Rabbinics of Clothing A couple of Orthodox rabbis discuss the Jewish notions of sartorial selection R abbi Mordechai Torczyner , who spent the past 14 years in Toronto, recently somebody is able to be in and out. I think of clothing much more as what
somebody puts on to convey a message. And the message can be one of affiliation. Or it can just as easily be something that some- body puts on in order to convey disinforma- tion. Do you know what I’m saying? Finegold: You’re speaking about camou- flage, right? Is clothing a camouflage or is clothing an identity? Torczyner: My thinking on this is shaped by the fact that for much of our history, it hasn’t been an advantage to convey Jewish identity. We tell a convert to Judaism that this isn’t a fun group to be joining. There are a lot of challenges there. A person who dressed Jewishly was not generally doing so in order to receive social advantage. Finegold: Nowadays, there’s a social ad- vantage to being able to go back and forth. If I’m visiting Toronto, I can make a choice to put on a knitted kippah and fit into the crowd at [modern Orthodox synagogue] Shaarei Shomayim. And I can take that off and put on a velvet yarmulke and go to [more traditional- ly Orthodox] Shomrei Shabbos and feel like I’m more on the inside over there. And that clothing enables you sometimes to identify with the in-group. My first year in Toronto in 2009, I delivered a series of classes called “Tzibburology,” It was the study of what it takes to create Jew- ish community and the functioning of Jewish community. And part of it was sparked by the
recorded a series of lectures dedicated to fashion topics like the history of Jews in the garment business, the concept of having a specific synagogue wardrobe, and how clothes create a mood. Rabbi Avi Finegold , host of the Bonjour Chai podcast for The CJN, has significant style-related opinions of his own. And so, they got together to contemplate the concept of Jewish fashion sense. Listen to more of their conversation along with links to Rabbi Torczyner’s entire seven-part “Jews and Clothes” seminar at thecjn.ca/fashion Finegold: Despite the doom and gloom about assimilation, we’re probably living in one of the least assimilated periods of all time. The ability to have loose ties with the Jewish community exists: you can go to shul if you want and then leave and go live your life—however you want. This idea has only existed for the past century or so, and I think clothing enables it, because we’re not forced to have a Jewish wardrobe. What happens when you’re no longer forced to wear specific clothing? Torczyner: The historical contention that this is new in our time is interesting, but I feel like there is a phenomenon like that in Roman times, when you had that option of being out and yet in. I wonder whether that’s some- thing one would do for oneself, or the people around you. In other words, you’re not fooling anybody by adopting the clothing. You’re talking about a world where, as you said,
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