Dressed for Deliverance: Pesach Fashion Insights
Andy Sweet, Miami Beach 1973
When one sits down at a Pesach Seder, they are invited to observe a plethora of Jewish art. Taking a seat at my family's table is overwhelming. Children's art is everywhere. There are paper-bag puppet plagues, matzah covers from my preschool years, and, of course, frogs. It is a modernist’s dream. In addition to the amateur decorations, there is the Haggadah, the epitome of a Jewish coffee table art magazine. Each household uses different Haggadot—some families use many—in order to relay, discuss, and learn different perspectives on as much Torah as possible. History has given way to a tradition of including art within Haggadot. Throughout Jewish history, Haggadot enhance the spirit of the table, mind, appetite, and holiday through their illuminations. The art of the Haggadah reflects its authors, its authors’ culture, and its readers. We as Jews feel connected to modernity and surrounding cultures, yet we remain “stiff necked.” The Haggadah is a prime example of this modern theological equilibrium; A Jewish text with art that reflects the modern world. The story of Pesach includes these themes—we as Jews must learn how to embrace our surroundings, yet not forget ourselves.
Jean Paul Gaultier’s early-1990s collection inspired by Orthodox Jewish apparel, “Chic Rabbis”
The Passover story is relayed in the Book of Shemot, Chapters 1-15. In chapter 11, God instructs Moshe to inform the Israelites that they are obligated to ask their fellows, the Egyptians, for “vessels of silver and vessels of gold.” This verse is straightforward, raising few textual issues. The Israelites are then commanded to take רכוש [possessions of value] from the Egyptians by asking. These reparations fulfill Avraham’s covenant from the Book of Bereishit, in which the Israelites are described leaving Egypt ברכוש גדול [with many possessions].
Questions about the verse arise in the following chapter, which describes how the Israelites fulfilled God’s commandment relating to what they should take when leaving Egypt. It states: “And the Isrealites did according to the words of Moshe, they asked from the Egyptians vessels of silver vessels of Gold and שמלת.” These two verses from two different chapters seem to be perfectly consistent, except for the word “שמלת”— a word commonly translated as “clothing” or “dresses”— either way, a mundane item with little value. With the addition of this word, the verse from chapter twelve generates two key questions:
1: Why did the Israelites take clothing when they were not commanded to?
2: How does clothing equate in value to silver and gold?
Commentators are troubled with the addition of the word “clothing” in chapter 12. Many believe that the Israelites took clothing in addition to gold and silver because it was of most practical importance to them since they previously were slaves and likely did not have more than one or two garments. The Mechilta d’Rebbe Yishmael explains that the Israelites valued these ‘coverings’ (i.e, clothes). His interpretation of this verse leads to two apparent answers to the first question:
The Israelites learned that they needed to wear suitable clothing for their imminent journey.
They really loved the Egyptian style of clothing.
These two answers are not mutually exclusive. The Israelites were leaving Egypt to wander in the wilderness on their way to C’naan. The journey would inevitably turn them into a collective of nomadic tribes. The future awaiting them was significantly different from the life they lived in Egypt. This stationary nation required different necessities and clothing than a nomadic group. Egypt, among other settled nations, was not renowned for its livestock, but rather the blossoming agriculture produced by its Nile delta. This, along with a blazing climate, influenced flax and other plant-based fabrics to become the main materials used for their clothing.
Ofra Haza in the traditional Yemenite Gargush
When the plague of Locusts descended upon Egypt's crops, the flax and fiber industry collapsed. This created a clothing shortage within Egypt. With this context, one can then understand why the Torah adds "clothing" as one of the three items they are commanded to take—clothing had become rare and expensive, on par with the silver and gold items which God commanded them to take. This explains why Rabbi Shraga Silverstein translates שמלת as “raiment”, a word connoting wealth and propriety.
The collapse of the flax industry cannot be the reason for clothing being of such high value. In the third chapter, God told Moshe that the Israelites would leave Egypt with “vessels of silver and vessels of gold and clothing (שמלת).” In this chapter, clothing is held to the same value as gold and silver, but no plague has yet struck.
