"To be a teacher in the right sense is to be a learner.  I am not a teacher, only a fellow student."  (Soren Kierkegaard)

• Home
• Professional Staff
• Board of Directors
• Calendar
• Ritual Events
• Education
  • Religious School
  • Adult Education
• Auxiliary Organizations
  • Youth Groups
  • Old Enough To Know Better
  • 50 is the New 30
  • Sisterhood
  • Men's Club
• Tikkun Olam
• Cemetery
• Volunteer Opportunities
• Donations & Payments
• Beth Sholom News
• Contact Us

A FEW PRE-SHABBAT WORDS FROM RABBI AARON

Kavod and Tiferet - Honor and Glory, Exploring Text and Context

"Make sacred garments for your brother Aaron, to give him dignity and honor."
Parashat Tetzaveh contains the description of the sacred Priestly wardrobe. 

Hidden Meanings Locked Into the Letters of God's Names
On the Rabbi page of our shul website, there's a mystical interpretation of priestly garments, by Rabbi Chaim Moshe ibn Attar, also known by his book, the Ohr haChaim (1696-1743). The accompanying sketch of Aaron the High Priest is by a French  master sculptor and draftsman, Edme` Bouchardon (1698-1762) ...wouldn't it have been interesting for these two contemporaries to have met? 

Mormon Torah Study
Also on the Rabbi page, there's a mormon Bible Study blog which references the notion of sacred undergarments. Religious Mormons wear sacred undergarments for certain purification rituals (this is noted beneath the blog, along with a photo of the Mormon sacred undergarments). The Mormon blogger sees the undershirt-style arba kanfot (with the center opening for the head, usually worn under a shirt) as a modern Jewish expression of sacred garments [Exodus, 28] - Jews, on the other hand, view the same article of sacred clothing as a portable all-day-wear tallit [Numbers,15]. 

***

How does the clothing of the kohanim [priests] express honor and glory? Beyond the mystical commentary of the Ohr haChaim, I'd like to explore our understanding of the words honor and glory; specifically, meanings that shed light upon our parasha. 

Etymology
Honor
The English word honor came into use around the year 1200. It derives from Old French and Latin (honorem), (nom. honos).  Meanings:

1.      honesty, fairness, or integrity in one's beliefs and actions.

2.      a source of credit or distinction.

3.      high respect, as for worth, merit, or rank.

4.      the privilege of being associated with or receiving a favor from a respected person, group, organization, etc.

5.      honors - evidence, as a special ceremony, decoration, scroll, or title, of high rank, dignity, or distinction.

Perhaps the ethically exacting demands upon the kohanim (honesty and integrity in matters of purity and sacrifice) are reflected in their garb. Definitions #2-5 easily come to mind when we imagine the visual power of the ancient priestly garb. 

Kavod - כבוד
Unpacking the Hebrew term, kavod - כבוד, is another matter. The root (kaf/vet/dalet - כבד) means heavy. The same root also refers to the liver, the heaviest of the internal organs. Kavod and its many cognates appear several hundred times in the Bible especially in some of the most poetic verses in Psalms, and the Book of Isaiah.

This meaning is preserved in English usage: she commands respect because she has gravitas. כבד and gravitas conveys the notion of someone's character "carrying weight." The sports metaphors - heavy hitter, heavyweight - captures this well. Definition #3 (merit, rank) is powerfully reflected in the geography of the desert encampment. The Mishkan - God's dwelling place - is in the center; the tents of the kohanim are adjacent to one side of the Mishkan. The three Levite clans (Gershon, Kehat, Merari) pitched their tents on the remaing three sides of the Mishkan. The remaining tribes - whose members are not priestly functionaries -  are encamped around the (highly ranked) spiritual nucleus of the Mishkan, Kohanim, and Levi'im.    

Honor Viewed Through a Modern Lens
(ED. NOTE I stumbled upon a discussion of Kavod/Self Respect on an  Israeli educators' website out of Haifa; below is my translation of a part of this discussion)
What is Kavod?
Process: the teacher writes "kavod" on the blackboard, and the students offer associations that go with "kavod." (kavod: mom, dad, respect, "you shall honor the aged," relationship to religion, tolerance, etc.) Through the associations, we arrive at a definition, which we write on the board.
Definition: kavod is a relationship which expresses the designation of importance, valuing to a person/idea.

Etymology
Middle English glory, Old French glorie, Latin gloria (“glory", "fame", "renown", "praise"; "ambition", "boasting”) (Cognate withAncient Greekκλέος (kleos, “rumor", "report”))
Meanings

1.      Great honor, praise, or distinction accorded by common consent; renown.

2.      Something conferring honor or renown.

3.      A highly praiseworthy asset: Your wit is your crowning glory.

4.      Adoration, praise, and thanksgiving offered in worship.

5.      Majestic beauty and splendor; resplendence: The sun set in a blaze of glory.

6.      The splendor and bliss of heaven; perfect happiness.

7.      A height of achievement, enjoyment, or prosperity: ancient Rome in its greatest glory.

Working through, the Hebrew, tiferet - תפארת, we find similar meanings. 

beauty, splendour, glory

1.      beauty, finery (of garments, jewels)
2.      glory
        a. of rank, renown
        b. as attribute of God
3.   honour (or nation Israel)
4.    glorying, boasting (of individual)

Other associations include ornament and splendor.

