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(perhaps because Nadav and Avihu later died for offering “strange finite reality. This phenomenon is alluded to by God’s name, Elokim,
fire” on the Tabernacle altar), thus they cast the incident in a more having the same numerical value as the all-inclusive Hebrew word
negative light. for nature (hateva). All further manifestations of enclothment, in a
Our explanation of this incident is a beautiful example of how even sense, follow from this Divine archetypal paradigm.
establishing the peshat, the straightforward story line, many times Each morning before prayers when a Jewish man wraps himself
involves understanding the context and sense of the text on a much in his tallit (prayer shawl), he recites the first two verses of Psalm
deeper level than a cursory superficial reading. All the various levels 104: “Bless God, O my soul. God, my God, You are very great. You
of PaRDeS are ultimately dependent one upon the other, creating a have dressed Yourself in majesty and splendor, cloaked in light as 9
complex tapestry of profound meaning where the peshat, the simple with a garment, stretching out the heavens like a curtain.” These
reading of the text, is not really so simple at all. inspiring poetic words describe the fundamental reality of God being
enclothed in His creation.
Paralleling God’s enclothment in the world, the soul descends
from its heavenly abode and dwells in the human body. This reality
is fundamental to the notion that human beings are created “in the
image of God.” According to Chassidic teaching, the soul is “an actual
part of God Above”; thus, its enclothment in a body mirrors the very
dynamic by which God enclothes Himself in creation. Taking this
one step further, since God, Himself, is enclothed in the soul, by
extension He is, in some sense, enclothed within the human body.
The concept of enclothment in fact manifests itself on literally
every level of existence. For example, modern science has revealed
that all matter enclothes energy. A world of frenetic energy and
movement exists unseen just below the surface of all matter. Indeed,
every few years scientists seem to discover increasingly smaller and
more complex components of reality, each containing ever-smaller
particles of energy.
Judaism has always posited that physical reality enclothes a
much deeper spiritual essence. One of the purposes of the mitzvot
is to engage an individual in the ongoing process of uplifting and
transforming physical objects, deeds, and speech into their spiritual
essences. Each mitzvah is an opportunity to extract from physical
reality the pure, holy spark of enclothed Divinity and animate it.
Thus, the relationship of the physical to the spiritual parallels that
of matter to energy.
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