Your Suit Of Armor

There's a famous quote out there, I believe it goes something like this. You are what you wear, or the clothing makes the man. At first glance I thought that these were probably not Jewish concepts and definitely not Jewish ideas. After all, our clothes are not part of us, and definitely not part of our Neshama. But then I found Rashi in Parshas Tetzaveh that Reb Yerucham Levovitz shows us that I was thinking about it completely wrong. "V'atah hakrayv eilecha es Aron achicha v'es banecha ito mitoch Bnai Yisroel  l'chahano li." The beginning of Parshas Tetzaveh the commandment of the Cohanim to be wearing priestly vestments. The Torah says "L'chahano li", you shall wear these clothes to become a priest. Rashi picks up on why do you become a priest based on the clothes that you wear? And Rashi exposes to us, quote, "L'kadsho l'hachniso b'cehuna"   wearing these things wearing these vestments would enter you into preisthood. "Al yidei habegadim" through the clothes, "Sheyihiyeh cohen li". It's clear from Rashi in the Torah that your clothes are not just a shell on you. In fact, the famous story is told of the Alter of Slabodka that he would not allow a yeshiva bocher into his Yeshiva if his jacket was missing a button. He also would comment that a wrinkled jacket shows a wrinkled mind. Our clothes are something much larger than just an outer skin. Aron Hacohen became the Cohen Gadol through the clothes that he wore. Every day when you get dressed what are you getting dressed to accomplish?