The Beginner's Guide: Fashion and Trends – What Does Judaism Say?

Fashion designers around the world, season after season, release new clothing trends. If there were no new trends, people would continue wearing the same clothes they have in their wardrobes, and then the clothing and fashion industry wouldn't make money. The industry continually updates styles so that you can say goodbye to your current wardrobe and send your money directly to them with the first shopping spree of the new collection.

Let's be honest, how many clothing trends can you invent? How many styles of pants and shirts can you think of? Fashion designers are left with no choice but to think outside the box (way outside the box), and decide on bizarre items that will become the next trend.

Designers have convinced us of new trends that are now the norm, so that instead of pants, men wear leggings and pant-like tights, they wear ballet socks, pink hair isn't unusual and the jewelry market is no longer only for women.

The Torah commands the Jewish people not to follow the customs of the Gentiles, as stated in the Torah: "You shall not walk in their statutes" (Leviticus 18:3) and "You shall not walk in the statute of the nation" (Leviticus 20:23). This negative commandment forbids Jews from adopting the ways and practices of Gentiles, including external characteristics. The purpose of this commandment is to distance and distinguish the Jewish people, endowed with holiness, from other nations. The Jewish people are Hashem's covenant partners, about whom it is said: "And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" (Exodus 19:6). This means that the Jewish people lead creation to its correction, and therefore they must maintain their uniqueness from other nations. Jewish separation from Gentiles has accompanied our nation since its inception and is the source of our distinctiveness. As stated in the Torah: "And you shall be holy to Me, for I, Hashem, am holy, and have separated you from the peoples to be Mine" (Leviticus 20:26).

The language from the 'Sefer HaChinuch,' written approximately 700 years ago about this commandment is as follows: "The essence of the commandment is that we should not behave like them in our clothing and matters. Rabbi Yehuda ben Beteira says: 'You shall not grow your hair like them nor shave in a 'Komi' (a style where hair is left in the middle while shaving the sides, known as a crest)... lest you resemble them and behave like them, and they become a snare for you... And the prophecy's language: 'And all who wear foreign clothing' (Zephaniah 1:8). The roots of the commandment are to stay away from them and disdain all their behaviors, even in clothing. It applies everywhere and at all times, to both males and females. Whoever violates this and does any of these things to resemble them is subject to lashes."

The Weekly Challenge

The next time you go shopping, don't be distracted by the latest trend.