Okay, as you heard, the subject tonight is מלבושים, לבושים, garments, clothes, dress, whatever word we'll use for it. And obviously, this is not going to be a discussion about the different styles and dresses, but the Torah relationship or Torah light when it comes to the concept of garments and clothes. Now, when we think of garments in connection to Torah, automatically, the first thing that comes to our mind is the concept of צניעות, which is the way a person is supposed to dress. That's a הלכה, so this is part of Torah. So it refers to men, because there are laws of צניעות, of modesty, even the way men are supposed to dress, and certainly concerning women the way the women are supposed to dress. Now when we go further, there are other laws that are connected to לבושים, to garments, and those are the laws of לא ילבש. There's a special פסוק in the Torah which says that a man is not allowed to wear women's clothes, and a woman is not allowed to wear men's clothes. So that's a separate din. That means that even if the clothes of the men happen to cover the whole body of the woman, nevertheless, she's not allowed to wear it. In other words, that is not because of צניעות per se. It is because of something in connection, but it's not because of צניעות. It's just a din that a man cannot wear women's clothes and a woman cannot wear men's clothes. This also includes, for instance, that women are not allowed to wear any armor, because it's men's clothes. Women are not allowed to wear tefillin, some hold, because this is considered men's garments. So this is another הלכה that we find in the concept of, in the inyan of clothes, the way it's in the Torah. We find in the Torah clothes in connection to the garments of the כהנים. The priests in the בית המקדש, in the משכן, had to have special clothes. So this is another aspect of clothes in the light of Torah. Especially, the כהן גדול, the high priest, had special clothes. The ordinary regular כהנים had four garments, called ארבעה בגדים, the four garments. The כהן גדול had שמונה בגדים, he had to wear four garments, eight garments, and that's another aspect in clothes. Then we find a הלכה that when it comes, we have Shabbos and Yom Tov, a person should wear Shabbos clothes. בכלל, we find there is a certain concept as clothes worn by Jews, Jewish clothes, and years before, there used to be a specific, even color, or kind of clothes that all the Jews wore. And then we find another הלכה in Torah concerning clothes, and that is the איסור of שעטנז, which is the prohibition of not mixing linen and wool together, and wearing garments that are made of these two materials if they're mixed together. Different הלכות of when it becomes אסור, when it's forbidden מדאורייתא, from the Torah, when we consider it only אסור מדרבנן, when it's only forbidden from the רבנן, but there are a lot of laws in this inyan of שעטנז. Generally speaking, it means not to wear clothes that have a mixture of wool and linen. This is one of those מצוות which are considered chukim. Most of the mitzvot fall in the category of mishpatim, which means laws that have a reason, so much so that if the Torah would not have told us to keep these laws, we'd have we would have kept it on our own. Then there are certain mitzvot which fall in the category of, which are called mitzvot or edot. Basically, they're edot because edot means testimony. Most of these mitzvot testify to certain things, and we have reasons, we understand why the mitzvot were given. Even though they're not like the first category that if the Torah wouldn't tell us, we would keep it, these are mitzvot that we would not have kept if the Torah wouldn't tell us, but after the Torah told us, we understand why. For instance, Shabbos. If the Torah wouldn't tell us to keep Shabbos, we wouldn't, but we know why we keep Shabbos, it makes sense. Pesach, if not for the Torah, we wouldn't have Pesach, but now that the Torah told us, we understand. Then there are few mitzvot that fall in the category of chukim, are those mitzvot that have no reason whatsoever. שעטנז is one of those mitzvot that the sefarim mention. Nevertheless, we do find in the sefarim different hints, especially according to Kabbalah and Chassidut, that are hinted in this prohibition of wearing שעטנז. We will try to touch upon some of these things during the course of the talk. The first First thing is let's start off with the whole source of clothes. Where do we find or where is the beginning of a person having to wear clothes? And from that, automatically we will touch upon the concept of tzniut.

