on the HP’s head, the words sit on his forehead

How do we clothe our souls in holiness?

Perhaps by being present to the ways in which Divinity enters our lives – by sanctifying the mundane moments in our lives, giving thanks for our food at every meal, giving thanks for our relationships, for all that we have. By celebrating milestones and being open to the possibility of awe.

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I want to close with a wonderful prayer from our Mishkan Tefilah prayerbook. I think it really captures our souls’ yearning to be clothed in dignity and beauty. That yearning to know that our lives matter, to know that we are a part of something significant; our souls’ yearning to be clothed in holiness:

Days pass and the years vanish, and we walk sightless among miracles.
God, fill our eyes with seeing and our minds with knowing;
let there be moments when Your Presence, like lightning,
illumines the darkness in which we walk.
Help us to see, wherever we gaze, that the bush burns unconsumed.
And we, clay touched by God, will reach out for holiness, and exclaim in wonder:
How filled with awe is this place, and we did not know it!