Recently I had the chance to visit San Francisco with my husband and during our trip we, thankfully, had many great adventures. Something that I saw, what seems like the silliest thing, has stuck in my mind and I feel compelled to write about it. One of the things we did on our trip was to visit Alcatraz Island, the retired United States Penitentiary that is now a national park. The prison is completely intact and the audio tour provided a wealth of history and intrigue about this notorious location. While we were exploring “The Rock” as it is called, I came across a photo of the Alcatraz Warden checking his line-up of prison guards (see photo). At first blush there might not seem anything extraordinary about this photo. However, what caught my eye immediately were the warden’s three-piece suit, tie, and dress hat. Then, as I looked a bit closer, I noticed that even the prison guards were wearing suits. Imagine this: a prison house full of the worst behaved criminals in all of the U.S. prison system and yet the head of the place is dressed daily like he is going to a formal event. The guards, whose jobs were to keep these inmates in line every day, were also dressed in a uniform of a single or double-breasted suit and tie with dress shoes and military-style caps. This is a far cry from what we see today not only in the prison system, but in life in general, and it started me thinking.
It is widely and primarily sub-consciously understood that a person’s choice of personal expression through the clothing they wear (or don’t wear) is an external voice representing the internal character—or the character in which one wants you to believe exists. For the purposes of this article, let’s put aside those who are the “wolf in sheep’s clothing” and talk about the majority of people who chose their clothing according to their inner feelings and sense of “self.” The garb shown in the prison photos demonstrated to me a certain respect for the positions of warden and prison guard. In the days when I was a little girl, I remember my father going to work and he was always—and I mean always—in a suit and tie. There was no such thing as “casual Friday” which has now turned into “casual work environment” that welcomes a relaxed dress code on all days. Some schools today maintain a uniform as required dress, while others maintain a dress code. It is customary that one would “dress up” for synagogue or a special event, yet today I have been to several weddings where men have shown up in jeans. What does it all mean? I’m not entirely sure, but unofficially speaking I can’t help but think there is a direct correlation to our dress and our general internal sense of respect and sensibility for the world around us. Does it mean that all those who dress a certain way have a certain quality of character that is better than another? Certainly not—we’ve seen this clearly. However, studies have shown that a person who takes the time to dress and present themselves to the world in way that demonstrates self-respect and respect for others experiences an elevation in mood and a greater level of productivity. All of this secondary to simply feeling good about one’s self.
One of the most moving examples of this is a YouTube video clip of a homeless United States Veteran who has battled alcoholism for years of his life. In September of this year he was given a complete make-over and the results are astounding. As a result of seeing himself for the first time in years clean-shaven and dressed in a suit, he began to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and arranged for housing for himself. I highly encourage you towatch this video below. This video in and of itself demonstrates the power of dress and how it impacts the human psyche. All of this is meaningful, but let’s take the subject matter a bit deeper: What does the Torah say about dress?
Probably the easier question is, what does it not say? The Torah and its many accompanying texts explore the dress code of a Jewish person in great depth. It gives laws and suggestions for what is permissible, what is expected, what is appropriate at certain times of the year and certain holidays, and even what is required for burial. It discusses how a community leader should dress, how men and women should or should not dress. It goes into details about threads, thread counts, colors, fabrics, styles, gemstones, and more. Given the sheer amount of writings and commentary on the subject of Jewish dress it inherently seems to be important to the well-being of a person’s persona as well as his or her relationship to G-d. If it wasn’t so important, we would have to assume the Torah and its scholars would not waste the words, paper, or ink to express it. When one looks just a bit deeper, the meaning of clothing takes us to an entirely different realm, and one that gives a new perspective of the things we value in the physical world vs. the spiritual realm.
My husband, who is a Talmid Hacham (Torah scholar), shared with me that Rabbi Yosef Chaim in his book Sefer Sod Yesharim, discusses the process a soul goes through once it passes on from this physical world and its body. The soul travels to the higher courts to have his or her life reviewed, after which a determination will be made as to where that soul will ultimately reside in spiritual realms. When I first learned about this conceptI was shaken a bit. It discusses a man who arrives to the courts upon his passing and he is standing “naked before the courts” which includes the judges and tzadikim whose role it is to issue judgment. I asked myself, how could it be that someone would show up on one of the most important day of one’s life (ironically the day of his death) to meet G-d and his court with no clothing?? How humiliating! Can you imagine? “Why would anyone possibly do that?” I asked myself repeatedly. Then the book goes on to reveal the truth of this embarrassing situation as this: In the spiritual realm, a man’s “clothing” are his mitzvoth. When a man or woman passes away, his mitzvoth done in this lifetime travel with him or her and wrap themselves around the soul to become the clothing he or she wears in the courts. This “clothing” actually “speaks” on behalf of the soul, defending his or her actions and testifying to the good deeds done during the soul’s immediate past life. I don’t know about you, but the second I internalized that concept I started running—not walking—to do more mitzvoth. If that’s not enough motivation to do more mitzvoth then I don’t know what would be.
The important point to grab from this idea of our dress—physically and spiritually—is that what we wear does matter as much as our actions matter. When a bride and groom are being united by the power of G-d under the chuppah, forgive me but jeans are not appropriate. The holiness of the event demands more respect than denim has the capacity to provide. Perhaps it is a statement about us that as a society and a culture we have become much more casual in our dress. If every day when we awoke we would remember that the body we are dressing is a holy instrument given to us by G-d to perform our purpose in life, might we choose to “dress up” for the occasion of being given another day? Certainly the impending nakedness of our souls in front of the Holy of Holys provides thought towards fulfilling more mitzvoth. Once again, it all comes down to simply showing up with appreciation for what is. Remember the warden at Alcatraz in his three-piece suit the next time you are getting ready for a new day and perhaps it may spark some inspiration to dress it up a notch while you are planning all of the mitzvoth you will be doing that day. In the end, you will feel great about yourself and will have most likely inspired others in the process.
Mia Adler Ozair, MA, LPCC, NCC is a licensed clinical psychotherapist and educator with a private practice in Beverly Hills, California. Mia is licensed in both California and Illinois and she can be reached through her website at www.bhcounselingcenter.com or followed on Twitter @MiaAdlerOzair.