I saw images of the pope in Abu Dhabi and thought "Maybe the idea of a culture surrounding wearing a white robe and head covering at all times as a religious symbol isn't totally far-fetched."
But what about the Jewish religion?
I came across an interesting Jewish tradition dating back at least 800 years. At a wedding, the bride buys her groom a white robe called a 'kittel' which he wears on his wedding day but also on other holy days. Here is a modern-day Jewish bride describing what she learned about the symbolism of this tradition from a shop owner and a scholar:
In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were innocent until she caused him to sin by giving him to eat of the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. After that, they realized they were naked and in shame attempted to fashion clothes and cover themselves. Today, he continues, a woman gives her future husband this white garment to cover himself, thereby rectifying her primal sin. "It's a very beautiful custom, and it's beautiful for you to continue it, and," he adds, "he will wear it for the rest of his life." After the wedding day, the kittel is also customarily worn on Pessah, Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur and, according to Prof. Daniel Sperber of the Jewish Studies Department at Bar-Ilan University, its symbolic meaning is linked between these holidays and its appearance under the huppa. In Jewish tradition, the dead are wrapped in a white shroud before burial, and when worn on the High Holy Days, the kittel represents the idea that we are being judged before God and are not sure whether we will live or die. Similarly, adds the shop owner, the kittel must be white to remind the groom on his wedding day of the day of his death, so that he won't be too prideful or egotistic and will remember the constant need to repent. The white of the kittel is also meant to parallel the white dress of the bride and symbolize absolute purity. Dressed in white, on all these occasions we are like the angels, says Sperber, and just as angels have no sins, we beg to be forgiven for all of ours, in keeping the biblical verse "our sins shall be made as white as snow" (Isaiah 1:18). The groom under the huppa is also compared to the high priest, who on Yom Kippur wore not his elaborate gold robe but a simple white one upon entering the Holy of Holies to atone for all the sins of Israel. So too, under the huppa, before the bride and groom begin their new life together, they wear white to banish all their sins and start fresh together.
The concepts of purity before God, atonement for sin, standing to be judged, etc. -- all literally wrapped up into one white garment and its underlying symbolism. Beautiful imagery, and also seemingly well-represented in the Book of Mormon. (See this previous post as well as this one for more details.) Perhaps this custom is very ancient indeed.
