Parashat Tezavve: The Continuing Relevance of the Priestly Garments

By: HaRav Menashe Sasson
Reporting from Jerusalem, Israel
​Published in the U.S.A.

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​The Torah, in Parashat Tezavve, sets forth laws relating to the garments, the Hebrew word for which, in the singlular, is “begged”[בגד], or “beggedim” [בגדים] in the plural, that were worn by the Kohanim during the Priestly Service.  The Torah describes in great detail the specifications for making these beggedim.
 
But why does the Torah go to such great lengths to specify the particulars of the Priestly garments?
 
To answer this question, we must point out the obvious: the Priestly Service, as its name implies, may be conducted only by priests, that is, only by Kohanim.
 
Although HaShem is One, HaShem Echad, as we recite daily in the Shema, our world, the physical world in which we live, is a world of duality, that is, a world of opposites.  For example, there is hot and cold; up and down; man and woman; good and evil, and holy and secular.
 
The Hebrew word for “holy” is “kadosh” [קדוש].  In addition to meaning “holy” or “sacred,” “kadosh” also means “to be cut off, separated, or to be or become pure or sacred.”
 
The opposite of “kadosh” is “hullin” [חולין], which means “profane,” “secular,” “mundane,” or “ordinary.”  “Hullin” is also the name of a Talmudic tractate in the order of Kodashim, which deals in large part with laws regarding the ritual slaughter of animals whose meat will be used for non-consecrated purposes.
 
Returning to our discussion of beggedim [בגדים], garments, we see that the special beggedim worn by the Kohanim while performing the Priestly Service are different from the garments which the Kohanim and others wore for other purposes.
 
This brings us to a fundamental question.  Why do humans wear clothes?  After all, no other creature wears clothes; wearing clothes is a uniquely human practice.
 
The practical answer is that we humans, unlike the animal kingdom, need protection from the elements.  Another reason is that one purpose of clothing is to conceal or to hide the body from public view.  All of this is true, but there’s more.
 
As we recall from Parashat Bereshit, human beings “only” began to wear clothes after Adam and Havva ate from The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil (“The Tree”).  Prior to that time, there was no need, no purpose, for humans to wear clothes.
 
The need for humans to wear clothes came about only because Adam and Havva betrayed their natural purity by defying HaShem and eating from The Tree.
 
This defiance of HaShem raises at least two important points.
 
First, the Hebrew language, Lashon HaKodesh, which, when translated, literally means “the separate language,” is unique among all other languages in that Hebrew words which share the same root, that is, the same shoֹresh [שורש], also share a common meaning or idea.
 
The Hebrew word for garment, as previously mentioned, is begged [בגד], which in Hebrew is spelled “bet, gimel, dalet.”  The root of the Hebrew word “b'giydah” [בגידה], which means both “betrayal” and “treason” is also the Hebrew letters “bet, gimel, dalet.”
 
Thus, we can learn from Lashon HaKodesh – the Hebrew language – that human beings only began to need clothing after Adam and Havva defied, that is, betrayed, HaShem by eating from The Tree.
 
Second, we learn that human beings became aware of the duality of this world only after Adam and Havva ate from The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.  We also learn that, along with this awareness came the need to “conceal” or “hide” most portions of the human body because man, by eating from The Tree, had acquired knowledge of good and evil.
 
Returning now to the topic of duality, the description in Parashat Tezavve of the Priestly garments illustrates yet another example of the duality of this world.  The Kohanim, the “priests” of the Jewish people, are separate from the rest of the Jewish people.  This “separateness” is illustrated by the different attire the Kohanim wear while performing the Priestly service, a service that, as we mentioned, may only be performed by Kohanim and not by the rest of Am Israel.
 
Also, we learned that Hebrew, Lashon HaKodesh, the national language of the Jewish people – is, literally, the “separate language.”
 
