Why is the Torah so specific and emphatic, in this week’s parsha, about the clothes to be worn by the Kohanim and the Kohen Gadol?
“These are the vestments that they shall make: a breastplate [chosen], an apron [ephod], a robe, a knitted tunic, a turban, and a sash. Make them as sacred vestments for Aaron and his sons so that they will be able to be priests to Me.” (Ex. 28:4)
In general, Judaism is skeptical about appearances. Saul, Israel’s first king, looked the part. He was “head and shoulders” taller than anyone else (1 Samuel 9:2). Yet though he was physically tall, he was morally small. He followed the people rather than leading them. When G-d told Samuel that He had rejected Saul, and that Samuel should anoint a son of Yishai as king, Samuel went to Yishai’s home and saw that one of his sons, Eliav, looked the part. He thought he was the one G-d had chosen. G-d, however, tells him that he is mistaken:
But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (1 Sam. 16:7)
Appearances deceive. In fact, as I have mentioned before in these studies, the Hebrew word for garment, begged, comes from the same Hebrew word as ‘to betray’ – as in the confession ‘Ashamnu bagadnu,’ ‘We are guilty, we have betrayed’. Jacob uses Esau’s clothes to deceive. Joseph’s brothers do likewise with his bloodstained cloak. There are six such examples in the book of Genesis alone. Why then did G-d command that the Kohanim were to wear distinctive garments as part of their service in the tabernacle and later in the Temple?
The answer lies in the two-word phrase that appears twice in our Parsha, defining what the priestly vestments were to represent: le-kavod ule-tifaret, ‘for dignity [or ‘honor’] and beauty’. These are unusual words in the Torah, at least in a human context. The word tiferet – beauty or glory – appears only three times in the Torah, twice in our parsha (Ex. 28:2, Ex. 28:40) and once, poetically and with a somewhat different sense, in Deuteronomy 26:19.
The word kavod – ‘dignity’ or ‘honor’ – appears sixteen times, but in fourteen (2×7) of these cases the reference is to the glory of G-d. The twice they appear in our parsha are the only occasions in which kavod is applied to a human being. So what is happening here?
The answer is that they represent the aesthetic dimension. This does not always figure prominently in Judaism. It is something we naturally connect with cultures a world apart from the Torah. The great empires – Mesopotamia, Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Greece and Rome – built monumental palaces and temples. The royal courts were marked by magnificent robes, cloaks, crowns and regalia, each rank with its own uniform and finery. Judaism by contrast often seems almost puritanical in its avoidance of pomp and display. Worshipping the invisible G-d, Judaism tended to devalue the visual in favor of the oral and aural: words heard rather than appearances seen.
Yet the service of the Tabernacle and Temple were different. Here appearances – dignity, beauty – did make a difference. Why? Maimonides gives this explanation:
In order to exalt the Temple, those who ministered there received great honor, and the priests and Levites were therefore distinguished from the rest. It was commanded that the priest should be clothed properly with the most splendid and fine clothes, “holy garments for glory and for beauty” … for the multitude does not estimate man by his true form but by … the beauty of his garments, and the Temple was to be held in great reverence by all. (Guide for the Perplexed, III:45)
The explanation is clear, but there is also a hint of disdain. Maimonides seems to be saying that to those who really understand the nature of the religious life, appearances should not matter at all, but “the multitude,” the masses, the majority, are not like that. They are impressed by spectacle, visible grandeur, the glitter of gold, the jewels of the breastplate, the rich pageantry of scarlet and purple and the pristine purity of white linen robes.
In his book The Body of Faith (1983), Michael Wyschogrod makes a stronger case for the aesthetic dimension of Judaism. Throughout history, he argues, art and cult have been intimately connected, and Judaism is no exception.
“The architecture of the Temple and its contents demand a spatial thinking that stimulates the visual arts as nothing else does. It must be remembered that among the many artIfacts past civilizations have left behind, those intended for ritual use almost are always the most elaborate and aesthetically the most significant.”
Wyschogrod says that postbiblical Judaism did not, for the most part, make outstanding contributions to art and music. Even today, the world of religious Jewry is remote from that of the great writers, painters, poets and dramatists. To be sure, there is a wealth of popular religious music. But by and large, he says, “our artists tend to leave the Jewish community.” This, he believes, represents a spiritual crisis.
“The imagination of the poet is a reflection of his spiritual life. Myth and metaphor are the currency both of religion and poetry. Poetry is one of the most powerful domains in which religious expression takes place. And the same is true of music, drama, painting, and dance.”
Rav Abraham Kook hoped that the return to Zion would stimulate a renaissance of Jewish art, and there is a significant place for beauty in the religious life, especially in Avodah – service – which once meant sacrifice and now means prayer.
An immense body of recent research into neuroscience, evolutionary psychology, and behavioral economics has established beyond doubt that we are not, for the most part, rational animals. It is not that we are incapable of reason, but that reason alone does not move us to action. For that, we need emotion – and emotion goes deeper than the prefrontal cortex, the brain’s center of conscious reflection. This is where visual stimuli play a key role. Art speaks to emotion. It moves us in ways that go deeper than words.
That is why great art has a spirituality that cannot be expressed other than through art – and that applies to the visual beauty and pageantry of the service of Tabernacle and Temple, including the robes and sashes of the priests. There is a poem in the Reader’s repetition of Mussaf on Yom Kippur that expresses this to perfection. It is about Mareih Kohen, the appearance of the High Priest as he concluded his service and emerged from the Holy of Holies:
As the brightness of the vaulted canopy of heaven,
As lightning flashing from the splendor of angels,
As the celestial blue in the fringes’ thread,
As the iridescence of the rainbow in the midst of clouds,
As the majesty with which the Rock has clothed His creatures,
As a rose planted in a garden of delight,
As a diadem set on the brow of the King,
As the mirror of love in the face of a bridegroom,
As a halo of purity from a miter of purity,
As one who abides in secret, beseeching the King,
As the morning star shining in the borders of the East –
Was the appearance of the [High] Priest.
And now we can define the nature of the aesthetic in Judaism. It is art devoted to the greater glory of G-d. That is the implication of the fact that the word kavod, “glory,” is attributed in the Torah only to G-d – and to the Kohen officiating in the house of G-d.
Judaism does not believe in art for art’s sake, but in art in the service of G-d, giving back as a votive offering to G-d a little of the beauty He has made in this created world. At the risk of oversimplification, one could state the difference between ancient Israel and ancient Greece thus: that where the Greeks believed in the holiness of beauty, Jews believed in hadrat kodesh, the beauty of holiness. There is a place for the aesthetic in Avodah. In the words of the Song at the Sea: “Zeh Keili ve-anvehu,” “This is my G-d and I will beautify Him.” For beauty inspires love, and from love flows the service of the heart.
