This past week I had the opportunity to be at the Shalosh Seudas tish of Rav Yitzchak Meir Morgenstern in Yerushalayim. Being in the presence of an Ish Kadosh was certainly a surreal experience. One of the interesting things I noticed was that the Rebbe wears a white bekeshe on Shabbos. Now this may seem typical of Rebbes and Mekubalim, but for someone whose every move is calculated and is obsessed with kedusha, I was curious as to why he chose to wear white. I decided to try to understand the significance of wearing white on Shabbos.
Until now, the people I know who wear white on Shabbos, share a certain Tzfat vibe. Perhaps trying to mimic the custom of mekubalim of old to wear white for Shabbos. It is something that seemingly did not fully survive the move into modern life. As I learned more about this enigmatic minhag, I realized that I was missing the point and how it is wholly integrated with the theme of our parashah, the bigdei kehunah.
The western world has an oft quoted idiom that ‘the clothes make the man’, but we often miss that it is the man who picks the clothes. We pick our clothing to match the tone of the occasion or season for which we are wearing them.
Therefore, the clothing that we wear on Shabbos is a testament to what Shabbos is. Just as the clothing that we wear during the week parallel the clothing of exile.
The custom to wear white on Shabbos seems to have originated with the Arizal. On Erev Shabbos, the Arizal and his students used to put on four white garments corresponding to the four letters of the Shem Hashem, and go out to the fields of Tzfat to welcome in the Shabbos.
Rav Chaim Vital writes in the name of the Arizal that on Shabbos one should wear only white clothing. He adds that the clothing one will wear in Olam Haba resembles what one wore on Shabbos1. Rav Moshe of Premisla writes that the white clothing symbolizes our state of cleanliness from sin in Olam Haba2. The Chemdas Yamim goes further and says that by cleaning one’s clothing for Shabbos, one performs a spiritual cleansing as well3. Daniel HaNavi described Hashem as wearing white at the time of forgiveness4. White becomes the language of selichah, of simplicity, and of ascent, because white is not inward or outward but upward, toward Keter.5
It is fascinating that this custom to wear white, rooted in such lofty ideals, seems to have been set aside for the mekubalim and Tzfat chevre. Many communities honor Shabbos through special clothing without wearing all white. It is of further interest that the Rosh writes plainly that Shabbos clothing are white6, yet his son, the Baal Haturim does not say it as clearly in the Tur. He mentions one should wear special clothing, but he does not mention the white. The silence itself says something. The world of Ohr is a quiet world. Ohr comes when we have the Keli to be mekabel it. It is not for everyone.
In Lecha Dodi, Rav Shlomo Alkabetz centers the pizmon on a yearning for the Geula and a time when it will be a day of all Shabbos. He appears to centralize this on the idea of Ohr and Levushim, light and garments.
He writes7:
— הִתְנַעֲרִי מֵעָפָר קוּמִי
Yerushalayim, Shake yourself off from the dust (of galus and destruction) and stand up!
— לִבְשִׁי בִּגְדֵי תִפְאַרְתֵּךְ עַמִּי
Put on the (“clothes” that you take so much pride in), My people (Bnei Yisrael who are returning);
— יַד בֶּן יִשַּׁי בֵּית הַלַּחְמִי
through the hand of (Mashiach, who comes from the descendants of David), ben Yishai of Beis Lechem,
— קָרְבָה אֶל נַפְשִׁי גְּאָלָהּ
redeem me out of our galus, so that my soul can draw near to You.
Then,in the next stanza, he speaks in the language of clothing.
— הִתְעוֹרְרִי הִתְעוֹרְרִי
Yerushalayim, Wake up! Wake up (from your indifference and apathy caused by our galus!);
— כִּי בָא אוֹרֵךְ קוּמִי אוֹרִי
for the light of (your redemption is coming), arise and shine your light (on us, your children);
עוּרִי עוּרִי שִׁירִי דַּבֵּרִי
Awake! Awake and break out in song (and speech);
— כְּבוֹד יהוה עָלַיִךְ נִגְלָה
because the glory of Hashem’s Presence is revealed (and resting) upon you!