Poetic usage of the word extends to glory as the seat of Divine majesty.

Now that we've put the ancient Hebrew words for honor and glory through the blender, what conclusions can we derive? Here's my anthropological take: This is a visual spectacle. Aesthetics play a crucial role with respect to sacred time and sacred space.  The priestly wardrobe was supposed to evoke reverence and joy. The people thrilled to the spectacle of the ritual choreography, and the powerful manifestations of God's mysterious Presence filled them with awe.

Modern questions  

How do we see ourselves in relation to these words and ideas? What associations do words like glory and respect hold for us? Consider the layered social meanings which inform the viscerally powerful  R & B song/chant of Aretha's R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Who are our Priests? How do we connect with the Divine?

In case you've dismissed Purim as a strictly-for-kids affair, here is an excellent bit of Orthodox Feminist Torah which challenges the conventional framing of Vashti and Esther.

The Mirror Has Two Faces - Finding feminist role models in both Esther and Vashti.

By Wendy Amsellem

This article, written from the perspective of an Orthodox Jewish feminist, explores the ways in which the images of Vashti and Esther can guide us today. Reprinted with permission from the JOFA Journal (Winter 2003).

Although Vashti and Esther never meet, the relationship between them is integral to understanding the events of Megillat Esther. Vashti disappears by the end of the first chapter, but she casts a long shadow over the rest of the book. As we encounter Vashti in chapter one, we learn the following about her: She is beautiful and headstrong. She throws a good party. She refuses to have her appearances before the king regulated solely by his desires. For this last offense, Vashti pays dearly, losing her crown and incurring perpetual banishment from the king's presence. At the close of chapter one it is clear that a woman in Ahasuerus's court would do well to be dutiful and to come before the king as he commands. The essentiality of female obedience is further confirmed by the final verse of the chapter in which a missive is sent to all of Ahasuerus's subjects reminding them in no uncertain terms that "every man must rule in his household."

By contrast, Esther is presented at first as the perfect foil to Vashti. Whereas Vashti was willful and independent, Esther is passive and submissive. The reflexive use of the Hebrew word "LaKaKH" is constantly applied to her. She is "taken" in by Mordechai as a foster daughter, "taken" to the king's harem, and "taken" before the king. She does not reveal her identity at the palace, "for Mordechai had commanded her not to tell." She requests nothing at the harem, only accepting whatever Hagai, the king's eunuch, chooses to give her. Even after she is crowned queen, we are told that Esther continues to obey the commands of Mordechai as she had done under his care. It is no surprise that Ahasuerus loves Esther. She is the model of docility, an exact antidote to Vashti.

Esther understands very well her role as Ahasuerus's queen. When Mordechai commands her to appear before the king and intercede on behalf of the Jews, Esther responds that everyone knows that those who appear before the king unbidden are condemned to die. She has learned from her predecessor's fate that the queen's job is to come when she is called. Mordechai insists to Esther that it is her responsibility to plead for her nation.

This is a moment of crisis for Esther. She is caught between conflicting obediences to her foster father and husband. In addition, to come before the king unsummoned is an abnegation of her role as Vashti's replacement. She was chosen to be queen since she represented the antithesis of Vashti's persona. Esther's position, her identity and quite possibly her life are all closely tied to her obedience to the king.

In this moment of fate, Esther looks into her mirror and discovers that she does not look quite so different from Vashti after all. She takes matters into her own hands and stands up to both sources of authority. Esther assumes control of Mordechai's plan, changing and amending as she sees fit. Like Vashti, she will appear before the king only when she decides that the time is right--in this case after three days of fasting. Instead of following Mordechai's suggestion and simply making her petition, she will throw a series of parties as Vashti did. In order to succeed, Esther realizes that she must take on aspects of the repudiated former queen.

Of course, we do not actually know why Vashti refused to appear before the King. It could have been out of modesty as the midrash in Esther Rabbah suggests. Or as Talmud Bavli Megillah describes, she may simply have been unhappy with her appearance that day (a sudden case of leprosy according to Rabbi Yossi bar Chanina or the surprise sprouting of a tail according to a beraita). Perhaps she was being capricious. Perhaps she was a proto-feminist fighting for a sense of independent integrity. In any event, Vashti's disobedience brings her career to an abrupt end and her fate is quite deliberately meant to serve as an object lesson to women everywhere.

As Esther marshals her strength to save her nation, she must revisit the experiences of her shunned predecessor and learn from them. Esther is more calculated, more subtle, (more divinely inspired) and ultimately far more successful than Vashti. Yet, in order to triumph, Esther must confront the image of Vashti and incorporate (or perhaps discover) the attributes of Vashti in herself.

As Orthodox feminists, we are constantly confronted with taboo images of dangerous women from whom we are told to distance ourselves. A is too radical, B has gone too far, C has made too many enemies. We struggle to draw our borders, to be open and yet traditional, free and yet constrained within halacha. Purim is a holiday in which we explore and challenge our boundaries. We dress up as other people. Some of us drink to the point where differences become blurred. In the spirit of this holiday and following the legacy of our ancestor Esther, I encourage us to reexamine whom we emulate and from whom we shy away. We may discover as Esther did that we are not so different from those whom we fear and that the most important lessons can be learned from the unlikeliest of teachers.

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Aaron