וַיַּ֩עַשׂ֩ ה’ אֱלֹקים לְאָדָ֧ם וּלְאִשְׁתּ֛וֹ כׇּתְנ֥וֹת ע֖וֹר וַיַּלְבִּשֵֽׁם
And the Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and He clothed them. (Genesis 3:21)
God made “garments of skin,” or some say (reading the word or with an alef instead of an ayin), “garments of light,” for Adam and Eve after their sin, and then God dressed them. In this meditation, we consider the impact of feeling this kind of intimate loving attention from God, even, or perhaps, especially, after a time of rupture, imagining ourselves wrapped in an aura of light like the first humans and connecting this image to that of Moshe’s beaming face after the sin of the Golden Calf and the equally shining face of the kohen gadol after emerging unscathed form the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur.
Sources for this Meditation (in the order they appear):
Genesis 3:1-21
Breishit Rabbah 20:12
Genesis 37 and Exodus 28
Psalm 104:2
Mahzor Yom Kippur, Musaf Repetition, Artscroll pp. 570-572
Photo by Jill Wellington at Pexels