This all starts from Adam Harishon. Adam, he was the first human being, and Chava, who was the first woman, and they were the first ones to wear clothes. Actually, we find in the Chumash like this: in the beginning it says, ויהיו שניהם ערומים האדם ואשתו. Adam and his wife were both naked. ולא יתבוששו, they were not embarrassed, and they didn't have clothes. Then Torah tells us the story of the חטא עץ הדעת that they sinned by eating from the tree that Hashem told them not to eat. And what happens after that? ותפקחנה עיני שניהם, the eyes of them both opened up, וידעו כי ערומים הם, and they realized that they were naked. ויתפרו עלי תאנה ויעשו להם חגורות, and they sewed together a fig leaf and made themselves aprons. That's what they did themselves. And then later it says that Hashem, when he asked, \"Where are you?\", when he wanted to start the discussion with Adam, he said, \"Where are you? איכה?\" So, אדם said, \"I was afraid כי עירום אנכי, because I'm naked.\" So, Hashem said to him, \"מי הגיד לך כי עירם אתה? Who told you that you're naked? Where did, how did you realize there is something wrong in being undressed? המן העץ אשר צויתיך לבלתי אכול ממנו אכלת? Did you eat from the tree that I told you not to eat?\" And he said, \"Yes, I ate,\" but he blamed it on his wife, and then she blamed it on the נחש, etc., etc. So, Hashem was upset, cursed them. Then the pasuk says ויעש השם אלוקים לאדם ולאשתו כתנות עור וילבישם. And it says and Hashem made for אדם and his wife garments of skin, of leather, and he clothed them. So, here's the beginning of where we find that human beings, people wear clothes. Now, to understand exactly what happened here concerning the clothes, let's start with another question. When they ate from the tree, which was the עץ הדעת טוב ורע, which mean the tree of knowledge between good and bad, and it says after they ate from the tree, which they were told not to eat, ותפקחנה עיני שניהם, their eyes opened up, their mind opened up, they became smart, and they realized something that they didn't realize before, they realized that they were undressed. But the question is, and the Rambam asks this question in Moreh Nevuchim, how is it possible that a person should gain, should become smarter through doing a sin? Usually a person is punished for doing a sin. But to gain by doing a sin? Till then they were not smart? They didn't understand the difference between טוב ורע, good and bad, and all of a sudden, because they sinned, they became smart? Even though the tree was called עץ הדעת טוב ורע, by eating from that tree that brought daat, understanding in their mind, but still it's hard to understand. How is it possible by doing something wrong someone should gain knowledge? And the answer that the Rambam gives is that this is not the peshat. Not that they became smarter and they started realizing the difference between good and bad which they didn't know before. Everyone knows that there is such a thing as good and bad. But because אדם הראשון and חוה were in a very, very high level, their understanding and sensitivity to good and bad was a different type of good and bad. What's good beruchniyut, spiritually, and what's bad spiritually, that was considered to them good and bad. What's good or bad physically, what tastes good or what tastes bad, what feels good or what feels bad physically did not mean anything to them because they were in a completely different level, they were in a spiritual level. When they ate from the tree, which they were forbidden, that means they didn't obey, that they did a sin, there was a yeridah. They lowered their level. They descended to a lower level. And what happened? They became more megusham, they became more coarse, they became lower. Now good and bad took a different turn to them. Till then good and bad meant spiritual good and bad, and not now. Now, since they started becoming more gashmiyut, more physical, so now what physically is good is considered good to them, and what was physically bad is considered bad to them. And when it says their eyes opened up, that means in the physical world it opened up, but in truth really it closed. What they, the level they had before left them and now they became in a lower level, and therefore they started feeling different things. They started feeling physical good and physical bad, and they started, it meant something to them. And that's why the first thing that they did was to cover themselves Why? So the Rambam says because those parts of the body that bring the person the most physical good feeling, the physical pleasure, those parts reminded אדם and חוה of the חטא עץ הדעת. Because the whole the result of the a sin of the חטא עץ הדעת was that now they started feeling physical good, so anytime they felt something good physically, this reminded them, \"Oy, how did I get to this? Because I did an aveirah.\" And therefore, any part of the body that has a connection to any physical type of good feeling, of pleasure, this became a something that has to be covered because it reminds them of the חטא עץ הדעת, of the sin. And this is the beginning of where the concept of clothes came from, and this is connected with the laws of tzniut. This is the source of the laws of tzniut, that not covering a place which is connected to physical pleasure that came as a result of the חטא עץ הדעת is a reminder of the חטא עץ הדעת, of that sin, and therefore it has to be covered. So this is the general the general beginning of where clothes came from. But let's get more to understand what is the deeper meaning in clothes, and why there are certain halachot concerning clothes, which clothes you could wear, which you can't, whether it is because of tzniut, or whether it is because of shaatnez, or whether it is because Shabbos you have to wear better clothes, or whether it is because of the clothes of the כהן גדול or the clothes of the כהנים, but there is a halachah and there are halachot concerning clothes. So let's get to what the real meaning of clothes is according to the way we find in sefarim.

