He shall put on the holy linen coat, and he shall have the linen breeches upon his flesh, and shall be girded with a linen girdle, and with the linen mitre shall he be attired (Lev. 16:4
Why linen? Doesn’t this seem like an irrelevant detail?
Priests were only commanded to wear external linen garments when offering an olah and, as in this case, for offerings meant to achieve kapparah, covering.
Again, why? Of all the offerings, why is linen, vad, worn for only these?
Perhaps the Torah tells us the answer, in the use of the word earlier in the text?
Specifically: the word for linen is vad, and it is the root word for the word levado, meaning “alone.”
The first time the word levado is used is at the very beginning: The LORD G-d said, “It is not good for man to be alone (levado); I will make a fitting helper for him.” (Gen. 2:18)
Man is not meant to be alone, levado.
So there seems to be a connection between loneliness, and the word for linen!
Is this sustained elsewhere in the text? Well, the first offering for which the Cohen wears vad is for an elevation-offering, an olah. And who brought the first olah?
Noach!
When Noach brought an olah, his whole world had been washed away. Noach’s was the last family in the world: everyone else had perished. He was levado, alone.
What does he do? He takes animals, and offers them to G-d in an olah, an elevation-offering. This offering was so well received by G-d that there are 19 straight verses of praise for Noah and mankind. G-d wants us to reach out to Him.
Noach’s olah was a way to admit his loneliness and desire for connection.
If so, does the Cohen wear vad specifically to link to Noach’s feelings of loneliness at that time Noach brought the very first olah?
If this thesis is to work, though, then it also must make sense with kapparah. The kaparah is the national offering on Yom Kippur. Mistranslated as “atonement,” the word in the Torah actually means an insulating layer that allows incompatible forces to come very close to each other: Noah’s Ark was given a kaparah to keep the life within and the water out. Kapparah is a life-saving insulation.
Similarly, when Yaakov goes to meet Esau, he uses the word kapparah as appeasement before a potentially-fatal reunification with his brother!
For [Yaakpv] said, I will appease [kapparah] him with the present that goes before me, and afterwards I will see his face; perhaps he will accept me. (Gen. 32:21)
Isn’t this similar to Yom Kippur? The idea that if we bring kapparah then perhaps G-d will allow us to come close, and accept us?
Of course, Yom Kippur does not stand alone: it is a preparation for the festival of Sukkos, when we believe that G-d’s presence descends to right above our makeshift roofs in our sukkah huts. So we offer a kaparah on Yom Kippur in order to make it possible for G-d to visit us on Sukkos?
If so, then isn’t it logical that both the olah and the kaparah are about resolving loneliness? The olah is about the individual’s desire to reach out and connect with our creator, and the kapparah is the national desire for G-d’s closeness. Are these are two different dimensions of our desire to overcome our loneliness?
Does this explain why the Cohen had to do the service alone, levado, wearing clothes of vad?
And there shall be no man in the Tent of Meeting when he goes in to make atonement in the holy place, until he comes out, and have made atonement for himself, and for his household, and for all the congregation of Yisra᾽el. (Lev. 16:17)
Does this answer the question? That vad is worn when the priest is recreating the emotions of Noach when he brought an olah and those of Yaakov when he sent gifts to achieve a kapparah with Esau?