Rabbi’s Corner – Parshat Tetzaveh
Parshat Tetzaveh is always read around the festival of Purim. We are taught by the great Kabbalist Rabbi Isaiah Horowitz (1555-1630 Tiberius Israel).that there is special divine providence to when we read the Parsha of the week. So what could be the relationship between Purim and Parshat Tetzaveh?
Parshat Tetzaveh deals in part with the special clothing of the High priest. He wore 8 special garments.
There are many ideas and lofty spiritual concepts symbolised by every aspect of the clothing but the overall purpose of the clothes the Torah itself states as “Lekavod uletiferet”- for honour and glory. In other words the kohen’s clothing elevates him to a higher spiritual plane so that he can properly serve Hashem and be a conduit for his blessings. In fact the service is invalidated were he not to wear the clothes.
The Purim story contains numerous references to clothing:
1) “To bring Vashti the queen before the king with the royal crown, to show the peoples and the princes her beauty, for she was of comely appearance. But Queen Vashti refused to come at the king’s behest” – Esther 1:11-12 The sages understood this literally that King Achashverosh wished Vashti to come naked before the men. Vashti was an important symbol for Achashverosh as he was a usurper to the throne whereas his wife was a descendant of Royal descent (Her father was King Belshazzar). This vile, lewd misogynistic attempt to degrade his wife in public was also a powerplay to clarify to all his subjects that he was now the legitimate ruler. In fact Achashverosh’s greatest weakness was his paranoia born of insecurity about his position. This reference to clothes or lack of expresses the Persians obsession with objecting the female form.
2) “Mordechai rent his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes, and he went out into the midst of the city and cried [with] a loud and bitter cry.” Esther 4:1 Here clothes are an expression of dire grief and sorrow and Teshuva (returning to Hashem with deeper devotion).
3) “Now it came to pass on the third day, that Esther clothed herself regally, and she stood in the inner court of the king’s house” Esther 5:1
Here Esther risks her life to enter the King without invitation Although we know Esther had Chen (grace) – an inner confidence, the regal clothing would have created a synergy between her inner and outer self to further boost her confidence in coming before the King.
4) “And Haman said to the King: Let them bring the royal raiment that the king wore and the horse that the king rode upon, and the royal crown should be placed on his head. And let the raiment and the horse be delivered into the hand of one of the king’s most noble princes and let them dress the man whom the king wishes to honor, and let them parade him on the horse in the city square and announce before him, ‘So shall be done to the man whom the king wishes to honor!’ ” And the king said to Haman, “Hurry, take the raiment and the horse as you have spoken and do so to Mordechai the Jew, who sits in the king’s gate; let nothing fail of all that you have spoken.” Esther 6:7-10
Here the Megillah relates how the tables were turning with Haman beginning his descent from power and Mordechai in the ascent. And again clothes play a key part.
5) “And Mordechai left the king’s presence with royal raiment, blue and white and a huge golden crown and a wrap of linen and purple, and the city of Shushan shouted and rejoiced. The Jews had light and joy, and gladness and honour” – Esther 8:15-16
This is one of the four verses the congregation reads aloud before the reader repeats.
The references to clothing in the Megillah are at key moments and suggest that there is a deeper layer of meaning to be revealed.
Clothes reveal and conceal
In Hebrew the word for a piece of clothing is BEGED which is cognate to the Hebrew word BOGAD meaning to betray. On the one hand a person’s clothes reveal a certain aspect of their personality and yet at the same time they conceal (in the sense of betraying) other aspects of a person.
For example when I see a policeman or other person in authority it is their uniform that they literally step into that expresses that quality of leadership or authority. Yet at the same time the clothes conceal much about the person him/herself. The clothes tell me nothing about the inner qualities of the person.
Research by psychologists has shown that what we wear seriously affects our mood for better or worse. Over this period of Covid people have been joking about how people on Zoom business meetings or similar have only worn the upper half of their suits! Or others who turn off their video and stay in their Pyjamas all day. Whilst there is a funny side to this, there is also a serious side as depression, anxiety and general mental health issues during Covid has increased in worrying proportions. See https://www.theguardian.
Even if we are staying at home most of the day it is so important to dress ourselves in ways they will improve mood and motivation. It seems obvious that PJ’s send signal to our brains to switch off, relax and get into “ready for sleep mode” yet so many fall into this trap.