There is a pasuk in Iyov that says, \"עור ובשר תלבישני ועצמות וגידים תשוככני,\" what mean which means the skin and the flesh dress me, and the bones cover me. What the pasuk is really saying is that the skin and the flesh of a person is like a garment to the person himself, it's like clothes to the person himself. What does that mean, who is the person himself if this is the clothes too? We always would imagine the person, that's the body, and here we say that the body, the עור ובשר, the flesh and the skin, תלבישני, they dress me. Who am I that this dresses? So obviously, it's the neshamah. The true being of a person, and we're talking about a Yid, is his neshamah. The body is like a garment to the neshamah. We don't actually feel it. The way we feel, we are the body. Even the tefillot were set up in such a way to show that the body is me. We wake up in the morning and we say we thank השם, מודה אני לפניך מלך חי וקיים, thank השם, שהחזרת בי נשמתי, that you made the neshamah return to me. So who am I? I'm the body. So we feel that the body is who I am. Or we say later on, אלקי נשמה שנתת בי, the neshamah you gave to me. So who am I? I am the body and the neshamah was put into me. But that's only the way we feel it. In truth, it is not so. In truth, a Yid is the neshamah, and the body is the levush, the garment to the neshamah. Great tzadikim feel it. That's why it says in Gemara that Hillel, Hillel Hazaken, the great tzadik Hillel, when he used to go to eat, he would say, \"Let me go feed my body.\" He felt that he is the neshamah. I am going to feed my body. And that's how really it is by every Yid, not just that you know most Yidden don't feel it, but this is the truth. So the body is the levush, is the clothing, the garment to the neshamah. We know that neshamah itself, it says חמשה שמות נקראו לה. She, meaning the neshamah, has five names, which actually means five levels: נפש, רוח, נשמה, חיה, and יחידה. There are five levels of the neshamah. Now it says that these five levels are also the same. Each one is like a levush, like a garment to the next level. So the body is the garment to the first level of the neshamah which is called נפש, נפש is the levush to רוח, רוח is a levush to נשמה, נשמה a levush, a garment to חיה, חיה is a garment to יחידה. And יחידה, that is known always as the essence of the neshamah. That's why it's called יחידה. יחידה comes from the word יחיד, means single. This is connected to the יחיד, to the single one, which is Hashem. In truth, there is even a higher level in the נשמה beyond these five levels, which many people don't even know, people don't realize that. Because when we look at the expression in the Midrash where it mentions these five levels, it says חמישה שמות נקראו לה. She is called with five names. So there is a she, there is an it, which the five names are applied to. So there is a level even higher than the five. Now, we said that the highest level of the five is יחידה, so there must be a level even higher than יחידה. And that is true. It says in Kabbalah that there is ניצוץ קטן אחד בורא, there is one spark of the Creator, which is מתלבש, and it uses the same word לבוש, is מתלבש, it gets dressed into the small spark, the highest level of spark of the creature, of the creation, which is the יחידה. And the יחידה is dressed into the חיה, and חיה into the נשמה, נשמה into רוח, רוח into נפש. So we have one לבוש on top of the other לבוש. So we have the ניצוץ, the spark of Hashem Himself, put into the יחידה, and then we go on and on till we have the level called נפש. The נפש, which is the lowest level of the נשמה, is dressed into the body, so the body is the לבוש, the garment over the נפש. And then the physical garment are the garment over the body. They're all garments. The lowest level of garment, we actually see it as a garment, but in truth, one is a garment over the other. So really, if we start thinking about what clothing means, clothing is really a continuation of the different levels starting all the way from the highest level of the ניצוץ בורא, and one is a garment over the other, part of the other, and next. Finally, the lowest level of garment is the physical garment, it's a garment over the body. Now, what it means is, let's start talking about the נשמה. We said that the נפש is the garment, the body is the garment over the נפש, the נפש a garment over the רוח, the רוח over the נשמה, etc. We learn in Chassidus, in Tanya, that there are three לבושים, there are three parts, three attributes a human being has, a Yid has, which are called the three garments: מחשבה, דיבור, ומעשה, thought, speech, and action. And these are called garments. Why are they called garments? Because they are not the person himself. They are just the way the person expresses himself. What is a garment, a physical garment? A physical garment is not the person himself. You put on a garment. You could change it. On one hand, you express yourself through the garment. You could tell what type of person it is through the way the person dresses, you can. But it's still not the person himself. The best proof is if a person wants, he could disguise himself and put on himself a garment that doesn't fit to what type of person he is, and he's could do it. And you could make a mistake, you could think he is a big professor, when really he's nothing, he dressed himself up. On the other hand, generally, a garment is something that expresses the person. That's why the Gemara says רבי יוחנן קרי למאני מכבדותא. Rabbi Yochanan used to call garments kavod. That gives the person respect. You can respect a person according, the level of respect you give a person is according to the garments. That's why רבי יוחנן used to call מאני מכבדותא, כבוד. Now, here מאני doesn't mean money. Some people call money כבוד, but this is not what this is. מאני means in Aramaic garment. So when we talk about the garments of the נפש, so we say there are three parts: מחשבה, דיבור ומעשה, thought, speech, and action. They are garments because that's not the person. A person could put himself in, dress himself up, and undress himself. A person could think things which he really doesn't hold by. A person could say things which really is not him. He could say things which he knows are not true. He could say things which he knows are not going