The Sackcloth Project: Reviving an Ancient Practice
Sackcloth is a traditional symbolic clothing of lamentation and repentance. There are a number of Biblical references to wearing sackcloth at times of grief or impending doom, both by individuals and by the whole community. In Genesis 37:24, when Jacob believes that his beloved son Joseph has been killed, he tears his clothes and puts sackcloth on his loins. In chapter 4 of the Book of Esther, when Mordechai learns of Haman’s decree to destroy the Jewish people on a specified future date, he tears his clothes, garbs himself in sackcloth and ashes, and wails dramatically. The Jewish people throughout the lands affected by the decree respond with fasting and weeping and lamenting and also put on sackcloth and ashes. In chapter 3 of the Book of Jonah, when the people of Nineveh hear that their city will be destroyed in forty days, they proclaim a fast and put on sackcloth. In this extraordinary story, when news reaches the king of Nineveh, even the king steps down from his throne, takes off his robe, puts on sackcloth, and sits in ashes, and calls upon the people to cry out to God and to turn away from their injustice and violence.
We are living in dark times, times that call for lamentation and repentance. There are so many ways that human beings are harming other human beings as well as the natural world that sustains us. There is so much injustice and violence and greed. Our survival is in the balance.
I believe that it is time to revive this ancient practice of wearing sackcloth.
One way to begin with wearing sackcloth is to cut out a small square of sackcloth and attach it to your clothing with a safety pin (see image below), much in the way that small ribbons have been worn at different times to raise awareness and build community around a particular issue. Wearing the sackcloth is a tangible acknowledgment of grief and fear, as well as our personal responsibility in transforming injustice and violence and dismantling systems of oppression. You can share squares of sackcloth at communal events. Another possibility for wearing sackcloth is to cut a strip to wear around the neck (see photo at top of this post). During a ritual I created last year on the Jewish fast day of the 17th of Tammuz (observed on Sunday, July 17, in 2022), a day that commemorates the breaching of the walls of Jerusalem prior to the destruction of the Temple, I wore a sackcloth dress (see photo below).
Join me in this exploration of wearing sackcloth. So far, I have acquired my sackcloth from a local cafe (which they were happy to pass along to me after emptying the coffee beans). Burlap can also be purchased in various dimensions.
Please add a comment and send me your reflections and photos as we support one another in openly honoring our grief and our fear and our pain, in humbling ourselves and examining our ways, and in envisioning a future based in love, truth-telling, and justice.