August 3, 2023 / 16 Menachem-Av, 5783 • Parshat Eikev
Issue 780
Dedicated in loving memory of Mrs. Miriam Friedman

Clothes that Never Wear Out

You shall observe the commandments, rules, and ordinances that I command you today. 

Deut. 7:11


We are taught that during the 40 years that the Jewish people traversed the desert, their clothes not only never wore out; they grew with them, and the Clouds of Glory cleaned them.

Allegorically, our “clothes” are our means of self-expression: thought, speech, and action.

The clothes that we weave for ourselves, by pursuing purely mundane or selfish ends wear out all too quickly and can be outgrown; the clothes we weave “under the Clouds of Glory,” i.e., by studying the Torah, praying, or performing G-d’s other commandments, never tatter, and grow with us.