It is all in the details
Sermon, February 18, 2005
Rabbi Bruce Kadden

If you are a details person, you will love this week’s Torah portion.  It is full of details:  each of the garments of Aaron, the high priest, is described in precise detail.  We learn about the ephod, an apron-like garment that is made of gold, blue, purple and crimson year and fine twisted linen in an intricate design.  We learn about the breastplate also made of these yarns and linen containing four rows of three stones each engraved with the names of the sons of Israel.  We learn about the robe with its fringe of golden bells and pomegranates, the headdress, the fringed tunic and sash, each in detail.

Most readers quickly get lost in the details and can’t help but wonder why the text spends so much time describing these garments.  And these are not the only things described in such detail.  In a couple of weeks we will begin reading about the Tabernacle, the portable sanctuary that accompanied the people in the wilderness, and about all of the objects that it contained.  Once again the detail is overwhelming.

Why is it that with regard to the garments of the High Priest and the Tabernacle the Torah is so concerned about the details?  Why is it so important that they be made in a precise way?

These items are among the holiest items of the people.  When it comes to such items, precision and detail are important.  Today, the holiest Jewish item is our sefer Torah, our Torah scroll.  There are very specific guidelines for the writing of a Torah, from the materials used to the spacing of the words.  While there can be a variation in the shape of the letters or the size of the parchment, for the most part there is a standard approach to the text.

The rabbis instituted these guidelines in order to assure that the texts were written properly and precisely.  They wanted to preserve the tradition and avoid any tendency for excessive innovation or accommodation of contemporary style.

My Hebrew word processor, for example, has 28 different fonts.  Can you imagine a contemporary sofer having a choice of which font to use?  A sofer does have freedom to be creative when it comes to a ketubah, a Jewish marriage contract, not only in the text, but in the illumination.  But when it comes to a klaf for a mezuzah or for tefillin or for a Torah scroll itself, the calligraphy must be precisely as tradition requires. 

Judaism is very good at marking a havdalah, at making distinctions, in this case between the holy and the ordinary.  Those items that were considered holy, which contained the text of scripture, were to be written according to precise guidelines; other documents could be written much more creatively.

When it came to the garments of the High Priest or to the Tabernacle, these were holy items and thus needed to be made as prescribed.  Imagine what might have happened if the details were not given in the text.  A few generations down the line, a High Priest might have preferred different colors for the ephod, or a different headdress, or even different garments altogether. 

And there was always the concern that pagan designs or items would become attractive to the people and would work their way into Jewish objects.  Indeed, a number of early synagogues in Israel have floors that are mosaics of the signs of the zodiac.  Such a design might be acceptable in a synagogue, but would not be appropriate for the Tabernacle or on the back of the robe of the High Priest.  So the precise details of the Tabernacle and priestly garments prevented any inappropriate symbol from being used.          

The rabbis offered another reason for so much detail:  in order to reward the people for each and every detail that they got right.  Each time they followed the details precisely as prescribed they were in essence obeying a Divine commandment and therefore worthy of a reward.  The more details, the greater the reward. 

Furthermore, each detail provides another opportunity for interpretation, another possibility to finding hidden meaning in the text.  For example, the robe of the High Priest was made entirely of turquoise wool.   According to Rashbam, this color is reminiscent of heaven and symbolizes God’s heavenly Throne of Glory and would cause God to remember the people.  The Talmud suggests that “its color caused people to reflect on the sea that stays within its bounds and the heavenly bodies that never diverge from their assigned orbits and tasks.  Thus, we learn not to stray from our role as beings who should keep our power of speech pure and holy.

I recently read the book Eats Shoots and Leaves, by a British writer frustrated with the misuse of punctuation a grammar.  The title of the book comes from a story about a koala bear that walks into a bar, orders a meal, eats it, then pulls out a gun and fires it toward the ceiling and walks toward the door.  The bar owner confronts the bear and asks him to explain his behavior.  Look it up in the dictionary, he says.  So the bar owner looks up koala bear and finds that a koala bear eats, shoots and leaves. 

The comma changes the meaning of the sentence.  In this case, the detail is important.  Our Torah portion reminds us to pay attention to details, for they are there for a reason.  If we pay attention to the details of our lives, hopefully everything else will fall into place.

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