55) ONE MUST BE WORTHY OF A DRESS CODE:

The Torah tells us that the two good spies 'tore their clothes' when they returned from their mission, as a sign of mourning and protest against the other ten spies who had brought back a bad report.[1]

The Kotzker Rebbe, is his typically direct manner, waxes lyrical; “The spies were the religious leaders of the nation, who wore (the equivalent of what today would be) fur hats with white frock coats. When Yehoshua and Calev saw how they had behaved, they tore their clothes (i.e. not their own clothes, as is commonly assumed - but the very visible statement-making fur hats and white frock coats of those who had misrepresented them in the name of religion).”[2]

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[1] Vayikra 14:6

[2] Amud HaEmet p.80, par. 5 The Kotzker actually says that they ‘tore off the cloths from them’. (karu... bigdehem me’alehem)