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Parashah Tetzaveh
Given by Shirley Waxman on February 16, 2008 (10 Adar I 5768
)
The Garment of the High Priest
I sometimes sit in a service and my mind wanders. I usually pick up a Tanach and read. One day the book opened at the description of the Mishkan, the portable Ark in the desert. This was not a simple tent; it was a beautiful structure even though it was portable, with magnificent appointments. Where did the Hebrew slaves get these appointments?
My Jewish education began in an Orthodox Talmud Torah. "Sis geshriben," it is written -- and you do not question. It never occurred to me where all of these appointments came from. Read on... These poor slaves did not leave Egypt empty handed; the Egyptians gave them gold, silver, precious stones, fine wood, cloth dyes and all the other lovely things with which to construct their magnificent house of worship in the desert.
Now it makes some sense. Jews began as a nomadic people. Adversity and persecution has, over the centuries, kept us that way, which, therefore, affected our development. We have been scholars -- our aptitude has been in our brain; and craftsmen -- our skill has been in our hands. We have always had the ability to restart elsewhere and make a living. Our tools have always gone with us. Betzalel, the first known craftsman, was appointed by Moses to construct the Mishkan. We always have in mind the thought of Hidur Mitzvah, the beautification of ritual objects.
The descriptions of both the Mishkan and the garments of the High Priest are so beautifully written that if you have an imagination, you can visualize them. Just as humans are the only creatures in the universe who are not content with their natural skin, the sons of Aaron did not serve God in their ordinary, everyday garments. The vestments of the first High Priest Aaron were to consist of an ephod, a breastplate, a robe, a fringed tunic, a headdress and a sash.
The ephod was the over tunic. It was the inspiration for the modern, sabra Israeli folk dance costumes. The early folklore of modern Israel frequently came from the Bible. They wanted it now, and the Torah description in this Sedra was a ready-made resource. The ephod was to be woven of fine, twisted (probably meaning spun), linen yarns of gold, blue, purple and crimson. They were to be attached at the shoulders with the same yarns and two Lapis lazuli stones. Into the stones were carved the names of all of the twelve leaders of the tribes, in order of birth-- six on each stone. The stones were to be framed in gold and attached with a braided, gold cord.
On his chest the High Priest was to wear a breastplate of woven cloth, made with crimson, royal blue, purple and gold threads. This was to be folded up to form a pouch. On this pouch was to be placed the stones of the tribes, framed in gold and carved with the names of the leaders:
First row -- carnelian, chrysolite, and emerald
Second row -- turquoise, sapphire and amethyst
Third row -- jacinth, agate, and crystal
Fourth row -- beryl, lapis lazuli, and jasper
The pouch was to be attached with gold chains and was to remind Aaron of God, and the responsibility for making decisions and dispensing justice.
The breastplate intrigues me; it was the earliest piece of wearable art that was important to us. It became the inspiration for the breastplate placed on the Torah in many congregations. The original was fabric; yet we make today's breastplate out of metal, probably the craftsmanship of a well-meaning silversmith in the Middle Ages.
It is, however, absolutely destructive to the cloth Torah cover.
We are forbidden to yoke an ox and a donkey together; they are of unequal strength and would harm each other. In a similar way, the metal breastplate catches the fabric of the Torah cover, shreds it, and pulls and erodes the embroidery. I dealt with a congregation in South Carolina where the chain from the breast plate had, over the years, sawed a groove into the top of the Torah cover. In another congregation the chain sawed right through the Etz Chaim, the rods on which the scroll is rolled.
The robe was to be made of pure blue color. The opening for the head was to be in the middle, and it was to have a binding of woven work, around the neckline so that it would not tear. Preservation was a concern, even in those days.
The bottom hem around the robe was to be made of alternating pomegranates, fashioned from blue, purple and crimson yarns; and bells, made from gold, so that as Aaron approached, the sound of the bells could be heard. In this manner, God would know when Aaron entered the Sanctuary and when he left, so that he may not die.
The headdress of the High Priest consisted of a frontlet of pure gold engraved with the words, "Holy to the Lord." It was fastened with a cord of pure blue to be sure it would sit firmly on his head. He then had a fringed tunic of fine linen and a headdress of the same fine linen. He wore a sash that is described as being embroidered. Most likely this was a more elaborate form of weaving.
One thing that is very interesting: linen breeches were made to cover his nakedness. They extended from hip to thigh. This was the garment that the High Priest put on himself in the name of modesty. The rest was placed on him.
Note the use of the dyes. These dyes were all natural, made from plants and insects. The blue was obtained from the snail. It took thousands of snails to produce enough blue dye to make the yarn.
Something else that I find a curiosity. As you know, I make tallitot, and I work with lots of kids. I offer them a blue winding thread when they tie their tzitziyot, which I dye with a chemical dye. I often hear them say: "If chemical dyes had been invented in Biblical times, God would have preferred it, because it would not have been necessary to kill a living thing." Also, the kids want the blue thread because it is commanded in the Torah. They do read!
In reading the description of the garment of the High Priest in different books, it sounds like some of his clothing was a mixture of linen and wool. This would probably mean that the warp thread (the lengthwise thread) would have been the linen and the weft thread (the cross thread) would have been wool. The law of shaatnez has always puzzled me. This was the early-American fabric, lindsey-woolsey, strong and durable. I have some thoughts on the subject; I cannot prove it, I was not there. But I am a lifelong student of folklore, and folklore has its ways of evolving.
A number of years ago, I walked into the Philadelphia Art Museum, which had an exhibit of fragments of ancient Egyptian costume. They were all a mixture of linen and wool. My wheels began to turn. Could it be that the Egyptians, the upper class, wore this fabric, and the Hebrews, the lowest class, wore cotton or flax? The Hebrews wandered through the desert for forty years. It was not a great distance, but time was needed to create a new nation that did not have a slave mentality. Man is not always good with selective loss of memory; could it be that they forgot why they did not wear it, and put it on the High Priest as something special, forbidding everyone else from wearing this fabric? Strange! Our High Priest was not a god; he was still a man. Food for thought.
We spent many, many years in Egypt. I am sure that not all of the Hebrews built the pyramids; but rather some developed their skill as craftsmen. You had to be very good to carve on a precious stone. Weaving is a skill that takes many years to develop, as does woodworking and goldsmithing. The Hebrews acquired those skills which would hold them in good stead throughout the wandering generations, even to the present day.
I follow in the footsteps of Betzalel as a skilled craftsman, creating Hidur Mitzvah.
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