Rosh HaShanah is next week!
Next week.
And the imminent arrival of Yom HaDin, the Day of Judgment, provides us the opportunity to examine our values, our spiritual priorities, and evaluate if we are fulfilling the God-given potential that we each have.
In particular, I would like to draw your attention to the issue of our clothes. Yes, our clothes.
In this week’s Haftara, the culmination of God’s comforting the Jewish People following the exile of our people, the destruction of the Temple and of Jerusalem, the prophet Yeshayahu utilizes the imagery of clothing to portray a redemptive and purposeful life:
“My soul shall be joyful in God for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation; He has covered me with the robes of righteousness…” [Isaiah 61:10]
How can clothing, a symbol of physical protective gear, a medium that often communicates a person’s stature, his or her mindset, something so superficial, convey a spiritual idea?
After Adam and Chava [Eve] commit their transgression in the Garden of Eden, the Torah states, “and the Lord God made for Adam and his wife garments of skin and clothed them.” [Genesis 3:21]
The Midrash states, in the name of Rabbi Meir, that the word ‘ohr’ should begin not with the letter ‘ayin,’ but rather with the letter ‘aleph’, which radically changes the meaning of the verse, to read the following:
Not that God made them garments of skin, but rather, God made them garments of light. [Bereishit Rabbah 20:12]
You see, when Adam and Chava sin, they do not require a physical cover-up; they need a spiritual one!
It was their soul that was in danger of “catching a cold” and it was their soul that needed protection.
Rabbi [Yosef Dov Halevi] Soloveitchik, ztz”l, explains how fitting it is that this teaching comes from Rabbi Meir, because Rabbi Meir had two teachers, Elisha ben Avuya (known as “The Other”) and Rabbi Akiva.
More than most, Rabbi Meir understood the difference between physical and spiritual clothing.
The Romans took good care of Elisha ben Avuya, the “Other,” who had collaborated with them in their occupation of Judea. When Elisha ben Avuya passed, it was in the midst of material luxury; he was in his own warm bed, in protective clothing.
And yet, because he committed treason against his people, he dies without a legacy. His soul comes before God totally unclothed.
In contrast, Rabbi Akiva’s final days were spent as a fugitive, hiding every night in a different location to elude capture by the Romans. His body lacked the comfort of warm clothing.
And when he was captured, and certainly when he was murdered, he did not die in the comfort of his own bed but rather, he was martyred in the most cruel fashion, dying in total nakedness.
But Rabbi Akiva’s essence is immortal. He lives in the psyche and the literature of his people. He may have departed this world unclothed, but he was adorned with the finest of spiritual clothing.
So what is the state of our spiritual clothing?
What can we do to repair its tatters, and what can we do to enhance its regalness?
Let us devote this time before Rosh HaShanah for this introspection, to contemplate and address these questions.
In the process, we will discover our capacity to dress ourselves in the finest of spiritual clothing, and to truly celebrate what these High Holidays are all about.
Shabbat Shalom.