Jenna Kaplan – Year 12

The following Devar Torah was written by Jenna Kaplan in Year 12. Jenna is helping to facilitate our tefillot in Year 7 for whom she wrote and delivered the following reflections on the parashah of the week.

Rabbi Daniel Siegel

This week’s parashah is Tetzaveh. This parashah describes the clothing of a specific group of people, the priests who serve the Israelite people. It then continues with God giving instructions to Moses and directing him to appoint Aaron and his sons as priests saying: “Make sacred vestments for your brother Aaron, for dignity and adornment.” This could be thought of as saying: “Make sacred special outfits for Aaron, clothing that will reflect the dignity of his position, and make them beautiful.”

This quote is still relevant, if not more relevant today, with people expressing who they are and their personality through the clothes they wear. Our clothing speaks. What we wear can shout or whisper, invite or repel – it sends a message, and is never silent. Clothing makes a statement.

Are the items you wear mass-produced or made by hand? Are the labourers who make the clothes you wear paid a fair wage? Are you intentionally or unintentionally advertising a company, brand, a designer or an attitude? Or like us, every day, are you declaring a connection to a camp, community or school?

Five days a week, we are all in our school uniform, so regardless of whether we are in class, or out on the streets, when wearing it we are declaring a connection to our Emanuel community. You all know how it works, you look at another school and regardless of your intentions you make a judgment on it largely based on their uniform and the way they wear it.

So, what message do you want to give people with the way you wear your uniform?  What we may think of as ‘high standards’, that we have as Emanuel students, are just expectations from the community that reflect our school spirit, values and morals. So, what impression do you want to give people about Emanuel and about yourselves?