Lecha Dodi is not presenting two separate metaphors. It is presenting one unified claim. Redemption is light and redemption is garments. A human world receives light only through a levush. Rav Shlomo Alkabetz makes that unity explicit by fusing two distinct pesukim: “Hisoreri, hisoreri, kumi Yerushalayim”8 with “Ki va orech, kumi ori”9. The “awakening” we demand of Yerushalayim is bound up with the Ohr that approaches it.
The words themselves hint to the deeper structure. “Hisoreri” is rooted in ער, awakening. “Orech” is rooted in אור, light. The two words sound almost identical, and the distinction is the letter ayin versus alef.
This is where Parashas Tezaveh enters, because Tezaveh is when the Torah teaches us about our clothing, levush as a way to hold Ohr in a holy way.
In the language of Kabbalah, a levush is an interface. It conceals, protects, and at the right moment it reveals. Concealment is not the inverse of revelation. Concealment is what allows revelation to exist in a world that cannot receive infinity directly. It is for this reason that Chazal speak about levushim in reference to the highest spiritual realities.
Even the Ohr Ein Sof “wears” the universe, because a finite world cannot receive infinity without form. A levush does not deny the Ohr, rather it makes it inhabitable.
Rav Joey Rosenfeld once expressed the human side of this with a sentence that clarifies the entire subject. “Our garments convey the divine element within the human being. Garments convey that which is within the garment.” A garment does not only cover. A garment conveys. When the garment is truthful, it transmits what is within. When the garment is a costume, or not truly representative of that which it purports to be clothing, it blocks what is within.
Tezaveh is the Torah teaching how to build a truthful garment.
I would like to recap a bit of a previous post in which I discussed the clothing of Esav and its history, to discuss the history of clothing in the Torah.
The Torah tells us that Hashem clothed Adam and Chavah with “kosnos or,” garments of skin, עור. The Midrash tells us that in the Torah of Rebbe Meir this was written as “kosnos Ohr (אוֹר),” garments of light10. The shift from alef to ayin becomes the spiritual story of humanity. Before the chet Adam, the human being could bear Ohr (אוֹר) as a kind of natural atmosphere. After the chet, the human being moved into a denser regime, a world that required עור, concealment.
The Tikkunei Zohar11 deepens this by speaking about the Torah of Rabbi Meir as “Ohr (אוֹר),” implying that Rabbi Meir’s Torah reflects a memory of the pre-sin state, while our Torah is the Torah of after the sin, a Torah spoken within concealment.12
Similarly, as mentioned the root of עור (skin) is ער (awake). They are both languages of revelation, because skin is the revealed surface, and waking is the revealed self. עור becomes the medium through which something can be revealed in a world that cannot bear direct Ohr (אוֹר).
The question is whether what we see on the surface is real, or just a performance. That question follows us through history.
When Rivkah dressed Yaakov in Esav’s clothes, she did so in order that Yitzchak will respond to what he can sense, as the clothing, being passed down from Adam, represented the ohr of Gan Eden. However, what Rivka realized was that the bracha was not in the clothing, the bracha was in the one wearing the clothing, with the clothing only being a literal levush of the ohr inherent within Yaakov. When Esav wore the clothing, it was merely a misdirection, as it did not represent his inner light. For Esav, it represented the possibility that religiosity could become a costume. When levush aligns with inner truth, it becomes a vessel, however, when it detaches from inner truth, it becomes fraud.
This brings us to Parashas Tezaveh, which describes the garments of the Kohanim, and especially the Kohen Gadol, in meticulous detail. The level of detail is appropriate when detailing a Keli that can hold onto the Ohr Ein Sof.
