10. Dressing

3:3 A person should not be fashion-obsessed, always wearing expensive clothes, as this leads a person to become prideful and arrogant. But a person must be careful not to go to the other extreme, wearing clothes that are ragged and lower him in people’s eyes. The best course of action is to wear clean, respectable clothes that are not too showy. Quoting the Talmud in tractate Shabbos (129a), the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch impresses upon us the importance of shoes. We may take having shoes and wearing them in public for granted, but such was not always the case.

3:4 We see throughout the Torah that the right side is given priority. One example of this is found when Aaron and his sons were inaugurated as priests (Leviticus 8:23-24); the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch cites several others. Accordingly, we should follow suit and give precedence to the right side. Therefore, when one dresses, he puts the right side on first and when one undresses, he removes the left side first. However, when it comes to tying, the left side is given priority since tefillin are worn on the left arm. The result is that shoes are properly put on as follows: put on the right shoe, then put on the left shoe; tie the left shoe, then tie the right shoe.