Let My People Know

"What are the garments of the Divine Soul?"

 

The soul can be said to have three garments: thought, speech, and action. 

The word "garment" here indicates that which conceals and covers, as well as that which is expressed or revealed to the outer world. 

Thus the garment "thought" is the inner clothing revealing the soul to the person himself. 

The garment "speech" is the outer expression of the soul in terms of ideas, and the garment "action" is the manifestation of the soul through the instruments of the physical world. 

Such are the ways in which the soul as a whole is clothed. 

What are the garments of the Divine Soul, however, that part of the human soul which is of God? 

And the answer given by the sages is that these are the 613 commandments of the Torah. 

–Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz
 
From "The Garemnts of the Soul" in The Long Shorter Way by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz