Dress for Success

The suit makes the man, or so they say. But in Judaism, it goes much deeper – clothing makes us human.

When God became the first fashion designer in the Garden of Eden, it wasn’t about protection from the elements or even modesty alone. It was about something far more profound. In this week’s Torah portion, this divine design philosophy reaches its peak with the High Priest’s garments, crafted for “honor (Kavod) and beauty (Tiferet).”¹

What secrets lie within these carefully chosen words? And what can they teach us about the clothes we wear today?

The Original Cover Story

To understand clothes, we must to go back to their origin. Adam and Eve were born naked and unashamed. The Sforno explains why: “They used their limbs solely for the service of their Maker, not the pursuit of base pleasures. Therefore, they considered marital relations no different than eating and drinking and their reproductive organs no different than their mouth or hands.”²

The Zohar reveals that Adam and Eve were originally beings of pure light, their physicality barely visible. But everything changed with one bite of forbidden fruit. After the sin, their bodies became dense and corporeal, hiding all but a trace of their spiritual essence. Their bodies had transformed from instruments of divine service into triggers for animalistic desires. Suddenly, Adam and Eve felt shame.

To help them cope with their degradation and temper their newly awakened passions, God made them clothes. The Hebrew word for clothing, “beged,” shares its root with “boged” – meaning traitor.³ After the sin, physicality became a betrayer of our true essence. So we sent in our own double agent – clothes – to redirect focus from our animalistic tendencies back to our divine core.

Adornments of Honor and Robes of Royalty

This brings us to the High Priest’s garments and their dual purpose: Kavod (honor) and Tiferet (beauty). Kavod is about revelation – not of the body, but of the soul. Think about it – do any of us really want to be loved for our looks? Our height? Our physique? No! We want others to appreciate our values, wisdom, and character. It’s why traditional Jewish dress covers everything but the face and hands, our primary tools of expression.⁴ This is Kavod – honor that reveals our spiritual essence.

But Tiferet reminds us that aesthetics matter. The High Priest’s garments weren’t just modest – they were magnificent.⁵

When I first came to yeshiva, my wardrobe consisted of athletic shorts and t-shirts. Comfort was king. But as I grew in observance, I began to understand that my clothing reflected my dignity. Imagine visiting a kingdom where the prince wore rags. What would that say about the king?⁶ When you represent of the King of Kings, you dress for the position. Tiferet – beauty – isn’t about attracting attention to our bodies; it’s about reflecting the majesty of Whom we represent.⁷

Dress for Success

During the Industrial Revolution, the productivity-obsessed society looked down on full-time Torah scholars. Concerned for his student’s low self-image, Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel, the headmaster of the Slabodka Yeshiva, took every new student shopping for the sharpest fashion available. When his students questioned him on this uncommon practice, he responded “The mission of the yeshiva is to bring out the greatness of each and every person.” By dressing his students as the spiritual aristocracy they were meant to be, he helped them become exactly that. His legacy? The majority of today’s Torah scholars trace their lineage back to his yeshiva.⁸

In today’s world of Instagram filters and endless selfies, we’ve lost the art of true self-expression. We reveal our bodies while hiding our souls. But Jewish wisdom offers a different path: Use clothes not as a mask, but as a lens – one that brings your inner light into focus.

Your spiritual wardrobe refresh starts with two principles. First, Kavod: Let your clothes help others see past your physical shell to your true essence. Second, Tiferet: Carry yourself with the dignity of someone who represents divine royalty.

This week, choose one aspect of how you present yourself – your dress or your conduct – and add a touch more refinement. Not for fashion’s sake, but for the sake of properly expressing who you really are. Because when we dress with purpose, we don’t just change our appearance – we bring honor and beauty to ourselves, our people, and our Creator.

Shabbat Shalom!
Avraham

Inspired by the class of my Rosh Yeshiva, Rabbi Gershenfeld

1. Shemos 28:2
2. Sforno on Genesis 2:25
3. The word for clothing in the Torah is “Beged.” There are two important insights we can draw out from this word. The first is that, in verb form, the word means betrayal. A “boged” is a traitor. Clothes hint back to the original reason for clothes – our betrayal of Hashem. In fact, Rabbi Sacks brings a whole list of different ways that clothes are associated with betrayal in the Torah: “There were the coverings of fig leaves Adam and Eve made for themselves after eating the forbidden fruit. Jacob wore Esau’s clothes when he took his blessing by deceit. Tamar wore the clothes of a prostitute to deceive Judah into lying with her. The brothers used Joseph’s bloodstained cloak to deceive their father into thinking he had been killed by a wild animal. Potiphar’s wife used the cloak Joseph had left behind as evidence for her false claim that he had tried to rape her. (Joseph himself took advantage of his Viceroy’s clothing to conceal his identity from his brothers when they came to Egypt to buy food – I don’t like this example as much as the others because there’s no explicit mention of it in the Torah). So it is exceptionally unusual that the Torah should now concern itself in a positive way with clothes, garments, vestments. The very word reveals this fact: Beged is made up of Beis, Gimmel, and Daled – the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th letter of the Hebrew alphabet. What’s missing? The Aleph. Aleph is the first letter, representing the Oneness, the Ineffable – Hashem (for more on this idea, see Rabbi Marcus’ absolutely brilliant exploration of the letter Aleph). That’s what Adam and Eve ignored when they sinned. To fix up the effects of their sin, they needed to use clothes.
4. The other word for clothing is “Lavush.” Our sages teach us that this is a contraction of the words “Lo bosh” – Don’t be embarrassed
5. The Sforno teaches that the High Priest’s beautiful garments inspired awe among the people
6. The Talmud teaches that a Torah scholar who goes outside with a stain on his shirt is worthy of the death penalty (not meant to be taken literally, but the message is clear!).
7. Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, the great 19th century Torah leader of Germany, explains that Kavod (כבוד) refers to the aspect of clothing which reveals the spiritual and moral content of a person, whereas Tiferet (תפארת) sets the requirement that the clothing also satisfy the sense of beauty, in that they decoratively distinguish the High Priest in his position.
8. There’s another absolutely magnificent story of the late Rabbi Shimon Schwab: On Shushan Purim 1936, the Rav was the subject of a libelous accusation that he had, in one of his sermons, publicly maligned Hitler, yemach shemo, and was brought before the Gestapo to explain himself. Making direct eye contact with the Nazi official, he forcefully explained that this was an outright lie. He had used the German word “vermittler” in his disparagement of the sin of the Golden Calf, which a spy had misunderstood as “Hitler.” After this explanation, he was told that his case would be reviewed and that he would be advised of the outcome. Needless to say, the Rav feared for his life after that meeting. The Rav records in his diary that he was advised in the middle of Iyar that the matter had been dropped. During this period of some two months, the Rav slept only fitfully, with his clothes on, for fear that he would be arrested in the middle of the night, taken to jail, or out in the woods to be beaten and left to die – as had already occurred to several others. If this was to be his fate, he would face it with dignity – and with his clothes on – as would befit that of a Jewish leader.

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