Mishnah Yoma Chapter 3 Mishnah 7 Pt. 4

Over the last few sessions we have been deep in the “costume closet”, as it were, of the Kohen Gadol, the High Priest. Notably, we’ve seen mention of some very luxurious fabrics from around the world. As it turns out, not only were our queer rabbinic ancestors deep in trade business for their most sacred rituals, but they themselves were based in an ever-growing Jewish Diaspora that would end up contributing its crafts and artistry to that most sacred center, The Temple. There’s something very special about the way that these Option 3ers didn’t see a strict divide between the different countries and cultures in which they lived—everyone had a way to contribute to The Temple, to be a part of the Option 3 project.

Now you might say—isn’t this a contradiction in terms? Doesn’t the whole “Option 3” thing begin with the crash-moment of the destruction of The Temple? As Rabbi Benay, our Rosh Yeshiva always tells us—the crash doesn’t happen overnight, it begins with a crumble. Option 3 thinkers are usually the fringiest, operating in subtle ways against the normative grain of their time. I’m starting to wonder if our text today, like those we’ve been building upon over the last few days, is trying to hint at a crumble. The crumble, though, is not about the materials and the different places they come from (which could imply that Jews of this period were not solely focused on Roman-Occupied Israel / Palestine as the Jewish homeland, as we might have thought). The fact of the matter is—Jews have lived in all sorts of Diaspora communities long before the destruction of the Second Temple. And for what it’s worth, the fact that these Diaspora communities contributed so much to the clothing of the Kohanim in the Temple might also be evidence of the fact that even in Diaspora, the land of Israel was seen to be of great importance in Jewish life, no matter the geographic distance. So what is this oh-so-elusive hint to a crumble? Just follow the maneh / מנה. See what I did there? 🙂

Many of you noted that the strangest thing in these texts over the last few days has been the emphasis on the monetary value of the clothing items. Many of you expressed confusion and a strong dislike for what felt like a very capitalist (to be idiomatic for a moment) approach to expressing the worthiness of the ritual garments. Many of you brought up questions about the labor involved in these garments—were the workers compensated? How come it isn’t mentioned? And why should something so sacred be wrapped up in money—money which is so often connected with systems of oppression? There’s a long and interesting history to the evolution of currency for our queer rabbinic ancestors, beginning with currency in the Torah itself. Check out this article for reference! But the bigger picture friends, I believe, is this—our ancestors were trying to give us a taste of what it’s like to try to create sacred space in a larger society that doesn’t necessarily value what you hold sacred. What is the result? We end up communicating our own value (and values) according to the language and systems around us. Does it really matter what the garments of the High Priest were worth? Of course not (and certainly not to G!D even by the wildest stretch of the queer rabbinic imagination). And yet our ancestors were human beings, perhaps struggling to live authentically within societies that didn’t make it so easy to do so. Can we have compassion on our ancestors for falling short here? Do we have compassion on ourselves and those around us? That might be the harder question to ask, but one that this crumble before the destruction itself, I think provokes us to examine. Can’t to learn again with y’all soon <3