Bring near to yourself your brother Aharon

(Exodus 28:1)

Adar 12, 5777/March 10, 2017

"And you bring near to yourself your brother Aharon, and his sons with him, from among the children of Israel to serve Me [as kohanim]: Aharon, Nadav, and Avihu, Eleazar, and Itamar, Aharon's sons. You shall make holy garments for your brother Aharon, for honor and glory." (Exodus 28:1-2)

We all know that the High Priest (Kohen Gadol) fulfills the most central and important task in the Holy Temple, the place where G-d has chosen to rest His presence among His children here on earth. But the ability of the Kohen Gadol to successfully perform his role before G-d depends entirely upon the two prerequsites listed above: We must first bring near to us and embrace the Kohen Gadol as our brother, and then we must make and cloth him in "holy garments... for honor and glory." (ibid)

In short, in order to empower the Kohen Gadol to stand before G-d and serve Him in holiness in the Temple, we must first love the Kohen Gadol as our brother with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our might. Without brotherly love there is no Kohen Gadol, there is no service in the Holy Temple and there is no place for G-d's presence to dwell within our midst. G-d is saying: Love Me? Love your brother!

The Kohen Gadol embodies the role of brother to all of Israel and his garments of honor and glory are the vessels which bind him, heart and soul, to his brothers. In today's world we choose our clothes as a way to differentiate ourselves from one another. Our choice of clothing is a statement of our individuality and uniqueness. Or at least, so we think. In truth, by dwelling on so external an element in our being, we are following the pack, and at the end of the day, our well-planned statement of individuality doesn't define our uniqueness. It simply sets us alone and isolated.

We have already witnessed how clothing can cause division between brothers, as in the case of Yosef. Also in the case of Yosef, we have seen how clothing can be employed to express power and superiority, as when Pharaoh removed Yosef's prison rags and bedecked him in the trappings of Egyptian aristocracy. These royal garments were so effective that they literally hid Yosef from his brothers when they arrived in Egypt, looking for provisions.

But holy garments, Torah is teaching us, are the garments that bind us to our brothers, and our love for one another is the honor and glory that emanates from the Kohen Gadol when he stands before G-d. Our sages teach us that every element of the garments of the Kohen Gadol, from the ephod and the breastplate, to the tzitz (golden crown) and the me'il techelet (all-blue robe) are vessels through which we can atone before G-d. Each detail of the High Priest's garments corresponds to a unique aspect of our humanity and our manifold foibles and follies can each gain an audience before G-d when the Kohen Gadol performs his tasks in the Holy Temple. The High Priest's garments don't cover up who we are, they present our humanity in plain view before G-d. And G-d grants forgiveness and allows repentance.

"Where are you?" G-d asked Adam. G-d is not pleased when man hides from Him. And G-d quickly replaced Adam's crudely made garments of concealment with Divine garments of light, garments that reveal the Divine image in which we are created, and don't conceal it. "Where are you?" was G-d's first question directed toward man. Man's first question directed toward G-d was, "Am I my brother's keeper?" And the establishment of the Kohen Gadol is G-d's emphatic answer "Yes!"

To this day, when the descendants of Aharon, today's kohanim, bless their brothers every morning in the land of Israel, with the priestly blessing, "May HaShem bless you and watch over you. May HaShem cause His countenance to shine to you and favor you. May HaShem raise His countenance toward you and grant you peace," they first recite the following blessing: "Blessed be HaShem our G-d, King of the world, Who has sanctified us with the holiness of Aharon, and commanded us to bless His people Israel with love." As we have seen above, brotherly love is the active ingredient. The children of Israel draw the kohanim near to them and cloth him with the honor and glory of our own fragile humanity, as G-d created us, and our brothers, the kohanim, bless us with love.

From Cain and Abel all the way to Yosef and his brothers, we see that G-d is dismayed by brotherly strife and His chief desire is for His children to love one another. That love, embodied by the Kohen Gadol, stands before G-d in the Holy Temple every day of the year. The powers vested in the garments of the Kohen Gadol don't simply express peace and harmony between man, they enable man to achieve peace and harmony. Is there any greater need in the world today? "A house of prayer for all nations," begins to become a reality the moment we embrace one another as brothers!

-The Temple Institute