אהבה
The shirt is a denim stretchy material, off the shoulder top. The skirt is tight, and starts with a short strip covering up until above the knee, and as the skirt moves to the right, each strip gets longer from the next. The material is stretchy and each strip is a different vibrant color.
This is one of the greatest מצות in the תורה. An off the shoulder top highlights the focal point of your body, your shoulder. We made it jean because it's a simple color and fabric that goes with almost everything. Similarly, each person can bond one another and learn to love them the way that they are. Additionally, denim is a fine and rich material. The רמבם says
“מצוה על כל אדם לאהוב את כל אחד מישראל לפיכך צריך לספר בשבחו לחום על ממונו כאשר היא חס על ממון עצמו ורוצה בכבוד עצמו,
Part of מצות אהבה is caring about your friends money. The expensive jean material represents how you have to care about your friends money just as you care about the expensive jean material.
When you look at the skirt as a whole, the bottom of the lining looks almost as if it’s stars, which symbolizes that we always need to work on ourselves to become better in loving our friends. Just as ספר החינוך says
ואם יספר עליו דברים וספרם לשבח ויחוס על כבוד ולא תכבוד בקולונו
The one shoulder part represents the Jewish people as one, loving each other and being united. Rabbi Akiva says,זה כלל גדול בתורה״ “ .if we get along with one another, בורא עולם will boast about us. The different colors represent how each person brings out a different personality, and that we need learn to love each person the way they are.
שנאה
For our design, we created a long ombré dress with a gold heart patch.
The term 'Ombre' is a French word meaning shaded or shading. The shading on the dress fades from dark to light, top to bottom. The lighter color represents אהבה which is the ultimate goal. Our top priority and goal is to have אהבה in your heart, rather than blending it with negative feelings. Just as the אבן עזרא states, שנאה is the opposite of אהבה. הפך "ואהבת לרעך כמוך". The gold heart patch has a black lining, which is also fading. Ultimately, you shouldn't have hatred in your heart and you should love everyone. The gold heart represents the love that you should have. As stated in ספר הליכות עולם סעיף ב, it's very important to remove the hatred in your heart because it will lead you to do more עברות. חייב להסיר מנפשו מדת השנאה והיא המדה שגורמת הרבה שלה. שהכל פגום מחמת מדת השנאה בקרבו וזה שאמרו חז"ל שבית שני אף שהיה בו תורה וגמילות חסידים מכל מקום חרב מפני שהיתה שם מדת השנאה. |
מלבין את פני חבירו
מלבין את פני חברו
Remember your school years when that one teacher called you out in front of the whole class? Remember the feeling of the blood rushing to your face; the life wiped away from you.
In the pasuk, killing is equated to embarrassing. Therefore, we learn to give תוכחה in secret, as preventative to the embarrassment that would occur if the rebuke was given in front of a lot of people. The dressy pant suit with bell bottom starts off skinny and then gets wider at the bottom. The less constricted pant fit embodies how you have to be forward and honest with someone while giving them תוכחה.
Our design is a military style jacket, black on the outside and red on the inside. The two tone is meant to show how תוכחה should be said in a soft tone, in private and preventing embarrassment at all cost. In מסכת בבא מציעא דף נח:-נ״ט it says
״ כל המלבין פני חבירו ברבים כאילו שופך דמים."
One should avoid yelling at all cost and should approach them in a soft and calm way. We see this in sefer Vayikra perek 19 pasuk 17: .לֹא תִשְׂנָא אֶת אָחִיךָ בִּלְבָבֶךָ הוֹכֵחַ תּוֹכִיחַ אֶת עֲמִיתֶךָ וְלֹא תִשָּׂא עָלָיו חֵטְא. It’s extremely important to be honest with one another, as all Hashem wants from us is to love each other and live peacefully.
At the top of the outfit, is a blue fedora. The fedora is covering the perhaps shy personality who may be embarrassed by our rebuke if we give it the wrong way. For some, it may be hard to take critique. They may want to scream, shout, or even curse us. In order to ensure that the rebuke is taken with full accord, we should be to the point and not beat around the bush, hence the black pointy toe pumps.
Here is a guideline for when giving rebuke:
1) Provide concrete examples.
2) Use “I” statements.
3) If they want to hit you or curse you, you are patur from giving rebuke.
תוכחה
We designed a white jean button down dress with gold buttons. The inside of the dress is black lined with red stitching.
תוכחה is extremely important and crucial for a person’s goodness. We used gold buttons to show how special and great this מצוה is.
A button down is the ultimate example of how we should behave amongst friends. We have to be open and honest, as opposed to closing out the world and buttoning our emotions within us.
כשיחטא איש לאיש לא ישטמנו וישתוק כמו שנאמר ברשעים "ולא דבר אבשלום את אמנון מאומה למרע ועד טוב כי שנא אבשלום את אמנון" אלא מצוה עליו להודיעו ולומר למה עשיתי לי כך וכך
רשבם states that you can't hate a fellow Jew in your heart and if he did something bad to you, you can't be two faced about it.
״לא תשנא את אחיך בלבבך...לא טוב אל תשנאהו בלבך אלא הוכיח
תוכיחהו על מה שעשה ומתוך כך יהיה שלום
רמבם הלכות דעות tells the story of אבשלום and אמנון, how אבשלום didn't give rebuke and he had so much hatred that it lead him to kill אמנון. We told that story in our design by creating the inside black and red. There's so much built up hatred that it leads you to do dark things, things that you may never have thought of doing. In the case of אבשלום ואמנון it lead to murder, transforming an once alive brother to a ghostly, pale white corpse.
תוכחה is extremely important and crucial for a person’s goodness. We used gold buttons to show how special and great this מצוה is.
A button down is the ultimate example of how we should behave amongst friends. We have to be open and honest, as opposed to closing out the world and buttoning our emotions within us.
כשיחטא איש לאיש לא ישטמנו וישתוק כמו שנאמר ברשעים "ולא דבר אבשלום את אמנון מאומה למרע ועד טוב כי שנא אבשלום את אמנון" אלא מצוה עליו להודיעו ולומר למה עשיתי לי כך וכך
רשבם states that you can't hate a fellow Jew in your heart and if he did something bad to you, you can't be two faced about it.
״לא תשנא את אחיך בלבבך...לא טוב אל תשנאהו בלבך אלא הוכיח
תוכיחהו על מה שעשה ומתוך כך יהיה שלום
רמבם הלכות דעות tells the story of אבשלום and אמנון, how אבשלום didn't give rebuke and he had so much hatred that it lead him to kill אמנון. We told that story in our design by creating the inside black and red. There's so much built up hatred that it leads you to do dark things, things that you may never have thought of doing. In the case of אבשלום ואמנון it lead to murder, transforming an once alive brother to a ghostly, pale white corpse.