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March 9, 2001/Adar 14, 5761, Vol. 53, No.23
Priestly garb reminds us of our mortality
Torah Study
RABBI NEIL GILLMAN
Tetsaveh/Exodus 27:20-30:10
The texture of the biblical narrative these past two weeks is very different from what we have encountered thus far. Suddenly, we are confronted with a totally new vocabulary. The Torah is now ablaze with sensuality: woods, metals, textiles, colors, oil, and precious stones.
Last week, precise measurements for the design of the desert sanctuary and its ritual objects, and this week, detailed instructions for creating the attire of the Kohen Gadol, the High Priest.
Clothing is important. Just glance at the glossy magazines that adorn newsstands. Clothing is also a ritual statement. Doctors wear white coats of different lengths, depending on their status. Lawyers wear suits and white shirts. Other professionals wear uniforms. Adolescents may wear torn jeans and sneakers.
The Torah takes the better part of two chapters to describe the attire of the High Priest, all serving to enhance the drama of the Temple service. Two details fascinate me. First, the bells. Beneath the ephod, a tunic-like garment, and the hoshen, the breastplate, he wore a long robe, free flowing and ankle length.
Around the hem of this robe were tassel-like fringes shaped like pomegranates, and either interspersed between them or within them - the text is ambiguous - tiny golden bells. "Aaron shall wear (the robe with the bells) while officiating, so that the sound of it is heard when he comes into the sanctuary before the Lord and when he goes out - that he may not die." (Exodus 28:35)
I can make sense of the other garments, but why the bells? The last phrase, "That he may not die" is to the point. The bells were a protective device designed to ward off the dangers associated with holy sites.
More fascinating still is the fact that with all of this elaborate attire - the High Priest wore eight garments in all - he apparently officiated barefoot. Sarna refers us back to the story of the burning bush, where God commands Moses, "Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you stand is holy ground," and comments on the fact that removing footwear is a sign of respect for a sacred spot.
My other association to this practice is sitting shivah. Removing our shoes is one of our rituals of mourning. We mourn when we confront death, and we should remember that the High Priest confronted death all the time. His very function was to slaughter animals, to shed blood. Shoes are a source of protection. To shed our shoes is to expose ourselves, to acknowledge our vulnerability.
The ultimate human vulnerability is our mortality. We are all going to die one day. The high priest had to confront the very fact of death daily. This may be why he had to officiate barefoot.
Both of these details then - the bells and the bare feet - served to remind the high priest of his own mortality.
One final note. Liberal Jewish prayer books tend to distance us from the reality of the Temple service and its sacrifices. They omit, from the early morning service, the recitation of the list of sacrifices performed daily, which is included in traditional prayer books, and they either omit the prayers for the restoration of sacrifices or transform them into a historical memory.
Could this be because we want to distance ourselves from the references to death so omnipresent in the Temple service? Could it be because we don't want to be reminded of our own mortality? And is this wise?
Neil Gilman is a Conservative rabbi and assistant professor of philosophy at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.
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