Just like the High priest who wore clothes “to honour and glorify” God’s presence, we too are called upon to wear clothes that will help us live a more dignified and higher existence where our clothes reflect our deepest core values.
Earliest mention of Clothes in Torah
The first mention of clothes in the Torah is of course in the story of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden.
“Now they were both naked, the man and his wife, but they were not ashamed.” Genesis 2:25. In the garden of Eden prior to the sin they were totally innocent. Their bodies were simple vehicles to express they Divine souls. Clothes only became necessary after the sin. They had eaten from the tree of good and evil, meaning they became self conscious as we are today. This “spiritual descent” into identity and separate consciousness from their divine core was part of Hashem’s plan. Hashem wants us to have our own identity and to choose a relationship with Him. Yet for this to work humans required clothing to cover up our mistaken identity with our bodies.
“And the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves and made themselves girdles.” – Genesis 3:7.
In other words clothing was required because man had betrayed (BOGOD) his Divine soul and had become misaligned. Hence BEGED in Hebrew means clothing!
Purim is the story of the clash between the world view of Haman and Mordechai. Haman is descended from Amalek. He “clothes” himself in hatred of God and all He represents. He clothes himself in inflated ego where there is no room for anything else. We see this beautifully expressed in the Megillah where even though everyone bows down to Haman, he is still infuriated seeing as Mordechai the Jew resists: – “Esther did not even bring [anyone] to the party that she made, except me, and tomorrow, too, I am invited to her with the king. But all this is worth nothing to me, every time I see Mordechai the Jew sitting in the king’s gate.” – Esther 5:12-13
Haman’s ego knows no bounds.
The Talmud seeks a scriptural source for Haman and quotes the story of Adam and Eve just after they had eaten from the tree.
“And He(God) said, “Who told you that you are naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”” Genesis 3:11
The Hebrew for “Have you…from” is HAMIN which also spells HAMAN!!. In other words the root of Haman soul is in the tree of separateness and ego.
In contrast Mordechai wears clothes of spiritual dignity. His only concern is the dignity of the Divine presence in our world which is also represented by the Jewish people. Hence he steps into sackcloth and a mode of spiritual reckoning and repentance when the decree against the Jews is announced.
Mordechai’s name is derived from the verse relating to the ingredients of the spices in the tabernacle: “And you, take for yourself spices of the finest sort: of pure myrrh (IN HEBREW MOR DEROR).- Exodus 30:23.
We are taught that Mordechai became a minister to King Achashverosh. Some even say he was already a junior minister prior to Esther even becoming queen. Many criticised Mordechai for leaving his lofty spiritual position in the Sanhedrin (the supreme court and promulgator of the Oral tradition) to enter politics. This is one reason why in the last verse of the Megillah when lauding praise onto Mordechai it states he was only accepted by most Jews!
“For Mordechai the Jew was viceroy to King Ahasuerus, and great among the Jews and accepted by most of his brethren; seeking the good of his people and speaking peace to all their seed.” – Esther 10:3.
Yet this verse about the spices that alludes to his name also contains the word Rosh meaning head or leader. וְאַתָּ֣ה קַח־לְךָ֘ בְּשָׂמִ֣ים רֹאשׁ֒ מָר־דְּרוֹר֙
Earlier Rosh was translated as “finest sort” as in the first/best of something. But it can also be taken literally as in rosh a head or leader.
So Mordechai saw his name alluded to in the Torah in refence to leadership. Now whilst we are taught in Ethics of the fathers 1:10 to stay away from positions of power, Mordechai understood that for the sake of the Jewish people and the Torah, he must agree to accept the position of authority.
In other words Mordechai identified himself with his Divine mission. This was his clothing and true deeper core. Mordechai’s posture is aligned with Hashem. He sees himself as a mere conduit for Hashem’s blessings in the world.
This is why Mordechai is ultimately recognised by the all people both Jew and None Jew.
On Purim we have a custom to dress up again associated with our clothes.
The deeper message is to remove our everyday mask that we wear which conceals our true essence via all our emotional defence mechanisms and put on our true mask – the mask of our Divine souls.
When we do this on Purim we hope the true mask will last throughout the year so that we can live like the Jews of Shushan with
“light and joy, and gladness and honour”.
Purim Sameach and Shabbat Shalom.