The Kohen’s Demonstration
Because when the kohen put on his begadim, he understood what we’re learning here that clothing is a demonstration. He was announcing, “This is the house where Hashem dwells and I am His servant.” You know, a servant of the king lehavdil dresses in a certain way and that reminds him that he must be more careful than someone else. And so when the kohen put on his begadim, and all day long too, he tried to be inspired by them.
Now, it could be he was thinking of other things too. He’s not a malach after all; he’s a human being. But still, the mere fact that he was dressed like a servant of Hashem, was already a tremendous success for him. The awareness that he is dressed lechovod ulesiferes, in glorious garments, makes him feel that he is a servant of Hashem. And he actually becomes more of a servant of Hashem just because of that!
That’s a very important point: A kohen can rise to the heights required of him only when he is dressed in the bigdei kehunah. And it’s an especially important point because it’s an ideal that applies to all of us, kohanim, non-kohanim, all the time. After all, we are the mamleches kohanim, the nation of servants of Hashem; and just like the kohanim utilize their bigdei kehunah to achieve all the greatness expected of them, every ben Yisroel and bas Yisroel also can only live truly successfully if they utilize their clothing to bring out the greatness that Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave them.
