I had the pleasure of watching Inside Out 2 this week with my kids. When we get our second look into Riley’s mind we see that Joy, Anger, Fear, Disgust, and Sadness are joined by a new cast of feelings. Now that she is in puberty we experiences Anxiety, Envy, Ennui, and Embarrassment. I am sure I will write more on this, but today I wanted to explore Embarrassment .

SPOILER ALERT.

Embarrassment doesn’t talk or make eye contact with the other emotions. At the outset he comes off as meek, reserved, and basically an NPC. His job in her mind is to let Riley know when the things she does feel socially inappropriate. At the start he seems to be the bad guy. Embarrassment single-handedly grabbed all of the five original emotions to put them in a jar, poking holes at the jar to help them breathe. Slowly, he realized that Anxiety’s plan will end in a catastrophe. Because of this, he started to question her authority. When Sadness made it to headquarters, Embarrassment helped her hide behind the books in order to not be found by Anxiety. He also helped Joy keep Riley from overthinking by distracting Anxiety and turning off her laptop, stopping negative thoughts from getting to Riley. Ultimately he was the hero. He was the one who released Sadness from her air prison when things were getting out of hand under Anxiety’s control.

I have been thinking about Embarrassment this week because of their “costume” choice for him.

He usually pulls his hoodie strings to hide his face whenever he’s flustered. What is the meaning of the hoodie?

I was thinking of hoodies this week when reading Shelach, this week’s Torah portion. There we learn about the mitzvah of the tallit, prayer shawl. Interestingly the Torah does not command wearing of a tallit. Instead, it presumes that people wore a garment of some type to cover themselves and instructs us in , to attach fringes (ציצית‬ tzitzit) to the corners of these garment. We read there:

Speak to the Israelite people and instruct them to make for themselves fringes on the corners of their garments throughout the ages; let them attach a cord of blue to the fringe at each corner. That shall be your fringe; look at it and recall all the commandments of the LORD and observe them, so that you do not follow your heart and eyes in your lustful urge. Thus you shall be reminded to observe all My commandments and to be holy to your God.(Numbers 15:38-40)

These fringes are there to remind us when we look at them to keep the commandments. Still the commandment is to have tzitzit with the tallit. Do you have to wear a four-cornered garment?

The Shulchan Aruch (אורח חיים סי’ ח:ב) and most of the Achronim are of the opinion that one should wear a Tallit over their head the whole time while praying. The Mishna Brura explains that the reason for this practice is that it “subdues man’s heart and induces him to fear of God.” Since getting married and I started wearing a Tallit. I enjoy wearing the Tallit over my head in prayer. I enjoy the seclusion and inward strength that it provides me in this experience. But what does the Tallit have to do with the 1930’s Knickerbocker version of the now classic hoodie?

Check out the history of the hoodie here in this amazing short TED talk on this humble masterpiece :

It is interesting to look back at the history of the hoodie in light of the original charge to wear a Tallit.

In light of the heroic image of Embarrassment, it is fascinating to see the hooded Tallit as a symbol of humility, inner strength, and a means of controlling our other feelings. For me it is not a symbol of embarrassment, but really one of pride. But I still think that this pride is one that is still about humility, inner strength, and a means of controlling our other feelings. There is much to appreciated in the humble masterpiece of a hoodie.

• If you are interested in other hoodies to express your pride- check out Yishama’s www.menschwear.shop

• If you are interested in a educational resources or a poster for the original Inside Out Movie