Preparing for Shabbat

D'var Torah given this Monday at HUC. 

I love running on Friday morning. The run feels great and it’s time I don’t have during the week. Then, I return home to make challah and prepare my part of Shabbat dinner, spending time in the kitchen, spilling flour and tomato sauce, getting even more gross as I go through the day. Of course, I make time for homework, but the Shabbat preparations really take up most of my day. With only minutes before candle-lighting, I finally shower and change my clothes. As I step out of my dirty clothes and into the shower I feel a sense of calm. And as I don my Shabbat outfit, I feel enveloped in calm.

We all feel this need to change out clothes sometimes. We wear a different outfit everyday, sometimes multiple outfits a day. We change for special occasions. The Torah also understands that people need to change their clothes for special occasions.

In Leviticus 6:4 we read: וּפָשַׁט, אֶת-בְּגָדָיו, וְלָבַשׁ, בְּגָדִים אֲחֵרִים; וְהוֹצִיא אֶת-הַדֶּשֶׁן אֶל-מִחוּץ לַמַּחֲנֶה, אֶל-מָקוֹם טָהוֹר. He took off his clothes and put on new clothes. He took the ashes to outside the camp, to a pure place. For greater context, this verse is prefaced by the High Priest, wearing his linen uniform to move the ashes to the edge of the alter, changing his uniform, and then going out to perform the second duty as stated above. He changes in order to perform the second required duty associated with the ash of the עולה, the burnt offering.

Exodus 28:43 says that the high priest should only wear his priestly garments in the area of the sanctuary. This makes sense. Yet the Rabbis still had questions about the strange wardrobe change. Rashi and Ramban quoting Rashi, commented on it, saying אין זה חובה אלא דרך ארץ, this isn’t a requirement, but rather the right way to act. They determined that the High priest was not required to change his clothes. Instead, it was a suggestion to demonstrate proper intentions. There are two explanations for this. In one, the High Priest should not dirty his fine linen clothes in disposing of the ash, so he changes into older linen clothes. He still wears בגדי כהונה, priestly clothing, but he does not dirty the grandest ritual garb, saved for the most important of offerings.

The second explanation comes in the form of a parable. When a man makes wine for his master, he dirties his clothing in the process of making it. It would be disrespectful for the wine maker to serve his master in those dirty clothes. So too would disposing of the ash outside the camp in dirty clothes be disrespectful of God.

Both of these interpretations focus on cleanliness and respect for the ritual itself, as well as the master before whom it is offered, in this case, God. The Priest must demonstrate honor for God, and does so by way of a clothing change.

From these verses, we learn the importance of clothing changes in order to make rituals more meaningful and distinct. This is further demonstrated by the Maharasha, a commentator living in 16th/17th century Poland, on the Talmud, in Shabbat 114a, who talks specifically about women’s preparations for Shabbat. He suggests that Levit 6:4 particularly focuses on women who spend their entire Friday preparing the house and meals for Shabbat. These women work diligently to ensure a meaningful Shabbat experience, and likely get dirty,  their hair and clothing imbued with the smells of cooking. Especially these women, the Maharasha says, who may not even attend synagogue for Kabbalat Shabbat, should make sure to change their clothes. They too need to differentiate between the holy acts of preparations for Shabbat and the bringing in of Shabbat itself.

Although Leviticus 6:4 speaks about the high priest and the necessary actions he must take to fulfill his duties in the most holy and respectful way, the general concept of changing one’s clothes in order to demonstrate distinction is applicable in many realms. This change allows a mental and physical distance between the two events or times, even when we don’t specifically see it.

I find this distance most relevant as I move to welcome Shabbat, both physically and spiritually. I need to feel the distinction between Shabbat and the rest of the week, which I do through a clothing change.  Though the Rabbis tell us this clothing change isn’t imperative, we learn that it is “the right way to act.” Shabbat is a holy time and must be treated as such. Were we to enter Shabbat either unwashed or in unclean clothes, we would not be in the right spirit to welcome Shabbat. Rather, we must allow ourselves to be transformed.

This Shabbat, in whatever way you choose, I invite you to try something new. Try separating yourselves from your everyday and putt on something different, something meaningful. Try welcoming Shabbat with a sense of דרך ארץ.

And yes, I did go for a run. And I did get all dirty. But I also showered more than 1.5 hours before Shabbat!