to be accepted, things that don't make sense. He could say things that he doesn't hold by, it's not him. Certainly, he could do things, and he could even think things, but it's nevertheless a way a person expresses himself. The person expresses his מידות, his emotions, through thought, speech, and action. So they are the garments to his emotions and also to his שכל. But sometimes it says that they, these are the garments to his emotions, the emotions are the garment to the שכל, and it says it splits to the levels of the נפש, because מחשבה, דיבור ומעשה, thought, speech, and action are are always considered נפש, מדות, the emotions, are considered רוח, שכל, the intellect of the person, is considered נשמה, and even the שכל and the מדות are also considered garments to the level beyond it. As in the מאמר that we learned this Shabbos in the morning, חסידות we learned that he says that שכל and מדות, the שכל of the person and the emotion of the person are only garments to the higher level of the נפש. And he asks, this is in Torah Or, in Parshas Vayeira, he asks, \"But doesn't it say in Tanya that מחשבה, דיבור, ומעשה, thought, speech, and speech, and action, those are the garments of the נפש? But the שכל and the מדות, those are the נפש itself.\" So he explains, compared to speech, thought, and action, these are the נפש, but compared to the higher level, they are also only garments. The נפש itself, the soul itself is a higher level. How does the נפש express itself? It's through שכל and מדות. How do the שכל and מדות express themselves? Through the מחשבה, דיבור, ומעשה, through this thought, speech, and action. And when we speak about expressing itself, it means that the higher level, in order to come out into the open and to be revealed, it is too concentrated, too strong, and you have to have a lower level, which is like a garment, and through that it can reveal itself. Because when we talk about revealing through a garment, what it means is it does two opposites. On one hand, a garment covers up. The clothes cover up on the person. You can't see the person. It covers the person. On the other hand, it reveals the person. It brings out and enhances the person. It makes the person able to express itself. The same is with the garments of the thought, speech, and action, the garments of שכל and מדות, what it means is there is a level in the נשמה that is too strong to reveal itself. So, therefore, it has to be covered, concealed, and therefore, it's not so strong because now the light is not so strong, and what happens is now it's able to be revealed. So it does a double job, which really go together. It covers, blocks out the light, and reveals the light of what it is. And that's how it works. So, not to go deeper into the נשמה, which are much more delicate ענינים, but even looking at it from מחשבה, דיבור, ומעשה and then שכל and מדות, which are garments to the higher level. So basically what I'm saying is that you have the highest level of the neshama, which is the part of Hashem which is in the neshama. There is a garment on that, which means there is a level called יחידה, which blocks out that light because the light is too strong and allows a little bit to pass and reveal itself in the next level. But that's still too strong, so then you have חיה, which is a לבוש to יחידה. And then you have neshama, a לבוש, a garment to חיה. And then רוח, a garment to neshama. And נפש, a garment to the רוח. And then, through the נפש, you have the body, which is a garment to the lowest level of the neshama, which is נפש. And then you go a step further: then the clothes that we put on on the body, that's another level in continuation of the way the essence, עצם of the neshama expresses itself. And therefore, I'm trying to bring out here that how important the concept of garments is, that the garments are not just סתם that since it's only natural that people are embarrassed and people can't walk around uncovered, so you have to be covered. The garments, the way Hashem put it, is in such a way that it has to, that's the next step of how eventually, looking back, it is the continuation of the revelation of the עצם of the neshama. And that is the reason we find that Adam Harishon before he sinned did not need clothes. Because he didn't need that last level. See, we need that last level because it's still too strong. Even the way the neshama comes into the body, it's still too strong. We have to cover it up in order to make that revelation continue. Adam Harishon didn't need that. Adam Harishon was spiritually very, very high level. Adam Harishon was the only human being that was created by the hands of Hashem. It's called יציר כפיו של הקדוש ברוך הוא, the creation of Hashem's hands. Adam Harishon lived in Gan Eden. The way Gan Eden was at that time before the sin was the highest level of אלוקות, and he lived there, that was his place. Adam Harishon, the word אדם is made up of the same letters as the word מאד. מאד means very, very without a limit. That means בלי גבול. He had unlimited, infinite amount of godliness within him. It says in the Midrash an interesting expression when we talk about Adam Harishon, it says, עקבו של אדם הראשון מכהה גלגל חמה. The heel of Adam Harishon shined so strong that it darkened the shine of the sun. The shine, the light of the sun compared to Adam Harishon's light was considered dark, even not the light of his face, light of his heel. What does that mean? When we ever think of the, of light, we always think as the strongest type of light is the sun. It's trying to say here that Adam Harishon had within him light, and when we say here light, spiritual light, higher than any imaginary light that we could imagine. And we use the expression the sun. Even in Kabbalah, Chassidut we learn that the sun is a remez, a hint to to Hashem. There's a פסוק, כי שמש ומגן הויה אלוקים, that Havayah, Shem Havayah, the name of Hashem, Havayah, is called shemesh, called the sun. Adam HaRishon's light, the light that he had, the level of Godliness he had in him, was higher even to a certain degree from the name Havayah. Not chas v'shalom saying higher than Hashem, but then what the name Havayah represents. That's how Adam HaRishon was, and Chavah was together with him. It says in the Gemara that Adam HaRishon, Midrash, a Midrash, that