The Shlah makes this clear, explaining that the Bigdei Kehunah were meant to bring a tikkun for the chet of Adam and to raise Aharon toward the level of Adam before the sin, it is through the clothing that we can retrieve the Ohr.13 The Shlah elaborates that the Kohen Gadol wore a choshen. The word choshen חשן shares the same letters as nachash - נחש. The garment itself becomes a tikkun of the original distortion. The nachash introduced confusion, fracture, and the possibility that the external and internal could split. The choshen becomes a levush designed to heal that split. (It is not for naught that on the Choshen was all the shevatim, to show that we are all parts of the same oneness)
Furthermore, the clothing of the Kohen is called a kesones, which is reminiscent of Adam’s kesones. The Midrash teaches that Moshe wore a white kesones during the miluim, the inauguration of the mishkan.14While not all the bigdei kehuna were white, the white garments were reserved for the most auspicious times, such as for Moshe and on Yom Kippur. White indicates purity and ascent, because the garment is meant to convey truth rather than ego.
The Alter Rebbe explains that Aharon, as Kohen Gadol, serves as a primary conduit of the Ohr Ein Sof to Knesses Yisrael, and that his garments are spiritual “containers” that make this light revealable . The formation of those garments, and the revelation they enable, has three partners. Moshe draws down the berachah from above. The chachmei lev then shape and form that influx with chochmah, giving it structure and intelligibility. Finally, Bnei Yisrael “switch it on” through practical mitzvos, because without concrete deeds the vessel remains conceptual and the light remains dormant.15
In other words, Bigdei Kehunah are not just for the Kohen. They are the visible expression of a national system, where the highest Ohr is drawn down, shaped, and activated. But now the real question is unavoidable: without a standing Mikdash and without the Bigdei Kehunah, how do we draw that same light down into ordinary life?
When Rav Shlomo Alkabetz left Saloniki to make aliyah, he delivered an overarching derashah on Parashas Terumah that emphasized this theme of the Torah of Rabbi Meir as an organizing idea for his worldview. He understood the details of the building of the mishkan and the bigdei kehuna as the Torah’s attempt to restore a human relationship to Ohr (אוֹר) through keilim and levushim. This, he explains is manifested today as a zecher with Tefillin. Tefillin are made of עור. When we wear tefillin we are testifying that we are in a post - chet reality. But we can take the fabric of Galus, and use it to bring אוֹר.
Rav Moshe Cordovero, the prime student of Rav Shlomo Alkabetz, echoes this idea. He writes that the garments of leather עור after the sin are garments of galus, while the garments of Ohr (אוֹר) before the sin are garments of Shabbos and freedom16. The Ramak adds that the alef of Ohr (אוֹר) represents oneness. However, when Adam sinned, kodesh and chol began to blend together, and the Ohr (אוֹר) became עור with an ayin, which represents the seventy nations and the condition of exile. Galus feels scattered and heavy, like being defined from the outside. Geula feels whole and clear, like coming back to yourself.
The ayin of exile is not erased. It is subdued. The leather of the tefillin becomes the instrument through which the alef of Ohr (אוֹר) is reclaimed from within the ayin of exile17.18
However, tefillin is not worn on Shabbos. Which means Shabbos carries its own form of repair.
The Chemdas Yamim teaches that the tikkun for Chet Adam on Shabbos is done by wearing special clothing for Shabbos, and that Shabbos clothing enters the category of special garments grouped with the clothing of Adam, the clothing of the Kohen Gadol, the clothing of God, and the clothing of Mashiach19. Shabbos clothing is not simply special clothing to honor Shabbos, it is a way to bridge into the same spiritual category as Bigdei Kehunah, both of which are levushim that make room for the Shechinah.20
The Midrash makes the bridge between Shabbos and kehuna explicit. We honor Shabbos with food, drink, and clean clothing because Hashem made for Adam kosnos Ohr (אוֹר), and those garments were Bigdei Kehunah21. Bigdei Kehunah and bigdei Shabbos become identified in function. They are garments that allow a human being to stand before the Shechinah.
You see this again at Har Sinai. Before Matan Torah, Bnei Yisrael are told to wash their clothes22, and the Targum reads it as whitening; Rashi23 says their garments were whitened and made fit to receive the Shechinah. Clothing becomes a kind of preparation for revelation, and whiteness becomes a language of readiness. The Gemara even says that talmidei chachamim in Bavel looked like malachim, and Rashi ties that to their white clothing and covered appearance24. Again and again, levush signals a state of being that extends beyond appearance.
