The Glorious Garments of Service
Parashat Tetzaveh, Exodus 27:20 – 30:10
Russ Resnik, UMJC Rabbinic Counsel
You are to summon your brother Aharon and his sons to come from among the people of Israel to you, so that they can serve me as cohanim — Aharon and his sons Nadav, Avihu, El‘azar and Itamar. You are to make for your brother Aharon garments set apart for serving God, expressing dignity and splendor. (Exodus 28:1–2)
The priestly garments of dignity and splendor have something to teach us about humility and self-sacrifice. It’s a paradoxical lesson, and we can consider it from the vantage-point of some instructions Messiah Yeshua gave on the way up to Jerusalem for his final Passover.
Yeshua had told his followers what awaited him in the holy city—betrayal, arrest, and a gruesome execution at the hands of Rome. These grim words were hardly out of his mouth when two of his closest followers, Ya’akov and Yochanan, approached him asking for a special favor, perhaps because Yeshua had also said he’d rise after three days: “When you are in your glory, let us sit with you, one on your right and the other on your left.”
Yeshua tells them, “You don’t know what you’re asking! Can you drink the cup that I am drinking? or be immersed with the immersion that I must undergo?” Ya’akov and Yochanan assure Yeshua that they can, and he says they will indeed share in the cup and immersion of his suffering. “But to sit on my right and on my left is not mine to give. Rather, it is for those for whom it has been prepared” (Mark 10:35–40 CJB).
Yeshua’s response—“it is not mine to give”—can be understood as one of several statements of his apparent limitations in the Besorah of Mark, like his inability to do miracles when he visited his hometown (6:5), or his response to the rich man who called him “Good rabbi”—“Why are you calling me good? No one is good except God!” (10:18). Yeshua is the anointed heir of David, who will come in glory to sit on David’s throne, but God is the ultimate authority and Yeshua can’t simply hand out favors.
The mystery of Yeshua’s divine-human status confronts us here, but there’s another implication of “it’s not mine to give.” In this kingdom, positions of status are not handed out along the usual lines of charisma, clout, and connections. Perhaps Yeshua is not contrasting himself and God so much as contrasting his kingdom and all other kingdoms. Status in his kingdom isn’t gained by the usual means of power and insider access, but is reserved for those “for whom it has been prepared”—a lesson that the rest of Yeshua’s followers need to learn, because they become outraged when they hear about the request of Ya’akov and Yochanan.
But Yeshua called them to him and said to them, “You know that among the Goyim, those who are supposed to rule them become tyrants, and their superiors become dictators. But among you, it must not be like that! On the contrary, whoever among you wants to be a leader must be your servant; and whoever wants to be first among you must become everyone’s slave! (Mark 10:42–44)
For anyone who has yearned to be “seen,” as in today’s jargon, who has struggled with feelings of envy and competitiveness, Yeshua’s words provide a way out. Accept the place God has given you and use that position to serve others.
At first glance, however, the inauguration of the High Priest in this week’s parasha might seem to reflect the sort of exalted leadership and religious hierarchy that Yeshua decries. Aaron, the chosen one, is given “holy garments . . . for beauty and for splendor” (Exod 28:2). But among these garments are hints of the same paradoxical truth Messiah Yeshua is seeking to instill in his followers: Fulfillment in the Kingdom of God doesn’t come from jockeying for a place on center stage, but from serving in the place that God has prepared for us.
The High Priest is to wear a choshen, or breastplate, on which twelve precious stones are set, each one engraved with the name of a tribe of Israel. “So Aaron shall bear the names of the sons of Israel on the breastplate of judgment over his heart, when he goes into the holy place, as a memorial before the Lord continually” (28:29). The High Priest, however gloriously he is clothed, is a burden-bearer. He carries the names of the children of Israel over his heart even in his moment of highest exaltation, when he goes into the holy place and appears before Adonai himself. He is raised up as a leader among his people, yet he is a burden-bearer serving them all. “Whoever among you wants to be a leader must be your servant; and whoever wants to be first among you must become everyone’s slave!”
Furthermore, on the breastplate each of the tribes is represented equally. Each has a set place, a place “prepared” for it, and none is higher or lower than any other.
Only when every stone was in its place would the priest be able to don the breastplate and thus be fully ready to fulfill his service to the Divine. The instructions for the choshen ensured that there was a place for every tribe and that none’s space dominated any other. By divine design, all of Israel was given their rightful space. (Rabbi Leah Lewis in The Mussar Torah Commentary)
Rabbi Lewis here is highlighting the arrangement of stones as a symbol of humility, which isn’t a matter of self-abasement, or coy comments about how “it’s not about me.” Dignity and humility go hand in hand, and humility means discovering and occupying our rightful space—neither too high nor too low—in God’s design. And as Yeshua teaches us, this rightful space will be one of service to others.
But serving others is such a familiar ideal that we can easily agree to it and then neglect it. The names on the breastplate hint at one way to avoid that pitfall: letting the name of the other person, their identity and their struggles, the realities of their life, matter deep with ourselves, just as Aaron bears the names over his heart. Yes, it’s important to maintain good personal boundaries, but we also need to let others truly matter to us. Out of that connection arises service that’s not an abstract ideal, but real-life action that will mean something in the life of the one we want to serve.
The breastplate bearing the names of the tribes of Israel, each in its place, reminds us also to embrace our God-given place and not to compare ourselves with the other servants; neither to seek a better position than theirs, nor to grovel in our lowliness. Instead, we’re to serve within the space God has prepared for us . . . and prepared us for, “even as the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve” (Mark 10:45a).