Lastly it should not be forgotten that HaShem took us, Jewish people, “out of the land of Egypt” not just to be our God, but also to give us Eretz Israel, Vayikra 25:38, and to make us “a light unto the nations, so that [HaShem’s] salvation may extend to the ends of the earth.”  Yesha’yahu 49:6.
 
As we learn in Parashat Yitro, the Jewish nation, not surprisingly, should be separate from the other nations of the world.  This separateness is described in the pasuk which states that Am Israel is to be a “kingdom of priests and a holy nation” [ממלכת כהנים וגוי קדוש].  Shemot 19:6.  Just as the Kohanim are separate from the rest of Am Israel, so too should Am Israel be separate from the other nations of the world.
 
Unfortunately, Medinat Yisra’el (the State of Israel) has not yet achieved this “separateness.”
 
To achieve “separateness,” HaShem commanded the Jewish people to expel the non-Jewish inhabitants of the Land.  He also commanded the Jewish people to not enter into an agreement with them that would allow them to remain in the land.

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​Beware of what I command you today.  Behold, I drive out before you the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivvite, and the Jebusite.  Be vigilant lest you seal a covenant with the inhabitant[s] of the land to which you are to come, lest it be a snare among you.

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​Shemot 34:11-17.
 
The Halakha – Jewish law – relating to non-Jews living in Eretz Yisra’el recognizes two classes of people: those who claim an ownership or similar interest in Eretz Yisra’el and those who do not claim any such interest.
 
Regarding those who claim an ownership interest in the Land, the Torah is not merely referring to ancient civilizations who just happened to be occupying Eretz Yisra’el prior to the arrival of the Jewish people; rather, the Torah is referring to any people – for all time – who claim a legal right to Eretz Yisra’el.
 
According to the Or HaHaim:

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​“You are to drive out all of the inhabitants of the land. . . .”  Even though the Torah says in Debarim 20:16 that “you must not allow a single soul [of the Canaanite nations to remain in Eretz Yisra’el], . . . the Torah does not speak of [only] the seven Canaanite nations[,] but [also] about others who lived among them.  This is the reason the Torah chose its words carefully, i.e., “all the ones who dwell in the land,” that the Israelites were to drive out even those people who lived there who were not members of the seven [Canaanite] nations.

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Or HaHaim, commentary to Bamidbar 33:52.
 
Likewise, Abarbanel said:

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​Shemot 34:11-12 inform us that since Hashem is driving out the [Canaanite] nations, it would be improper for Yisra’el to forge a covenant with them.  If a nobleman helps someone by fighting that person’s battles and banishing that person’s enemies, it would be immoral for that person to make peace with [those enemies] without [first obtaining the] nobleman’s permission.  So, too, with Hashem driving out Yisra’el’s enemies, it is immoral for Yisra’el to enter into a treaty with them, for that would profane Hashem’s Glory. This is especially true considering that the treaty will not succeed.  Because Yisra’el dispossessed them of what they believe to have been their land, there is no doubt that they will constantly seek to defeat and destroy Yisra’el.  This is why it said, “[the Land] to which you are coming.”  Since Yisra’el came to that Land and took it from its inhabitants, and because they feel that the Land has been stolen from them, how will they make a covenant of friendship with you?  Rather the opposite will occur: “they will be a snare among you.”  When war strikes you, they will join your enemies and fight you.

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​Abarbanel, Commentary on Shemot 34:11-12.
 
Today, some 3,000+ years after the Jewish people first crossed the Yarden river [נהר הירדן] and entered Eretz Yisra’el, the Jewish people, after a long exile, are finally back in the Land.  However, we have not achieved the “separateness” that HaShem warns is necessary if we are to dwell in peace.
 
May we, the Jewish people, merit a government in Medinat Yisra’el which will govern in accordance with the Torah and Halakha, which, in part, means expelling from the Land those who claim an ownership interest in the Land which is superior to that of the Jewish people.  Only then will we have achieved the “separateness” which is contemplated by the Torah.
 
שבת שלום
Shabbat Shalom!

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