This is What Torah Says About Clothing

The Torah doesn’t say much about clothing, either descriptively or prescriptively. Without real explanation, it prohibits blending wool and linen in a garment (such garments are known as shatnez), in the same verse forbidding “mixing” different seeds and species of cattle (Leviticus 19:19). It prohibits men to wear women’s clothes and vice versa (Deuteronomy 22:5), without specifying the characteristics of either.It also requires Jews to put fringes on the corners of a four-pointed garment (Numbers 15:37-41), both as a way of recognizing the Jew and reminder reminding the Jew to observe the mitzvot.However, the Torah provides extensive detail regarding the clothing of the priests, and especially the High Priest, for their duties in the Tabernacle in the desert (Exodus 28), later adopted for the Temple in Jerusalem.Yet while the High Priest’s garb was elaborate, colorful and full of symbolism, for Yom Kippur, the one day a year he would enter the holiest portion of the sanctuary, he was to wear only white linen (Leviticus 16:4), a sign of obedience. White clothing then became the symbol of purity, and black a sign of mourning. Now mourning is indicated by the tearing of a garment.

Meet Jewish Dress in Ancient and Medieval TimesWhen the Jews were sovereign in their land in ancient times, the standard of dress of those who were wealthy, such as successful landowners, showed their status. The nobility and upper – class

society dressed more elegantly.The styles of the neighboring peoples also influenced Jewish

fashion. But when the Jews were exiled (70 C.E.) and lived under foreign command, the impoverishment of many Jews became

evident in their dress.In some cases, over time the Jews adopted unique dress

voluntarily, to separate themselves from the prevailing culture. In others, they were obliged by law to dress in a particular way,

e.g., special hats and badges in medieval Spain and 13th-century Poland. Jews of Eastern Europe came to adopt fashions of the

early modern Polish nobility, such as the black robe (caftan) and the fur hat (shtreimel), which are still being worn by various

groups of ultra-Orthodox Jews.