By Rabbi Mitchell M. Hurvitz
I started reading from my local daily printed newspaper when I was young.
However, it was a bit of a challenge because I was required to wait for my father z’l to get his initial access. He would hand me each section when he had completed his reading, and would always read in the order of the paper itself. I would wait impatiently for the sports section so I could review the box scores along with the news articles.
When I was 12 years old, I secured a paper route. Besides the earned income, the daily bonus was the ability to secure my free copy of the newspaper for myself. I found that I too flipped through the sections of the paper in order. I would review each headline and usually read at least a few of the lines of most articles.
When I started college, my printed newspaper habit grew to three papers. However, early in my marriage, this practice introduced tension between me and Roseanne because she disliked the ink of newspapers “getting on everything.” I held out for a few years longer when online news and digital papers became the norm.
Similarly to giving up my beeper several years after everyone else, I relented with going digital. I found that the transition prompted me to read many more headlines, but I started to read significantly fewer articles.
Too often, I read what I think I’m interested in without paying much attention to other items. Realizing this is the case, I try to force myself to pick at least ten articles a day to read that I wouldn’t normally read.
Entertainment news is especially forced is; but, as with most of my experiences, it often delivers unexpected benefits when I try something new.
I never once paid attention to the Oscars, but the day after the event, I noted a headline: “Oscar Night’s Naked Dresses and History of the Sheer Look.” I’m not sure it was a rabbinically approved article, but I clicked and read about a new style aesthetic of “How naked can I look?”
The naked-dressing theme was interesting because it an illustration of how a secular ethos can be in such a great conflict with traditional Jewish teachings. Within the article, the argument for “pushing the envelope with naked fashion” was articulated as a concrete response against those who might commit the “sin” of body shaming. I had a compassionate response to this stated intention.
When it comes to one’s body, no one should ever be made to feel anxious or self-conscious. From personal experience, I can describe the hurt that can come with being a victim of fat shaming or other critical comments.
Temple Sholom articulates within our Bar/Bat Mitzvah handbook a policy on a ritual dress code for those who attend worship services:
• It is appropriate to dress in nicer clothes when attending synagogue.
1. Jacket and tie and/or skirts & dresses (of an
appropriate length).
2. Women are invited, but not required, to cover their heads while on the bimah.
3. We ask that girls and women do not come to the bimah with bare shoulders.
After articulating the dress code, it concludes with the statement: “For further guidance, feel free to speak with Rabbi Mitch.”
Over the years, dress code was a hot topic at ritual committee meetings. Temple members with a more traditional upbringing often feel our dress code policy is too liberal. Members who are more progressive in their upbringing often feel that all we should articulate is the suggestion that it is “appropriate to dress in nicer clothes when attending synagogue” and leave it up to the individual to discern what “nicer” means to them. I confess to an initial inclination toward the more traditional perspective.
While growing up, my mother z’l demanded that my brothers and I always attend synagogue with a jacket and tie. When we protested that the other children were often not doing the same, my mom would dismiss the objection and tell us we needed to “dress like a mensch.”
Later in life, I learned the midrash:
He who walks in the marketplace with his shoes unlaced is among those who are of the haughty spirit.
He who walks with his cloak thrown over his shoulder or his cap tilted back or sits crosslegged…
He is among those with a haughty spirit.
When we walk outside, how we dress matters.
Jewish law emphasizes that to dress immaculately is a way of honoring the Divine within ourselves. Dressing well is considered part of healthy spiritual self-esteem. We dress for success in a way that reflects well on us and God.
In the creation story, we witness the first consequence of Adam and Eve’s sin of eating the forbidden fruit: “The eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.” Adam and Eve became self-conscious about their bodies. Before their sin, they did not recognize any feeling of shame.
A sense of modesty is a significant variable that separates us from the animal kingdom. Before eating from the forbidden tree of knowledge of good and evil, human beings were not more than animals.
With knowledge comes a sense of the Divine and how we are all created equally in God’s image. Shame and guilt can be productive when they prompt us to live on a much higher plane than the physical animal kingdom.
An old conflict between Jewish and non-Jewish values was emphasizing the internal vs. the external regarding “true beauty.” The ancient Greeks focused primarily on aesthetics and held physical beauty above all. Judaism always asserted that we can discover true beauty only within holiness.
However, the ancient sages understood that how we appear on the outside has the potential to train us to emphasize the need for inner moral beauty, and thus, why we need to “dress like a mensch.”
The new popular mode of “naked dress” is seemingly a minor twist on the ancient Greek beauty ethos. Suppose we dress intending to raise ourselves to a more outstanding moral character; I think most would then consider more carefully when and how to dress appropriately in “nicer clothes.”
I would never go to someone at a worship service and tell them they did not dress nicely enough. The sin of embarrassing another individual is much more grievous than how someone chooses to dress. However, when not in the moment, I think it is appropriate to teach the lesson on why and how we can “dress like a mensch.” Maybe this ethos can be next year’s Oscars’ fashion theme.
Shabbat Shalom.
Temple Sholom’s Senior Rabbi Mitchell M. Hurvitz is a scholar, teacher, community activist and preacher, and is recognized as one of the prominent religious leaders in the Greenwich area and beyond. A frequent guest speaker at synagogues and churches, study groups, community institutions and universities, he is a charismatic personality who engages individuals and stimulates hearts and minds. His teachings can be found in Greenwich Sentinel and in other local and national publications.