Adam HaRishon was so tall from the ground till רקיע, מן הארץ עד לרקיע, till the heaven. What that means is he was a heavenly person. That means he had Godliness within him. So Adam HaRishon being in such a high level did not need the lowest level of garments which blocks out, which causes to block out the last part, the last stage of the light that shines from the neshamah, he didn't need it. He could take the light of the neshamah the way it is without having it blocked out. After the chet, after he sinned and his spiritual level lowered, and as the Midrash says the לשון, after his sin, Hashem put his hand on him and lowered him. Till then he was still till רקיע, till the heaven. Hashem lowered him, and now he only became a 100 amah tall. 100 amah, well, depends how much an amah, different opinions. Some say an amah is two feet, some say it's a foot and a half. So whether he was 150 ft tall or 200 ft tall, but compared to the way he was before, which he was still at רקיע, till the heaven, is very short. What that means is now his spiritual level lowered. And now he was closer to the ground, which means he became more a physical, more physical. Like we said before in the beginning, when he sinned with עץ הדעת, before his whole attitude, his whole outlook was nothing but spiritual. He didn't know what it means good and bad, physical good, physical pleasure, physical pain. Then he became lower, to a lower level. So therefore, now, since he wasn't in the same level as before, he needed clothes. He needed clothes because now you have, he had to go another stage of taking the light of the neshamah, which continues from one level of garment to another level of garment to another, he needed now another level of garment because the light of the neshamah was too strong for him. Before it wasn't too strong for him, now it became too strong and he needed that garment now to be able to block out the light again, and that's the only way it could be revealed. The truth is, we still say he remained in a very, very high level, not compared to level before, but saying that he was a 100 amah tall, whether it means physical or not, that's not going into that, but it definitely means spiritual. We are not a 100 amah. A person usually is if you four amot tall, three and a half amot tall, so he still was in a much higher spiritual level than we are now. Therefore, even though he did start needing clothes, his clothes were in a much higher level. His clothes were made by Hashem himself. You just read the pasuk that Hashem made for Adam and his wife garments of skin. Imagine garments made by Hashem are not that low and that coarse as the garments we have. So therefore, as much as it was another level of garments in addition to his body, in addition to the nefesh, ruach, whatever it is, those garments were still on a much higher level because he was still on a higher level. It says in the Gemara that Rabbi' Meir, the famous tana, Rabbi' Meir, in his Sefer Torah, this pasuk where it says Hashem made for אדם and his wife כתנות עור, which means garments of skin, in Hebrew עור, skin, is עין, ואו, ריש. The word light is also אור, but not עין, ואו, ריש, but אלף, ואו, ריש. In the Sefer Torah of ר' Meir, this pasuk, it said כתנות אור with an אלף, that even the skin of the garments of אדם הראשון were light. What does that mean? That his level of garment is much higher level. It says in the Midrash that the garments that Hashem made for אדם הראשון and חוה were similar to the garments of the Kohen Gadol. of the Kohen Gadol, special garments. And by the Kohen it says that the garments of the Kohen was לכבוד ולתפארת, for kavod, for honor, and beauty. And it doesn't mean only for physical honor and beauty because they looked physically nice. There was a lot of spiritual meaning in the way the garments of the Kohen Gadol were made. And those were the garments of אדם הראשון. That means that even though Hashem, he had to put on clothes because now he's in a lower level, nevertheless the clothes had a lot of spirituality in it. So even that lowest level of garment, which is the next step of the shining of the neshamah, was also in a much higher level than we are. But what it does tell us is that the concept of garments that we have is a spiritual thing which continues the revelation of the other levels of the neshamah. And therefore, the Kohen Gadol taka had special garments. The Kohen Gadol was the most spiritual person in his generation. He was the holiest man. And therefore his garments were much more spiritual than others. And the way it was made was made in a spiritual, cuz he was a more spiritual person. And it says that in truth every Yid could make his garments into spiritual garments, that they should have spiritual, as long as they fit the halachah. This is basically the reason why there are halachot concerning garments.

And people ask, why should there be halachot concerning clothes? Because the clothes have to have spirituality in it in order to continue the level of the revelation of the neshamah, so it has to have guidelines, spiritual guidelines given by Hashem. And that's why it has to be without shaatnez, because for some reason, if you mix the two, this blocks out, doesn't allow the shine of the neshamah to shine through the clothes. Now exactly why we don't know, as we said before, shaatnez is a chukah, but we know that there has to be laws. Just like when we talk about food that we eat, we have to have laws, which is kasher, which is not, because the food that comes into us is not only for our body, it's for our neshamah. Our neshamah feeds on the physical food. So you have physical ingredients, and you have in the food things which make the food dangerous or make the food healthy. The same spiritually, since it's for the neshamah too, you have things which make this true the the food healthy for the neshamah, and you have things that make the food dangerous for the neshamah. And the same thing in the clothes. Certain things are dangerous for the gilui or the light of the neshamah, and certain things are not. So shaatnez, for instance, is dangerous, and therefore the כלאי of shaatnez. If you wear clothes which are not צניעות'דיק, then it's dangerous for the neshamah. In addition to the simple reason for it, that if you wear