The Tzitz, Clothing, and the People

Parshat Tetzaveh

by Rabbi Avi Billet

A simple question can be raised when we consider Parshat Tetzaveh. What are we to learn from the instructions for the vestments, clothing, garments of the Kohanim? If the Torah is meant to be timeless, and God knew that eventually there would not be Mishkan or Mikdash, then the attention to detail in the instructions for the Bigdei Kehunah could not be a one-time instruction. It must speak to us in our time as well. 

The Talmud tells us in a number of places (e.g. Zevachim 88b) that each item of clothing of the Kohen Gadol served a particular purpose in atoning for a sin or a state of impurity. 

The vestment that fascinates me is the headplate – the Tzitz (ציץ) upon which is written the words קודש לה', “Holy to Hashem.” What is holy to Hashem? The Tzitz? The Kohen Gadol? The person who sees the ציץ and has the opportunity to read its message? 

Going in a different direction than the passage in Zevachim noted above, Rav Shimshon Raphael Hirsch quotes other passages (Pesachim 80b and 77, Menachos 25, Zevachim 23) which teach how the ציץ is a channel through which certain elements of טומאה are removed from portions of sacrifices through declaring the words on the ציץ, “That this is sanctified to God.” It alleviates a. the טומאה of טומאת התהום (the kind of טומאה that was unknown to be present), and b. the טומאה of communal offerings which must be brought on a special occasion, where the importance of the occasion and the community overrides the טומאה. 

This is one element of the power of the ציץ. But perhaps the words on the ציץ served a different purpose as well, which is highlighted by the role clothing plays in our collective experience. 

Rav Hirsch notes that there are three terms בגד, לבש, and עטה which describe garb and dress – some are in the realm of the Almighty, and some are in the realm of people. ה' מלך גאות לבש, “He has clothed Himself with majesty; God has clothed Himself, He has girded Himself with strength.” הוד והדר לבשת, “You have clothed Yourself with majesty and glory.” עטה אור כשלמה, “You cover Yourself with light as with a garment.” וילבש צדקה כשריון, “He clothes Himself with righteousness like armor...” (Yeshayahu 59:17). 

To people, כי הלבישני בגדי ישע מעיל צדקה יעטני, “For He has clothed me with the garments of salvation and has covered me with the robe of righteousness.” צדק לבשתי וילבשני כמעיל וצניף משפטי, “I clothed myself in righteousness and it clothed me, my judgment was like a robe and turban.” עוז והדר לבושה, “Strength and dignity are her clothing.” 

“Clothing” is therefore not just a reference to physical clothing, but it is a metaphor for what we wear, what are our true colors, how we carry ourselves, and how we present ourselves to others. 

Certainly physical clothing is significant - consider the way Mordechai, of whom we just read in the Megillah, goes from wearing sackcloth in Chapter 4 to wearing לבוש מלכות תכלת וחור ועטרת זהב גדולה ותכריך בוץ וארגמן - this is a very impressive outfit, meant to impart the message to those who see him that this is an important man, and the law written by him in the name of the king is the law you'll want to follow when 13 Adar rolls around. 

But clothing has been emphasized since the very beginnings of our people. The Ksav Sofer reminds us that among the things which helped the Bnei Yisrael merit to leave Egypt was that לא שינו מלבושם, they didn’t change their clothing. What are Jewish clothing? In the history of the diaspora, the Jewish people often wore the clothing of those surrounding them. There was never an “official” distinct style of Jewish garb other than the בגדי כהונה; the only components of a Jewish uniform are a Tallis and Tefillin. These days we don’t wear those outside of the context of shul, which means that when we think of actual day-to-day clothing, our minds typically turn to the rules of tznius and modesty. Generally speaking we know the rules. We should always challenge ourselves to be more modest – both men and women – and to dress more conservatively. 

When I was in yeshiva, I heard of a line that was said by one of the rebbeim in a girls seminary, in telling them “Your skirt is your yarmulke!” 

The point – hopefully obvious – is that the boys have the kippah to remind them to live a Kiddush Hashem. We should always be inspired to bring that a step up – because we know people will be watching and judging. Women, who are perhaps not as identifiably Jewish, can take their own inspiration from their modest dress, as that rebbe said, to also be a bastion of Kiddush Hashem. 

And maybe that’s the message of the words on the ציץ, the phrase “קדש לה'” – we have a need to be a source of representing Hashem’s holiness on this earth. Certainly the Kohen Gadol, visavis his leadership role, was in a prime position to be that source of holiness. But the people who saw that message were defined earlier in the Torah as a ממלכת כהנים וגוי קדוש. They are ALL כהנים. They are ALL a holy nation. And thus their garb, both physical and metaphorical as demonstrated in the Pesukim quoted by Rav Hirsch, is meant to demonstrate their roles as being those who are מקדש שם שמים, who represent the sanctification of God’s name on this earth.

 Encountering the Kohen Gadol, seeing him, the exemplary Kohen, wearing בגדי קדש (holy vestments) and seeing the words he proudly displays on his forehead could only serve as a reminder to people what to emulate, what motto to live by, and how to be a model of Kedusha in living out our creed to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.