At this point we see the structure of Lecha Dodi. Rav Shlomo Alkabetz first tells us that we should shake off the dust of our clothing of Galus, and put on the right clothing since it is through that, that we will merit the Ohr.
Getting back to Lecha Dodi -
We later use the term “Shiri daberi”, which is sourced in Devorah’s “Uri uri dabri shir”25, and Chazal connect that phrase to the return of nevuah26. Nevuah is not merely perception, it is the experience of being present with the Shechinah. The Gemara in Shabbos teaches that Shechinah rests only upon one in joy, and it learns this from Elisha who required music to receive prophecy27. Nevuah and Shechinah become two ways of describing the same contact. If so, “shiri daberi” becomes a plea not only for song, but for the return of Shechinah.
This then leads to the closing of the stanza “Kevod Hashem alayich nigleh,” Kevod Hashem is described in Tanach as a source of illumination. “V’haaretz he’ira mikvodo,” the land is illuminated from His kavod28. Thus Lecha Dodi becomes a plea that Yerushalayim once again enjoy the illumination that radiates from the place of Mikdash, the place where kevod becomes visible in history.
At that point, Shabbos, kehuna, and geulah stop looking like separate themes.
In Parashas Tezaveh, the Torah is giving us an eternal lesson that the world can be clothed in a way that makes it fit for light. It begins with Adam, who moved from kosnos Ohr (אוֹר) to kosnos עור. It continues with Yaakov and Esav, where clothing becomes contested and levush becomes dangerous. It appears again in Tezaveh, where the Torah introduces garments whose entire purpose is alignment, and repair. It is Avodah in its truest form.
“Ki va orech, kumi ori.”
The Ohr is coming. Rise into it.
Watching Rav Morgenstern in his white bekeshe, I understood that the Ohr (אוֹר) of the Shechinah has never left. Each of us can access it when we approach it in a wholesome, truthful way. Then we can wear its levush and on Purim even what is usually reserved for the select few comes out for everyone, as each of us is blessed on that day with a singularly unique Ohr (אוֹר) of our own.29
Sefer HaKavanos 2:30a
Mateh Moshe 154–55
Chemdas Yamim 1:26a
Daniel 7:9
As described by the mekubalim, see לכה דודי וקבלת שבת: המשמעות המיסטית by Reuven Kimelman, chapter 5
Rosh, Bava Kamma, end of perek 7
Translation from the Feigenbaum Siddur
Yeshayahu 51:17
Yeshayahu 60:1
Bereishis Rabbah 20:12
Noach 92b
Rav Shlomo Alkabetz adds a further nuance, that the “kosnos Ohr (אוֹר)” are described as Adam’s garment specifically, while Chava’s role is framed more within the grounded reality of human life. In that reading, the transition from Ohr (אוֹר) to עור expresses not only a loss of light, but also a descent into embodied responsibility.
Shlah, Tezaveh, Torah Ohr
Vayikra Rabbah 11:6
Torah Or
Ohr Yakar 3, 38b
Pardes Rimmonim 13:3
For more on the connection between Tefillin and Bigdei Kehuna see my post - The Secret of the Tzitz - https://www.shuihaber.com/p/the-secret-of-the-tzitz
Chemdas Yamim 1:11:3–4
The Maharal explains the minhag of wearing a white kittel at the seder as expressing a geulah that arrives in simplicity and directness, without “weaving” or human coloration, because the geula comes straight from Shamayim (Maharal, Divrei Negidim, 41).
Midrash Tanchuma, Toldos 12
Shemos 19:10
based on Yevamos 46b
Kiddushin 72a
Shoftim 5:12
Pesachim 66b
Shabbos 30b
Yechezkel 43:2
Much of the ideas in this post are based on לכה דודי וקבלת שבת: המשמעות המיסטית by Reuven Kimelman