clothes that are not צניעות'דיק, what it'll bring about, is that it'll bring people to do things or to think things which are against the Torah, automatically you are not allowing the light of the neshamah to shine. Cuz the light in the neshamah cannot shine when there is something against Hashem standing in the way. So if the clothes are made in a way that cause people, themselves or other people, to to think or to do things which are wrong, then that itself is a blockage for the light of the neshamah that's supposed to come through the clothes. That's why you have to wear clothes with צניעות. This is the reason why we have such a thing as Shabbos clothes. One might ask, why is it so important on Shabbos to wear special clothes, different clothes? And it's part of the mitzvah. It says you have to give שבת כבוד and oneg, pleasure and kavod and honor. So pleasure usually is translated into food, good food, you have to taste good food, and kavod would be nice, clean clothes, nice clothes. Why nice clothes on Shabbos? Because if you're putting on special clothes specifically for Shabbos, it brings a spirituality in the clothes, because the clothes is made for a mitzvah. That's why by many other chasidim, by Lubavitch we don't stress it so much because Lubavitch generally we look more into the פנימיות, and not, let's say, not the superficial things, maybe I'll touch upon it in a moment, but by other chasidim we see that the Shabbos clothes is so important. They have special clothes with the שטריימל, and with the the קאפאטעס, and it's special. We don't have that minhag, but not chas veshalom that we laugh at it or we say there's something wrong with it. There is such a thing as having specific special clothes that when you look at it, you see Shabbos. And that's what it is. If you see a ייד wearing a שטריימל, you know it's Shabbos, or a special other spiritual occasion. Okay, we don't have that custom, so we have other customs. But Chabad Lubavitch, if we do want to stress things, we stress more the inner things, the מדות, and everything, not so much the clothes. But we're not knocking it. There is something special in the clothes. But the negative part certainly which is not allowed, that certainly we have to stress. Because if the clothes is negative to the will of Hashem, it doesn't accomplish its purpose which it was made for, which was made for another level of how the neshamah should shine. When we talk about shaatnez, I just want to mention that there is an explanation in chasidut to what is the reason we cannot wear shaatnez. שעטנז is made of wool and linen. Linen grows, and wool is taken from an animal. An animal is in the category of חי, we know there are four categories in the world, דומם, צומח, חי, מדבר: the unmovable objects, the plant life, the animal life, and the human being. Wool is taken from an animal, from from חי. Linen is taken from grows, a צומח. We know that inside, in the person, in every person, we also have things which are parallel to these four. The מדות of the person, it says, the emotions of the person are like צומח, because it grows. The מדות of the person, when a person gets older, his מדות could grow, and מדות usually grow. A person has an emotion, a feeling, it grows. So that's the צומח of the person. The שכל of the person is called חי. חסידות, קבלה explains that שכל is parallel to חי. Usually, we want to mix the two, חי, a שכל and מדות should be mixed. It says that it should be התכללות, the שכל should control the מדות, you should feel in your emotions what your שכל understands, and then in your שכל you should want to come up with good מדות, so the מדות and שכל fit. But that's only when you have it in you. When you put it on as clothes, which means it's מקיף, it surrounds the person, that's a רמז, a hint to a person being involved in it completely. So there it says if a person is involved in a certain type of service of Hashem, you shouldn't mix two. If you mix two, that means you don't have either one. And therefore, to put on a garment which is a mixture of צומח and חי, which means a mixture of שכל and מדות, that doesn't fit, because if you're in it, you have to be in anything that you're in, you have to be in completely. Anyway, whether understood or not, that's a different, I'm just trying to bring out that state. So this is basically, then going back to the point, the idea of the the the garments. We find another thing. It says that mitzvot are called garments. Actually, it's in the Zohar in this week's parsha. In this week's parsha it says, ואברהם זקן בא בימים, אברהם was old, he came in the days. So the Zohar says, what does it mean he came in the days? So it says he had complete days. Every day was full of mitzvot, so he had his complete לבושים, his complete garments. So it refers to mitzvot as garments, for the same reason. Because garments are something that we use to express itself, to do something that we want to reveal. A ייד'ס נשמה can be revealed and expressed only through mitzvot. So the mitzvot are called garments. Which garments of the person do we use to fulfill, to keep the mitzvot which are the garments? מחשבה, דבור, ומעשה. Thought, speech, and action, those are the way that's the way we do mitzvot. Most of the mitzvot are done with action, some of them with speech, and some of them we even have to have kavanah. These mitzvot, which are done with מחשבה, דבור, ומעשה, only could be done through the body. Through the body, which is the לבוש to the מחשבה, דבור, ומעשה. So, again, it's done. And then these mitzvot can done can be done if we wear the proper clothes, it expresses the mitzvot more. And then there is one more thing when we talk about clothes with mitzvot. We have a garment, the actual garment which is a mitzvah, and that's the mitzvah of tzitzit, which women are exempt, but men have the mitzvah of tzitzit. Means any garment that has four corners, you must put in tzitzit. And it says that these four corners are כנגד the four corners of the world. That's why in the morning by davenen, before Kriat Shema, when we take the tzitzit in our hands, it says we should take the four corners when we mention in דאווענען, ארבע כנפות הארץ, the four corners of the world. Because it says with these four corners of the garment, we are able to control the four corners