And you bring near to yourself your brother Aaron, and his
sons with him, from among the Children of Israel to serve
Me [as kohanim]: Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar, Aaron’s sons.
You shall make holy garments for your brother Aaron, for honor and for glory. And you shall speak to all the wise hearted, whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom, and they shall make Aaron’s
garments to sanctify him, [so] that he may serve Me [as a kohen].
And these are the garments that they shall make: a choshen, an ephod, a robe, a tunic of checker work, a cap, and a sash.
They shall make holy garments for your brother Aaron and for his sons to serve Me [as kohanim]. . . .
For Aaron’s sons you shall make tunics and make them sashes,
and you shall make them high hats for honor and for glory.
With these you shall clothe Aaron, your brother, and his sons
along with him, and you shall anoint them....
“For honor and for glory”: So that [Aaron] will be honorable
and glorious, by wearing honorable and glorious clothing. So does the [prophet] speak of a “bridegroom dressing like a priest, in clothes of glory.” These garments [bring glory] because they are royal clothes; kings would dress in the fashion in the days of the Torah. So do we find that [Joseph’s] fine tunic . . . which bore a similar pattern as the tunic worn in the Temple, as I have explained, was worn by the kings of the East. . . .The mitznefet— hat [worn by the high priest is likewise] familiar today amongst the great kings and princes. . . . So too, the ephod—apron and choshen—breastplate are regal clothes . . . and the tzitz—showplate is a kind of crown worn by kings. . . .
“For honor.” For the honor of G-d, since they are holy clothes, dedicated to serving Him.
“For glory.” So that the kohen should inspire all who surround him with awe, for they are his disciples, engraved on his heart and upon his shoulders.
The message of this mitzvah is the principle established for
us, namely that a person is impacted according to his actions
and pursuant to his thoughts and intentions.
The representative who atones [on behalf of his people]
(namely, the kohen) must attach all of his thoughts and intentions to the [Divine] service. Therefore, it is appropriate that
he wears special clothes for it; as when he stares at any place of his body, he will immediately remember and be aroused in his heart to remember in front of Whom he is serving.
This is akin to the mitzvah of
tefilin—we are commanded to place it on a part of our body so that we have a ready
reminder to maintain proper thought. Though the priest also wears tefilin, due to the greatness of his matter, he needs the
priestly garments too.
In addition, every divine soul (nefesh elokit) possesses three garments, viz., thought, speech, and action, [expressing themselves] in the 613 commandments of the Torah. For when a
person actively fulfills all the precepts which require physical, and that his power of speech he occupies himself in expounding all the 613 commandments and their practical
application, and with his power of thought he comprehends all that is comprehensible to him in the
pardes of the Torah—then the totality of the 613 “organs” of his soul are “clothed” in the 613 commandments of the Torah.
The rank of beinoni is one that is attainable by every man, and each person should strive after it. Every person can at
any time or hour be an “intermediate,” because the “intermediate” man does not revile evil—for that is a feeling entrusted to the heart, and not all times are alike. [His task is] only to
“turn away from evil and do good,” in actual practice—in deed, speech, or thought, wherein the choice, ability, and
freedom are given to every man that he may act, speak, and think even what is contrary to the desire of his heart and
diametrically opposed to it. Even when the heart craves and desires a material pleasure, whether permitted or, G-d forbid, prohibited, he can steel himself and divert his attention from it altogether, declaring to himself, “I will not be wicked even for a moment, because I will not be parted and separated, Heaven forfend, from the
One G-d under any circumstances. . . .” It is different, however, with something that is entrusted to the heart, namely, that the evil should actually be despised in the
heart and abhorred with absolute hatred, or even not quite so
absolutely. This cannot be attained, truly and sincerely, except
through great and intense love of G-d, the kind of ecstatic love
and divine bliss that is akin to the World to Come . . . and not
every person can attain this state.
We can understand this by introducing a concept discussed in
Tanya, regarding tzadikim and beinonim. The divine service
of the beinonim involves (primarily) the garments of the
soul—thought, speech, and deed. Thus, the rank of beinoni
is the rank attainable by every person. For when a person’s
heart craves and desires some material pleasure, he is capable
of restraining himself and controlling the drive of his heart’s
lust by not allowing it to find expression in deed, speech, or
thought (i.e., not to willingly think about his desire), to the
extent of being able to divert his mind from it entirely.
The service of tzadikim, on the other hand, primarily involves
the emotions of the heart (love and fear of G-d), and not every
person merits this level of service. For man does not have that
much jurisdiction over matters governed by the heart.
The reason that thought, speech, and deed are within man’s
control, unlike the emotions of the heart, is because thought,
speech, and deed are the garments of the soul. Therefore, just as regarding the garments of the body—although man needs clothing [for the purpose of modesty, since “they, Adam and Eve, were ashamed” (of being naked after their sin), and also for the purpose of protection from the cold and heat], nevertheless, he can remove them, and certainly he does not need these particular clothes (that he is wearing now) and can exchange them for others.
Similarly, with regard to the garments of the soul: The garments of speech and deed can be “shed,” and even thought,
which is constantly active and cannot be “shed” per se, can be replaced with a different thought. By contrast, the person’s
intellect and emotions are the very stuff of the soul itself, and, hence, much effort—even a special assistance from Above—is necessary to change them.