Meshwork Garments

19 Adar I 5782

“The meshwork garments to serve in the Holy, the holy garments for Aaron the Kohen [Gadol], and the garments of his sons [in which] to serve [as kohanim].” (Shemos 35:19)

It’s very interesting that in all three instances the meshwork garments (בִּגְדֵי הַשְּׂרָד), used to protect the Mishkan’s implements during the Jews travels, are mentioned in the Torah, they are so closely juxtaposed with the priestly garments that the Rashi had to go to great lengths to separate the two (see Rashi on Shemos 31:10). This cannot be a coincidence. It teaches us that just as the meshwork garments were covers for selfless tools used in the santification of Hashem’s name, so were the priestly garments covers for Aaron and his sons who were selfless tools in the service of Hashem. As the Holy Baal Shem Tov explains in Tzava’at Harivash 101:

“Regard yourself as no more than a tool. When a craftsman hits the rock with a hammer, this happens because of his desire, and not because of the hammer’s desire, to hit the rock; for if it had been the latter, (the hammer) would be independent of the craftsman. Thus things happen according to the infusion of the primordial mind into the tools.”

“Anyone who has not attained this standard of waging such a strenuous war against his body, has not yet measured up to the quality and dimension of the war waged daily within the kal shebekalim against the evil nature, which burns like a fiery flame” (Lessons in Tanya, Likutei Amarim, middle of Chapter 30)

Reaching the lofty heights of Aaron HaKohen’s selflessness is no easy task. It requires waging a fiery battle, each and every day, with the evil inclination, to meet and exceed yesterday’s level of service. For the observant individual, it is not enough to run in the tracks of his habituated diligence, he must actively engage his evil impulse and constantly strive to study and pray far more intensely than is his acquired nature. Only then can his Divine service measure up to even the level of the kal shebekalim (the most worthless of the worthless) who fights with the intensity of a fiery flame each and every day simply to overpower his evil inclination in matters of “turning away from evil.”

“The stream of their life is as but a slumber; in the morning they are like grass that sprouts anew.” (Tehillim 90:5)

Our task is not to be like those whose life passes before them as in a slumber. We are to be active combatants in the war against our evil inclination. Only then will our work be of a lasting nature, not like that of which it is said, “In the morning it thrives and sprouts anew; in the evening it withers and dries” (Tehillim 90:6).