Dr Hollisa Alewine – Footsteps of Messiah Part 126 (The Bride's Wilderness Laundromat) for week of September 22, 2024

The Bride's Wilderness Laundromat The wilderness journey brings up all sorts of practical questions. Practical questions often lead to impractical, but not impossible, answers. Although the Israelites looted the Egyptians, it is unlikely that the garments lasted for forty years in the harsh desert. How did they keep up with the laundry? What about the children born who would need clothes of their own?   Having done my laundry in the Aravah several times, I know from experience that clothes hung on a line to dry have a coating of sand by the time they dry and I take them down to fold them.   The pillars of cloud and fire, as well as the cloud cover in which the Israelites walked, provided supernatural assistance in these practical questions. The hint is found in the following verses: •“Your clothing did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years.” (Dt 8:4) •“I have led you forty years in the wilderness; your clothes have not worn out on you, and your sandal has not worn out on your foot.” (Dt 29:5) Egyptian clothes surely wear out. The sandals even more so with a nation on foot. These supernatural garments and shoes must have come from somewhere. The Midrash explains: •“From where did they obtain clothing to wear throughout the forty years that the people of Israel spent in the Wilderness? They were from what the ministering angels clothed them. Thus it is written, ‘I clothed you (Israel) in rikmah (Ezekiel 16:10). Rikmah is a royal garment.” (Midrash Rabbah Shir HaShirim 4§23)   The hint in Ezekiel is that these splended, durable garments were garments of royalty, fit for a royal priesthood. They were also fit TO a royal priesthood.   It was thought that the supernatural garments grew with the person like a shell grows with the chilazon, the snail from which techelet (blue) dye is extracted for tzitziyot to remind Israel of the mitzvot. From infant to adult, the garment grew. This helps us understand how the commandments grow with us when we continue to set our affection on what is above, learning to use what is below for the service of Heaven. The commandments become bigger and stronger in their protection and beauty as we grow because they are growing with us!   This passage in Ezekiel is thought to describe Israel’s bridal agreement to betrothal at Mount Sinai when they said, “We will do and we will hear”:   •“Then I passed by you and saw you, and behold, you were at the time for love; so I spread My skirt [wing, kanaf] over you and covered your nakedness. I also swore to you and entered into a covenant with you so that you became Mine,” declares the Lord GOD. Then I bathed you with water, washed off your blood from you and anointed you with oil. I also clothed you with embroidered cloth [rikmah] and put sandals of porpoise skin on your feet; and I wrapped you with fine linen and covered you with silk. I adorned you with ornaments, put bracelets on your hands and a necklace around your neck. I also put a ring in your nostril, earrings in your ears and a beautiful crown on your head. Thus you were adorned with gold and silver, and your dress was of fine linen, silk and embroidered cloth.” (Ezekiel 16:8-13) Israel the Bride was at the time for “love,” or able to Shma, to hear and to love with all her heart, soul, and strength. At that time, the ministering angels were thought to clothe Israel with miraculous garments that did not wear out and give them the sandals that did not wear out. They were also given two royal crowns, one for “we will do” and one for “we will hear.” After the golden calf, those crowns were taken away and the “jewelry” were retrieved, but the miraculous royal garments and sandals remained upon them. (Dt 8:4) Like the Kohen HaGadol, every member of the royal priesthood was clothed in “garments of honor and glory.”   The Midrash asks: •But did the clothing not need washing? “The pillar of cloud, which accompanied the nation throughout their journey in the Wilderness, brushe