Seeking the Non-Obvious
What Priestly Garments Teach About Leadership and Modesty
These are the vestments they are to make: a breastpiece, an ephod, a robe, a fringed tunic, a headdress, and a sash. They shall make those sacral vestments for your brother Aaron and his sons, for priestly service to Me…(Exodus 28:4)
What was the severity of Shammai the Elder? They say that once a person came before Shammai and asked him: Rabbi, how many Torahs do you have? Two, he replied, the Written Torah and the Oral Torah. [The man] said to him: I believe you with respect to the Written [Torah], but not with respect to the Oral [Torah]. Shammai scolded him and kicked him out angrily. He went before Hillel, and asked him: Rabbi, how many Torahs do you have? Two, he replied, the Written Torah and the Oral Torah. [The man] said to him: I believe you with respect to the Written [Torah], but not with respect to the Oral [Torah]. [Hillel] said: My child, sit down and write for me the alphabet. [Hillel] said: What is this? [The man] said: An aleph. [Hillel] said: No, that’s not an aleph, it’s a beit. Then he said: And what is this? [The man] replied: That’s a beit. No, that’s not a beit, it’s a gimmel, said Hillel. [Hillel continued:] Tell me, from where do you know that this one is an aleph and this one is a beit? [The man replied:] This is what our ancestors passed down, that this is an aleph, and this a beit, and this a gimmel. Hillel said: Just as you have accepted that faithfully, so accept this faithfully.
On another occasion, a foreigner was passing behind a synagogue, when he heard a child reciting the verse (Exodus 28:4), “And these are the garments which they shall make; a breastplate and an ephod.” So he went before Shammai and said to him: For whom is all this honor? [Shammai answered:] For the high priest, when he is performing his service on the altar. So he said: Convert me, but only on the condition that you make me the high priest. Shammai replied: Do we not have priests in Israel? Do we not already have a high priest who will serve us? Do we need some convert who has come with his staff and his knapsack to serve as the high priest? So he scolded him and kicked him out angrily. He then went before Hillel, and said: Convert me, but only on the condition that you appoint me the high priest, so I can go up and serve on the altar. Hillel said: Sit down, and I will tell you something. If someone wants to appear before a human king, isn’t it necessary that he learn how to make his entrance and exit? Yes, [the man] replied. [Hillel continued:] So you, who wish to appear before the King of all kings, the Holy Blessed One, how much more necessary for you to learn how to enter the Holy of Holies, how to light the lamps, how to come close to the altar, how to order the table, and how to prepare the fire on the altar! The man then replied: Tell me what you think is the best way to do this. So Hillel wrote for him the alphabet, and he learned it. Then he gave him [the book of] Leviticus, and he continued learning [the rest of the Torah] until he came to the verse (Numbers 1:51), “[The Levites shall set up the Tabernacle,] and any stranger who comes close shall die.” The convert reasoned: If Israel, who are called children of the Omnipresent, and of whom the Shekhinah said (Exodus 19:6), "And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation," and even so they were so warned by this verse that “any stranger who comes close shall die,” then how much more so I, a mere convert, who has come with only his knapsack! And the convert was immediately at peace with this. He came to Hillel the Elder and said: May all the blessings that are contained in the Torah come upon your head. For if you had been like Shammai the Elder, I would not have come into the congregation of Israel. His severity nearly caused me to be lost both in this world and in the World to Come; but the humility of Hillel has brought me to a life in this world and in the World to Come. (Avot d’Rabbi Natan 15:3)
Moses does not appear in the Haggadah, although he is a kind of émince grice. So too, God, the Creator of the world, could walk around in bodily form, but is not so obvious. God is present in our lives, yet mysterious. The adorning and anointing of the priests seems to be a power transfer—and on a literal level it is—but it is also a way of distinguishing Moses’s hidden power from the more obvious power of his brother and his brother’s sons. Do you want to wear the cape or do you want to be the one who puts it on others? The simpleton wants the cape. The leader wants to bestow it. In the Garden of Eden God sews garments of skin for Adam and Eve, but God Godself remains hidden from view.
In the Book of Esther, Haman is forced to dress up Mordechai and parade him around town on the King’s horse. The masquerade so incenses Haman he swears to destroy the Jewish people for this indignity. And yet Haman’s jealousy is misplaced, even pathological. A more secure person would have seen that the posture of servitude is itself a form of power. Haman is given the honor of taking Mordechai around town—this could have been a flex if only Haman had known it.
According to commentators, Cain brings food (fruits of the soil) but Abel brings clothing (the wool of sheep). Cain kills Abel, as it were, over clothing. Beged, the Hebrew word for clothing, also means betrayal. Potifar’s wife uses Joseph’s garment as evidence in her case against him; the Torah puns on this. She uses his garment to betray him.
In the case of Moses enclothing his brother, we have a Tikkun (rectification) of the competitive fraternal dynamic established in Genesis. The solution to enmity and jealousy between people is the realization that it is better to be a donor than a recipient. Cain might have been the bigger brother by allowing Abel to one-up him, taking pride in his brother’s success rather than seeing it as a sleight against him. The measure of a person’s greatness is not what they have personally done, but what they have inspired and enabled in others.
A rabbinic story recounts two responses to a spiritually hungry, but misguided convert. Shammai chases the convert away, while Hillel wins him over. The convert seeks a royal road to success. He wants to learn and follow the Written Torah, but not the Oral Torah; he wants to adorn himself in the robes of the Kohen Gadol, fast-tracking to high status without any learning or commitment. But Hillel shows him that being a high priest is a lot of responsibility—it’s not just about the clothes you wear. It’s not just a title. Eventually the convert comes to understand that real authority is deeper than what you call yourself. Anyone can be ordained a rabbi; anyone can become a CEO; but are you willing to take the blame when things go awry? Are you willing to risk your life in the holy of holies on Yom Kippur? Glory is commensurate with risk and responsibility. Authority depends not on vestments but on personal qualities.
Moses knows this, I surmise, which is why he happily engirds his brother. The priest traffics in honor and splendor (kavod and tiferet), but the prophet doesn’t need to be so adorned. The priest can take off the outfit, but the prophet is his outfit. Like Moses, Hillel doesn’t keep the Torah for himself, but teaches it. He enables the convert, in the end, to wear the garments of honor and splendor.
A contrarian read of the high priest’s clothing is that it is a lure; we see the wonderful clothing and imagine “Who is the real Aaron?” The persona of the high priest is so powerful it serves as a kind of modesty. Te priestly garments create a sense of non-obviousness about the person who dons them. That non-obviousness points back to the ultimate non-obvious Being, God. The nube who bothers Shammai seeks the obvious. Hillel, however, manages to show him that what he really wants is the non-obvious. The Written Torah, like the priest’s clothing, are but surface. What we want is a relationship to tradition, and to God, that remains alive, exciting, and full of surprise and discovery.
Shabbat Shalom,
Zohar Atkins
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