of the world. And why is it? Again, because, generally speaking, garments are the lowest level of revelation of the נשמה. Now, in the garments itself, the mitzvah the one garment which is a mitzvah, is the one that expresses the general concept of garments. So, in other words, the general revelation of the נשמה comes through the mitzvah of tzitzit. And that's why, because that expresses what garment is as a whole, and that is the level of revelation of the נשמה. So tzitzit are such an important mitzvah. That's why it says the Baal Shem Tov said that the malachim envy a yid for having mitzvot. So it says Malach Michael, the greatest malach, is jealous of a yid, and which mitzvah does Baal Shem Tov pick is he jealous of mainly? Tzitzit. And he says, Malach Michael says, he wishes he would have one tzitzit. He doesn't even hope to have four tzitzit, so much, so much mitzvot, so many, so much light of Hashem. One mitzvah, tzitzit, if he would have one corner, he would be happy. He doesn't even have that. Because the tzitzit are the revelation of the נשמה. In addition to the fact that the mitzvah of tzitzit is considered the uniform of a Jew. Just like every soldier has a uniform which shows he belongs to the army, to a certain army, a Yid belongs to the army of Hashem and the uniform shows it, which again is in connection with what I said before: the Yid is the neshamah. And the tzitzit, which is the garment, the garment which expresses the concept of all garments, is the uniform through which the neshamah, the Yid shows himself. Just like a regular uniform. A uniform means you express who you are through the uniform. A Yid is a neshamah, as we said in the beginning. You express your neshamah through the tzitzit. And then there are other things we talk about garments. If you want to talk about tefillin as a garment, even though it's not a clothes, but it's type of garment, but then there's another part of a Jewish garment, even though it's not a mitzvah, and that is a yarmulke. A yarmulke is a garment. It's the head covering, and the truth is it's not a mitzvah. There's nowhere in the Torah it says you have to cover your hair. Nevertheless, Jews accept it as a mitzvah. It starts from the Gemara where it says that covering your head gives you יראת שמים, gives you fear of God. One of the reasons is it always reminds you that there is something on top of your head. The Gemara tells a story that Rav Nachman, great Tanna Rav Nachman, when his mother was pregnant with him and she walked by stargazers, she overheard them saying to each other, \"You see this lady? The child she's carrying is going to grow up to be a גנב, a thief.\" So what she did was, from the moment he was born, she covered his head. And that kept him from stealing. And Rav Nachman said once that, \"Once by mistake my head covering fell off, and I had the urge to steal.\" So this is what the yarmulke is. That's why it's called, that's what they say, I don't know if it's true, they say that's why it's called yarmulke. What does yarmulke mean? It's made out of two words, which again maybe this is not the real peshat, but that's what they say: ירא מלכא. מלכא means the King. ירא means fear, fear of the King. This is something that brings a Yid fear of the King. Now, I said there is no specific mitzvah, but nevertheless nowadays, the Alter Rebbe says in Shulchan Aruch, it is an obligation of the Torah, not of the דרבנן, to wear a yarmulke. And he says why? Because there is a דין ובחוקותיהם לא תלכו, there's a לאו, a negative commandment in the Torah, that we are not allowed to follow the laws of the goyim. Anything that became Jewish, and goyim don't have it, there is an obligation on us from that pasuk of the Torah to wear it. Now that a yarmulke became a Jewish garment, we are mechuyav, we are obligated from a pasuk of the Torah to wear a yarmulke. And it's interesting that the yarmulke really is the sign of a Yid, more than tzitzit. If you see someone doesn't wear tzitzit, that's, good, so you would say, so he's not that frum. But if you see a guy walk without a yarmulke, then this is it. I say tzitzit is a mitzvah, yarmulke seems like it's only a minhag. Why is yarmulke show more that he is not really doing what he's supposed to, more than not wearing tzitzit? That's how it became. The yarmulke is the signature of the Yid. And it's a garment, and it all fits to the same thing, that garments really are the way you express your neshama. But there are specific garments who became that way. Tzitzit are from the Torah like that, the yarmulke became, but these are garments that express the neshama. And even though by women they don't have this, but they have the other concept in clothes which also expresses the neshama, which is tzniut, which even though, like I said, men also have a din of tzniut, what they could wear, what they can't, but a woman, the main mitzvah of tzniut by women. And that shows also, if you see a woman dressed tzniyusdik, it's a stamp or a signature, this is a Jewish woman. And this means that this expresses that this person is Jewish, which is neshama. What's Jewish? It's neshama, because the clothes are the expression of the neshama. When Mashiach will come, we will be in a very high level. It doesn't say anywhere that we won't need clothes anymore like Adam HaRishon before the chet, but definitely the garments will be such spiritual garments that the neshama will shine through. It'll be like the garments of Adam HaRishon, which was made by Hashem Himself. See, according to the Rambam, the special highest level will be we won't even have a body, because he feels that that level of garment won't even be needed either, be only neshama. We pasken that there will be a body, and it seems like there also will be clothes, but their level itself will be so high that they will be like by Adam HaRishon, אור with an alef, that they will be garment that will shine, the garments of kedushah. And the truth, now also, a Yid who wears garments the way the Eibershter, Hashem wants, these garments shine with kedushah. We don't see it, But a person, a tzadik who has eyes who could see, would see kedushah, godliness, holy light coming not only from the ייד נשמה or from the Yid's body, but from the Yid's clothes, because the clothes are also holy. Yes.

