Torah's clothing lessons backed by Yale study showing your attire changes how you think

It is successful Genesis 27 that Isaac is preparing to walk the torch of Jewish leadership to his son, Esau — who, arsenic the Torah makes clear, is wholly unfit for the role. 

His duplicate brother, Jacob, contempt his shortcomings, is the 1 susceptible of carrying the ngo forward.

Rebecca, Isaac’s woman and the parent of the twins, sees what’s astir to hap and intervenes. (See the video astatine the apical of this article.) 

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She tells Jacob to airs arsenic Esau and person the blessing successful his place. 

Her cardinal instruction? Put connected Esau’s champion clothes.

The Torah "devotes full chapters to the covering of the precocious clergyman — describing successful item the colors of the threads, the fabrics, the accessories, adjacent the plan of the undergarments," says writer Mark Gerson.  (iStock)

Isaac is unsighted — helium won’t spot what Jacob is wearing. So wherefore the costume? 

Because Rebecca understands thing profound: To act similar someone, you archetypal person to feel similar that person.

And to consciousness similar that person, you request to dress similar that person. 

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The strategy works. Jacob puts connected the garments and receives the blessing. 

But the Torah isn’t conscionable telling a story; it’s teaching a principle. It devotes full chapters aboriginal to the covering of the precocious clergyman — describing successful item the colors of the threads, the fabrics, the accessories, adjacent the plan of the undergarments. 

These aren’t ritual decorations. They’re instruments of transformation.

"The Torah isn’t conscionable telling a story; it’s teaching a principle," writes the author. Clothing tin beryllium "instruments of transformation." (iStock)

The clergyman doesn’t conscionable look holy. By wearing sacred garments, helium begins to feel beatified — and that changes however helium behaves. 

The Torah understood agelong earlier modern subject that covering shapes consciousness.

Students successful concern suits negotiated acold much successfully than those who were wearing casual clothes.

In 2012, researchers astatine Northwestern conducted an experimentation successful which they gave participants a achromatic coat. 

Some were told it was a painter’s coat; others were told it was a doctor’s coat. 

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Those who believed they were wearing a doctor’s overgarment performed importantly amended connected tasks requiring focus. 

In a akin experimentation from Yale, students successful concern suits negotiated acold much successfully than those who were wearing casual clothes.

Sports fans cognize this.

Psychologists telephone the conception "enclothed cognition": It's "the thought that what we deterioration influences however we think, consciousness and perform," says the author.  (iStock)

It's wherefore shot stadiums are afloat of grown men wearing the jerseys of their favourite player. 

Athletes recognize this arsenic good — they cognize the mode they formal affects their performance. 

Psychologists present telephone this "enclothed cognition" — the thought that what we deterioration influences however we think, consciousness and perform. 

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If you’re depressed, you whitethorn people formal successful a mode that reflects your sadness — sweatpants and a baggy T-shirt. 

Psychologists person determined that this volition lone deepen the sadness.

"Clothing isn’t conscionable astir quality oregon comfort. It’s a instrumentality for shaping who we are," says Gerson, writer of "God Was Right." (Fox News Digital)

Professor Karen Pine suggests that a bittersweet idiosyncratic should alternatively dress for happiness, with a well-cut formal made from earthy fibers, colors that evoke nature, playful patterns that spark puerility memories — oregon adjacent brace unexpected items, similar a leather overgarment implicit a dress, to prosecute the brain’s craving for novelty.

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Once again, God was right. 

Clothing isn’t conscionable astir quality oregon comfort. It’s a instrumentality for shaping who we are. 

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When we formal with purpose, we hole ourselves to unrecorded with purpose.

Mark Gerson's caller publication is "God Was Right: How Modern Social Science Proves the Torah Is True," published by BenBella Books and distributed by Simon & Schuster (June 2025). This nonfiction is portion of a bid featured exclusively by Fox News Digital.