The Egyptian economy has not been harmed, so our problem remains. The Torah does not explain why God said that clothing was on par with gold and silver before the plague. Furthermore these items are dissimilar and used for very different purposes.
The Torah glorifies the materials that are used to construct garments. In many contexts they are even considered sacred. The Israelites are first recorded using linen and flax to create the Mishkan, a sanctuary utilized to achieve closeness and oneness with God. Contranstigly, the first use of gold, the item with the greatest materiel value, after the Exodus is the Golden Calf, which is a desecration and profane act of idol worship.
We now have to dive deeper into God’s declaration to Moshe where he alludes to the Israelites desire for these specific clothes. We know that the Israelites are permitted to take spoils from the Egyptians, but why does God explicitly state clothing?
The Israelites understand that clothing is a necessity. Like us modern folk, they understand that clothes have two factors:
1. It has a physical-material aspect, as understood by the Israelites' need for clothing and the material used for their newly acquired clothing (שמלת).
2. Clothes are used to display aesthetics, and most importantly play a significant role in culture.
The Yalkut Shimoni utilized a term of endearment to explain the presence of clothing in the verse. About the term “שמלת/clothing” he explained, “אחרון אחרון חביב.” This modern expression, similar to English's ‘last but not least,’ reasons the clothes’ importance with its final position in the list of plunder.
Many other commentators use the word חביב, [lovable, favorite] a word not commonly used in biblical interpretation of material objects. Unlike the Yalkut Shimoni, these other commentators describe the clothes as such without mentioning their position in the pasuk. So why are these clothes so ‘lovable’ and favorable to the Isrealites? And what makes them such?
There is no concrete response that I can find, hence there is no harm in proposing my own answers. I believe that the void created by this question is purposely left open for interpretation. When one asks an open-ended question, there is no end; meaning that this question does not have an answer in order to make it applicable for all of time.
Since our question regards clothing and dress, it focuses our attention on fashion, an open-ended, ever-evolving industry. Fashion is used as a tool for people to indicate that they belong to certain groups and communities. When the text mentions clothes, we deduce that it must be in relation to the fashion of Ancient Egypt at that time; as the Talmud teaches in tractate Brachot, “The Torah speaks in the language of man.”
The Israelites, who lived in Egypt for 430 years, began journeying into Egypt by assimilating into its culture. Yosef’s family and their descendants climbed to the top of the Egyptian hierarchy before being thrown into slavery. The freed nation became so used to the practice of idol worship and slavery, an aspect of Egyptian culture. The Israelites had a strong affinity for Egypt, so remnants of Egyptian culture were observed after the Exodus. The ancient Egyptian culture was loved by the Israelites as mentioned throughout the Torah. Additionally, the young nation only knew this culture because it was the land where they had begun to develop their nationhood; so perhaps, this leads to the (ideal) reasonable conclusion that the Israelites loved and favored the Egyptian garb because it was a way to remember the culture that they were leaving behind.
British philosopher Francis Bacon was recorded saying: “Fashion is the only attempt to realize art in living forms and social intercourse.” Like Bacon, the Torah chooses to employ the example of clothing because it understands its importance and its relation to art and culture.
Society and culture cultivate art, and the resulting art accurately reflects its society and culture. We have learned how the clothing, the art, reflected the Egyptian economy, society, and geography; but there is still no explanation for the Israelites’ affinity towards Egypt’s clothing and art. Even though God forecasted that the Israelites will take this art, and seek to emulate Egyptian culture, He later pushes the Israelites to create their own culture, as seen with the prohibition of Chukat Goyim.
The Torah teaches that art reflects a society. In this instance, when the Israelites took the clothing of their enslavers, it not suggesting the importance of other cultures, but rather it declares and decides that we must follow our own way and branch off from the other nations to create our own culture.
Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks said, “In our uniqueness, lies our universality.” We as Jews must persevere. It is normal and acceptable to ‘take the favorable clothes’ of another culture, but we cannot forget our own.
We use these clothes to develop something new, a mishkan, a sanctuary for our people’s culture to evolve, develop, and eventually flower.