You're not asking why black and white, but just the concept of Oh, you're asking I should explain? Please. Well, why black, it says in Shulchan Aruch that black is a color of humility. Even lehavdil by the goyim, certain times they wear black, like at the time of a funeral, which is actually not our custom, there's no such thing as putting on black because of a funeral, but it just shows that a time when you're serious you wear you wear black. So, black is, it says, a a symbol of anivut, of humility, and therefore by Yidden, who are always anivut, they don't have this this gaavah, so a Yid should always wear black, it says, that's where the black comes from. And white, well obviously white is is colorless, so white definitely has a shaychut, connection. It says that the essential color is always white. So, that shows purity. And therefore we wear white, it says when Hashem would want to show that he forgave for the sins, we change the red string into white. White shows cleanliness, purity, and a Yid always has to be pure, and therefore is the white. But mainly the black is for that reason. It's hard to know, it's hard to know how long, how back. Where? Oh sure, sure, sure. Yeah, yeah. You know exactly I don't know exactly how how far back. But the length of the clothes, not only talking about the women, but the men, the length of the clothes of the men is also a siman, because the longer it is, you know, it covers more of the person and shows more more kedushah, that's why it is, you know. Yes. Yeah, but there's nothing specifically about an even though way. So, all chasidim wear right on left, just the shirts we don't, but there are some chasidim who wear even the shirts that way. That doesn't matter, we're talking about types of clothes. Like the best example is pants. Women cannot wear pants, not only because of of of tzniut reasons, because you can't put on men's clothes. But here by pants, for instance, if you want to get into the subject of women wearing pants, which is a subject in itself, but just I'll just mention it, there are two reasons why they shouldn't wear pants. Number one, it's a man's garment. So, even if you would have the the covering the whole foot, so you have every part of your body covered, but it's a man's clothes. But some come and say there are special types of pants made for women. So, that became the woman's clothes. Now that could be very true, but then you have the other reason of tzniut. Now that would be if the pants are short, what about if the pants are long? There's still a problem of tzniut, because there is an halachah that says, this is a clear halachah, that פיסוק רגליים באשה ערוה. To see the separation of the feet by a woman is forbidden. Not to see the feet, to see the outline of the the separation of the feet is forbidden. And therefore wearing pants is forbidden for that reason. So, no matter which whichever way you look at it, a woman is not allowed to wear pants. So, it's tzniut reasons and לא תלבש. Huh? The Gemara. The Gemara says that a woman is not allowed to פיסוק רגליים באשה, that's the expression. And that's why she can't wear pants. But then there are other things which are tzniut'dik, but if they're specifically men's garments, then a woman can't wear it. Then we know if we want to talk about clothes and these things, there's some people who, you know, talk about styles. If that's So if it's a goyishe thing, then there's a question of בחוקותיהם לא תלכו. If it's not goyish, then just nice, then there's no no place it says that a person can't wear nice clothes. Now, what is considered tzniut'dik and not, so that's, you know, a הלכה שיעור in itself, and there are sefarim that deal with it, and it is worthwhile to learn these halachot and look through this because it's important to know what's called tzniut'dik and what's not, but that's a different story. We're not going into the halachot of what's called tzniut'dik or not. But definitely it's important clothes, even though it's superficial and it really sounds like not so important, it is very, very important. Like we said, the neshamah shines through the clothes. It's a mashal, too, to to mitzvot, it's a mashal to all the levels of the neshamah. So, it's very important. Yes. A yarmulke It should cover most of your head, more than 50% of your head. In other words the, as they used to call it years ago, the Pepsi-Cola yarmulkes, used to some people have a yarmulke this big, they used to call it a Pepsi-Cola cap, like the bottles, Pepsi-Cola having tiny and they used to some people wear them. That's not good, you have to have a yarmulke which covers at least 51% of your head. Now, when that started exactly, everyone started wearing yarmulkes, it's not clear. Definitely hundreds and hundreds of years ago. The Taz already, right, the Taz who lived 400 years ago writes that from the Torah, now we are obligated mi-de'oraita to wear a yarmulke because it became a Jewish custom. So, in his time already it was a custom of hundreds of years. So, I don't know exactly how far goes it back, how far back it goes, but definitely now it's definitely something that is an obligation, a דאורייתא'דיקע obligation upon every Jew to wear a yarmulke. It has to cover the majority of the head, 51% of the head. Guy has a tiny head, then you can wear a smaller yarmulke. Why don't women have to? Why don't they have to wear tzitzit? And why don't they have to wear tefillin? Oh, you mean you know the הלכה'דיקע reason, that's not what you meant now. This custom didn't start by women, therefore it didn't Well, why it didn't start? Probably because they cover their hair anyway. Only thing is girls that aren't married don't cover, but most of the women who are married cover, so they never got to this idea of having to cover their head because it's covered anyway. But this the the deeper reason probably would be, and I didn't see it anywhere, but I imagine, the whole idea of the yarmulke is to bring yirat Shamayim to the person. The women have yirat Shamayim more than the men. That is true. The women have more emunah in them more than the men, and therefore they don't need this reinforcement, so to speak. They have it. Remember once, I repeated this many times, there was a group of from the administration of Beis Yaakov in New York came to the Rebbe for יחידות asking advice in certain areas of education. So, one of the questions they asked the Rebbe: if they have a choice of having a man teacher for the girls, or a women teacher, which one should they choose? So, the Rebbe said they should choose a woman teacher. He didn't say because of tzniut, it's not tzniut a man should teach, that's not what he said. He said because they will instill more emunah in the children than the men. In other words, I'm adding my own, had it been possible, probably it would be good that the women should teach the boys, too. But since you can't, because we can't have a women a woman teaching boys, that's why you have men. But as far as emunah is concerned, they have more. So, probably that is the reason why ס'האט זיך געפירט, Hashem made it so that they never accepted this custom of wearing a yarmulke. But anyway, they cover their hair, so most of the women who are married cover, so automatically they're all under that category anyway. 2 seconds, want to get back