TETSAVEH . Was the dressing-down due to ……dressing down?

For gripping drama, for character portrayal and for best acting it surely would have won an Oscar in the short-fictional movie category. Except that it wasn’t acting, it wasn’t fictional and it wasn’t a movie!

I refer of course to the extraordinary encounter starring Presidents Trump and Zelensky at the Oval Office and co-starring US Vice-President JD Vance.

Most political commentators identify Zelensky’s rejoinder to Vances’s statement that the “path to peace” is through diplomacy – What kind of diplomacy are you speaking about? – as the  springboard for the rise in temperature and temper that ensued. (Actually there has been bad blood between Trump and Zelensky since 2016 which this meeting was intended to quell.)

However I believe the die was cast from the outset due to a much more basic factor.

The two American leaders were appropriately attired in natty business suits and ties. Zelensky was insouciantly garbed in a “statement” military-style black sweatshirt adorned with the Ukranian trident.

The subliminal message was that Trump and Vance were geared up for a business discussion, while Zelensky was attitudinally bedecked for battle!

This inevitably affected the atmosphere in the room from the get-go

How you dress affects how you will be addressed. And indeed how you will be viewed.

The reality is that, rightly or wrongly, we do judge books by covers and, all other thinbeing equal, those who are better-attired tend to be better-admired.  

Zelensky was invited for what was probably the most important  meeting of his career with the “king” of the free world,  In dressing as he did, did he perhaps make the worst faux pas of his life?

I for one am convinced the dressing-down he was given was the inevitable result of him …. dressing down!  His black sweatshirt sent out all the wrong signals!

\This week’s parasha addresses dress.  In particular: the vestments worn by the Kohanim and especially the Kohen Gadol when serving in the Mishkan and, centuries later, in the Bet Mikdash.

Already at the very first mention of the Kohanic garments, the Torah calls them bigdei kodesh. (Exod. 28:2) Normally translated as “garments of sanctity”, the word kodesh, at root, means “special” In the most sacred space,, at the most sacred times – the hours of Divine service – the Kohanim wore special garments of “glory and splendour” (ibid) which at the same time served to enhance their respect in the eyes of the people. What is less well-known is that the kohanim who were serving on their twice-yearly roster (mishmar) as well as their non-Kohanic support group (ma’amad) were not allowed to launder their normal ‘street’-clothes during the early part of their week of duty in order that they would make sure to do so immediately prior, so that they would look spruce and neat from the outset! (Taanit 2:7; Arukh haShulkhan HeAtid, Hilkhot Bi’at haMikdash 34:10)

 As for us, we are called a “kingdom of kohanim” (Exod 19:6). We have an opportunity for a summit meeting in the inner chambers of the King of kings in the sacred confines of our shuls three times every day (the three Amidot) plus four on Shabbat. We have, or should have, vital business to transact with our Boss  

To appear in tennis-court gear for these encounters, or in sweatshirts or casual clothes on Shabbat, might just be conveying Zelensky-esque “couldn’t-care-less” vibes. And we wouldn’t want a dressing-down from the highest rung of power – would we now?