Holy priests and Purim costumes

A recent post on this group examined the concept of holy times and places within Judaism. We cited sources that taught how nothing in the physical world possesses intrinsic holiness – it is only revered for as long as it is used correctly as a means of connecting us to God.

The same principle can be applied to the idea of intrinsically holy people – most notably to kohanim – the one group of Jews that the Torah labels “holy to God”. In this commentary to parashat Tetzaveh, Rabbi S. R. Hirsch highlights the fact that a kohen’s service in the Mikdash is only valid so long as he is wearing the required priestly apparel. After exploring the profound moral and spiritual symbolism which the kohanic clothing contains, Rav Hirsch explains that it is this clothing – not the priest himself – that represents the ideals of the priesthood.

“Without these garments, the kohen is merely an ordinary individual. His actions take on the character of personal preference…the individual personality of the officiating kohen is exposed for all to see, and the weaknesses and faults that afflict even the best among us could easily portray him as a flawed character, far from the ideal that should be embodied by the offerings as a model in harmony with God’s Torah…When he is clothed in his priestly garments, the kohen does not appear as he actually is, but as he should be according to the dictates of God’s Torah. By the very act of donning the priestly garments for his service in the Sanctuary, he makes both himself and those around him aware of his own inadequacy in meeting the standards of the Sanctuary.”

While priests are exclusively selected to serve from the descendants of Aharon – representing the fact that their office was merited through seeking peace and love of others – on a practical level it was made up of fallible individuals. Many of these individuals would not have been thought of as exceptionally moral or righteous people. By donning these special garments, writes Rav Hirsch, the priests cease to serve as individuals – but rather represent their office. It was this priestly ideal which the people were to regard with reverence and holiness rather than the particular humans who performed the service at any point in time. 

This insight provides a greater insight into the profound role that clothing plays within Jewish thought. Clothes, writes Rav Hirsch, are not merely an external adornment. Rather they have meaning that must be internalised not only by onlookers who observe them but also by wearers themselves. As we count down the days until Purim, it is notable that the role of clothing features more centrally in the book of Esther than in any other biblical work.

The opening chapter sees Vashti summoned to parade before the king in her royal crown. Malbim understands this to be highly significant: Achashverosh sought to demonstrate to the gathered dignitaries that Vashti’s claim to the crown was subject to HIS whim – despite her superior royal pedigree. Later on we see Esther “donning royalty” in order to petition the king. Haman’s eye for power is exposed by his suggestion to Achashverosh that he be allowed to wear the king’s clothing. And the shift in dynamics between the Jews’ perilous fate in the first half of the Megillah and their subsequent ascendancy is skillfully underscored by Mordechai’s contrasting clothing. Upon hearing of the initial genocidal decree Mordechai goes out in the streets wearing sackcloth and ashes – a parallel later verse describes Mordechai in celebratory mood “clad in royal apparel of turquoise and white with a large gold crown and robe of fine linen and purple”.

Perhaps the lesson to take away from the priestly garments – and the widespread custom to wear costumes on Purim – is that holiness, like clothing, is not intrinsic. Like the costumes that we will put on ourselves in the days ahead, righteousness and kindness is something that we must choose to cloak ourselves in. These aspirations that we identify may be ideals that are not always lived up to – there is “no man on Earth who is righteous and does not sin”. The message of the priestly garments is that, at the very least, our moral and spiritual ideals are values that we hold up and aspire to work towards over the course of our lifetime.

First posted to Facebook 5 March 2023, here.

Drunken Maimonideans and a sobering reality

In his description of the mitzvot of Purim, Rambam obligates a person to “drink wine until he becomes intoxicated and falls asleep in a stupor”. While this requirement stands out as a startlingly unusual religious command – I recall a non-Jewish teacher reacting in utter disbelief to the very idea of it – inebriation would appear particularly harmful to the entire religious enterprise as understood by Rambam, who places so much emphasis on a constantly rational frame of mind. As Maharal, who follows Rambam’s approach in this area, puts it: “Intellect is the connection between man and God, and through intoxication this connection is severed”. What possible religious benefit could such a non-salubrious celebration offer?

An early chapter of Judaism Reclaimed explores a fundamental dichotomy in Rambam’s thought. On the one hand, he idealises intellectual comprehension of rational divine truths as the ultimate religious achievement but at the same time he openly recognises that the human mind is not naturally conditioned for such comprehension. This recognition of the realities of the human condition forms the basis of Rambam’s explanation of the role of Torah and mitzvot as preparatory tools for enabling the intellect to comprehend divine truths. The existence of worldly barriers to intellectual achievement also prompts Rambam to advise that the majority of people must, at least initially, be made aware of God through received tradition rather than rational speculation.

Commenting upon a cryptic passage from this week’s parashah, Rambam (Shemoneh Perakim) takes this idea further. In the aftermath of the Golden Calf, Moshe asks: “Give me a true understanding of Your essence”, to which God responds: “No man can see Me and live.” Rambam explains that even Moshe, who had perfected his intellect and traits to the ‘ultimate’ level in order to perceive objective divine truths, still had one significant barrier preventing him from truly perceiving God: “that the human intellect is not separated [from the body] … his aspiration [objective knowledge of God] was unattainable because he was a physical being”. This principle, that the human intellect is inhibited by its connection to the physical body, appears again in Mishneh Torah where Rambam writes that the soul in the World to Come is able to comprehend God and divine truths to an extent that had previously been impossible when attached to its physical body.

Intoxication can thus serve to remind fervent Maimonideans, who worship at the altar of rational theorising, to be mindful of the outer limits of the human intellect and not place more confidence in the fruit of their rational deliberations than Rambam himself was prepared to. To quote Maimonidean scholar, Prof Marvin Fox: “The widespread failure to recognise Maimonides’ rigorous awareness of the limits of reason continues to be one of the mysteries of the history of Jewish philosophy”.

On a separate note, there is an additional Purim teaching in which Rambam summons his students to cast their glances beyond the walls of their study halls and embrace the needs of the wider community:

It is preferable for a person to be more liberal with his donations to the poor than to be lavish in his preparation of the Purim feast or in sending portions to his friends. For there is no greater and more splendid happiness than to gladden the hearts of the poor, the orphans, the widows, and the converts. One who brings happiness to the hearts of these unfortunate individuals resembles the Divine Presence, which Isaiah describes as having the tendency "to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive those with broken hearts."

As Rambam powerfully affirms in his conclusion to the Moreh, the sort of refined intellectual connection to God which his Judaism so greatly emphasises is one which goes hand-in-hand with personal refinement and empathy for the feelings of others. At the peak of his religious philosophy, Rambam appears to view these areas of endeavour as representing complementary rather than contradictory approaches towards achieving a connection to God.

This post combines ideas from various chapters of Judaism Reclaimed: Philosophy and Theology in the Torah. 

First posted to Facebook on 8 March 2020, here.