A businessman travels frequently:
I only have a enough space in my carry-on for one of the following: Either I take Shabbos clothing and wear it during the week or I wear weekday clothing on Shabbos which should I do and why?
(If you have sources I can learn with him that would be appreciated,)
Note: I don’t think he’s going to want to hear “you have to pay for a regular bag” for the sake of Shabbos.
Answer:
It is certainly better to take Shabbos clothes and wear them during the week, than to take weekday clothes and wear them for Shabbos.
Although we find in the Gemara (Shabbos 119a) that Rav Anan used to wear “black” clothes on Friday in order to make a contrast with Shabbos, this is not a formal halachah, and therefore there is no halachic problem of wearing Shabbos clothes on weekday.
In this case, every day of wearing the clothes can be considered an act of honor for Shabbos: A person is prepared to wear his Shabbos clothes the whole week, just so that he can actually wear them on Shabbos! Although his clothes are not distinct from the clothes he wore this week, they remain distinct from weekday clothes in general – this can be compared to a case of wearing Shabbos clothes the whole week on a week of Chol Ha-Moed.
To wear weekday clothes on Shabbos, however, is disrespectful to the sanctity of Shabbos, and violates an explicit halahchah (Shabbos 113) stating that our clothes for Shabbos should be special.
Best wishes.
Sources:
See the Gemaros mentioned above; the Shulchan Aruch mentions Shabbos clothes in many places (see for instance Orach Chaim 551), and it is clear that people had special clothes for Shabbos: see Tur, Orach Chaim 262; Kitzur Shulchan Aruch 72:16.
