The Kohen Gadol's Clothing: The Clothes Don't Make the Man

I'm sitting in a bomb shelter now like millions of others. I'm in Jerusalem, but they say the Central Region and the North have been hardest hit. It's been brief normalcy punctuated by seemingly endless visits to bomb shelters; ours is dusty and untiled, with a garbage can for a toilet. Others – in fact, most in the area, are very nicely fixed up, tiled, with bathrooms, couches, mini-kitchens and play areas; these midnight runs are not foreign to most Israelis. Most bomb shelters double as recreational areas, or venues for non-profits' day-to-day activity. Some have been converted into synagogues, even, though ours is dusty and frigid, with a built-in ventilation fan that can't be turned off. I personally used to be responsible for the shelter, my name appearing with the other key holder on the door – I have been asked to open it in the late hours of the night for fear of an imminent thank, but now, thank God, it's automated with a magnetized door and the Home Front Command opens it remotely; there's no prospect of it being closed any time soon.

It's on that backdrop that I'm sitting now to write about the High Priest, and how the priesthood, first imparted upon him and his sons, was elevated to a state of holiness enabling him to serve in the Holy Temple, our Beit Hamikdash.

Every nation, people, or country has their own services for induction or coronation, or initiation in a new role. For Aharon HaKohen it was two-fold. First, Moshe, his younger brother, needed to dress him in the priestly vestments, from breastplate with the Urim V'tumim, and its 12 perfectly aligned, gold-set gemstones, to turquoise robe and golden headplate with the inscription of God's name. The royal splendor of the High Priest was accorded by Moshe and once Aharon was fully dressed, the verse states, "And thus they shall be inaugurated as priests, an eternal duty for them, imparted by you upon Aharon and his sons."

The first step was getting dressed, the second resembled how we as the Jewish people, as a nation, became Jews. At Har Sinai, after the Jewish people said, "Na'aseh V'nishma" (We will do and then we will listen) Moshe Rabbeinu sprinkled blood from the burnt offerings and sacrificed bulls on the Jewish people to seal the covenant, and forever more, make us Jews. The priests, to become holy, went through a similar process, Moshe Rabbeinu sprinkling them with blood after he sprinkled the altar itself.

"Take some of the blood that is on the altar and some of the anointing oil and sprinkle upon Aaron and his vestments, and also upon his sons and his sons’ vestments. Thus, shall he and his vestments be holy, as well as his sons and his sons’ vestments."

The process of ordinating the Kohanim for service was a two-step process; first, Moshe Rabbeinu needed to literally dress his brother, Aharon, and only afterwards, whilst wearing appropriate attire could he be made holy.

It may seem baffling; for after all, what is a Kohen if not someone who is holy? But, it could very well be that there's a deeper message here. Similar to potential energy and kinetic energy, and very much in keeping with the famous Medrash that Eisav didn't want to be the firstborn because he didn't want to risk dying because of a blunder he might commit as a Kohen Gadol, in life we have no choice but to put our money where our mouth is. Eisav, the verse teaches us, "demeaned the firstborn right." When we have potential that we don't actualize that's exactly, Rashi teaches us in the name of Medrash, what we're doing.

Not long ago, I saw a sticker – one of thousands that have been plastered on bus stops countrywide, memorializing soldiers who fell in battle. "You didn't wake up in the morning to be mediocre," Daniel Maimon Toaff Z"L used to say.

I think that that's one of the messages of the Kohen Gadol and his induction process. To rise to the occasion, you have to actively engage this world and the potential implanted in you. The holiness might come from the outside, but what you do with it, is all about you!