(1) You shall bring forward your brother Aaron, with his sons, from among the Israelites, to serve Me as priests: Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar, the sons of Aaron. (2) Make sacral vestments for your brother Aaron, for dignity and adornment. (3) Next you shall instruct all who are skillful, whom I have endowed with the gift of skill, to make Aaron’s vestments, for consecrating him to serve Me as priest. (4) These are the vestments they are to make: a breastpiece, an ephod, a robe, a fringed tunic, a headdress, and a sash. They shall make those sacral vestments for your brother Aaron and his sons, for priestly service to Me.
(ה) כֹּהֵן גָּדוֹל מְשַׁמֵּשׁ בִּשְׁמֹנָה כֵלִים. וְהַהֶדְיוֹט בְּאַרְבָּעָה, בְּכֻתֹּנֶת וּמִכְנָסַיִם וּמִצְנֶפֶת וְאַבְנֵט. מוֹסִיף עָלָיו כֹּהֵן גָּדוֹל, חשֶׁן וְאֵפוֹד וּמְעִיל וָצִיץ.
(5) Throughout the year the High Priest serves in eight garments, and the common priest serves in four: In a tunic and trousers and a mitre and a belt. The High Priest adds another four garments beyond those worn by the common priest: A breastplate, and an ephod, and a robe, and a frontplate.
(1) לקדשו לכהנו לי TO SANCTIFY HIM, TO APPOINT HIM AS PRIEST TO ME — to sanctify him, i. e. to instal him into the priesthood by means of the garments here specified, so that he may become priest unto Me.
The High Priest's vestments invest him in anxiety, no less than in glory. Ultimately, it is not only the diadem that is to be "Holy to God," but its wearer. If the dissonance between vestment and wearer is palpable, if there is not "that within which passes show," the trappings become hollow.
"According to Rabbi Mordechai Katz, among the garments worn by the Kohen Gadol was a coat symbolizing atonement for sins involving derogatory speech about others. Its color (sky blue) was a reminder that our words rise to Heaven, and we should thus be careful about what we say. The neckline of the coat was tight, yet never ripped, reminding us to tighten our mouths when we are inclined to speak derogatory words about others.
The coat also had gold bells that made noise and cloth bells that were silent, hanging from the bottom, indicating that there are times when we should speak and times when we should remain silent.
Rabbi Katz says that the bells were to remind the Kohen Gadol of the need for humility in his actions, because they demonstrated a method of asking God’s permission before entering the sanctuary."
Rav Huna said: If one has new garments into which they could change on Shabbat, they will change into those garments; and if one does not have garments into which they could change, they lets their garments hang down before Shabbat to beautify themselves in deference to Shabbat as it used to be the custom of wealthy people to wear their clothes loosely. Rav Safra strongly objects to this: Doesn’t this appear as haughtiness? The Gemara answers: Since every day one does not do so, and now in honor of Shabbat one is doing so, it does not appear as haughtiness. Rather it is apparent that one is acting in deference to Shabbat.
(ג) ילבש בגדיו הנאים וישמח בביאת שבת כיוצא לקראת המלך וכיוצא לקראת חתן וכלה דרבי חנינא מעטף וקאי בפניא דמעלי שבתא ואמר בואו ונצא לקראת שבת מלכתא רבי ינאי אמר בואי כלה בואי כלה: הגה וילביש עצמו בבגדי שבת מיד אחר שרחץ עצמו וזהו כבוד השבת ועל כן לא ירחץ לשבת אלא סמוך לערב שילביש עצמו מיד (הגהות מרדכי החדשים):
(3) (3) One should wear nice clothes and celebrate the arrival of Shabbat like the greeting of the king or the greeting of bride and groom. Rebbe Chanina would shroud himself in his garment and stand waiting on the evening approaching Shabbat and say " Come and go out to greet the Shabbat queen" and Rebbe Yannai would say "Come bride, Come bride."