Kommentar zu Schemot 28:30

את האורים ואת התמים THE URIM AND THE THUMMIM — This was an inscription of the Proper Name of God which was placed between the folds (i. e. the two pieces forming the front and back) of the breast-plate through which it (the breast-plate) made its statements clear (lit., illuminated its words; מאיר from אור, light, this being an allusion to the אורים) and its promises true (מתמם from the root תמם, an allusion to תמים) (Yoma 73b). In the second Temple there was certainly the breast-plate (although other objects employed in the Temple Service were missing) for it was impossible that the High Priest should have lacked a garment, but that Divine Name was not within it. It was on account of the inscription which constituted the Urim and Thummim and which enabled it to give decisions that it was called “judgment”, as it is said, (Numbers 27:21) “And he shall enquire for him by the judgment of the Urim” (Numbers 27:21).

AND THOU SHALT PUT IN THE BREASTPLATE OF JUDGMENT THE URIM AND THE THUMMIM. Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra thought to display wisdom in the matter of the Urim and the Thummim, by saying that they were made by a craftsman from gold and silver, and he continued his discussion of them in this vein, for he thought that they were akin to the forms which the astrologers make in order to know the thoughts of the one who comes to ask of them [about the future]. But what [Ibn Ezra] said is of no import. Rather, the Urim and the Thummim are as Rashi has written: “This was an inscription of the Proper Name of G-d which was placed between the folds of the breastplate.” It was for this reason that the breastplate had to be double⁷³Verse 16. [i.e., made of a material that was folded in order to form a sort of bag, into which the Urim and the Thummim — the sacred Names of G-d, as explained further on, — were placed by Moses]. The proof for this is that in the work of the craftsmen the Urim and the Thummim are not mentioned at all, neither in the command nor in the [description of the] making thereof. Now concerning the garments He details: And he made the ephod,⁷⁴Further, 39:2. and he made the breastplate,⁷⁵Ibid., Verse 8. but it does not say, “and he made the Urim and the Thummim.” And if it were the work of a skilled engraver He would have dealt with it in greater length than with all [the garments]. Even if perhaps He desired to shorten the discussion about them on account of their profundity, He would at least have said here, “and thou shalt make the Urim and the Thumim as it has been shown to you in the mount; of pure gold — or purified silver — you shall make them.” moreover, you will notice that He did not use the definite article in connection with any of the vessels [of the Tabernacle] which had not been previously mentioned. Instead, He said, and they shall make an ark;⁷⁶Above, 25:10. and thou shalt make a table;⁷⁷Ibid., Verse 23. and thou shalt make a candelabrum,⁷⁸Ibid., Verse 31 and thus too in connection with all of them. In the case of the Tabernacle, however, He said, And thou shalt make ‘the’ Tabernacle,⁷⁹Ibid., 26:1. because He had already mentioned it [in saying], And let them make Me a Sanctuary.⁸⁰Ibid., 25:8. Now with reference to the Urim and the Thummim He said, And thou shalt put in the breastplate of judgment ‘the’ Urim and ‘the’ Thummim. He did not command him as to the making of them, and yet Scripture mentions them with the definite article! Moreover, Scripture mentions them with reference to Moses only, saying by way of command, and thou shalt put in the breastplate of judgment…; similarly, at the time of making them it says, and in the breastplate he put the Urim and the Thummim,⁸¹Leviticus 8:8. since they were not the work of craftsmen. Neither craftsmen nor the congregation of Israel had any part whatsoever in their making or in their donation, for they were a secret transmitted by the Almighty to Moses, and he wrote them in holiness. They⁸²In Ricanti [quoting the language of Ramban]: “Or they were…” were thus of heavenly origin, and therefore they are referred to without any specification and with the definite article, in a similar usage to that which we have in the verse, and He placed at the east of the garden of Eden the cherubim.⁸³Genesis 3:24. Here too Scripture uses the definite article [‘the’ cherubim] and yet nowhere previously do we read concerning them (Bachya). Now Moses took the inscription of the Urim and the Thummim, and placed them in the breastplate of judgment after he had clothed Aaron with the ephod and the breastplate, as it is said, And he put the ephod upon him, and he girded him with the skilfully-woven band of the ephod… And he placed the breastplate upon him; and in the breastplate he put the Urim and the Thummim.⁸⁴Leviticus 8:7-8. For only after [Aaron was already clothed with the ephod and the breastplate] did Moses place the Urim and the Thummim between the folds of the breastplate.
Thus the Urim and the Thummim were the holy Names of G-d, and it was by virtue of the power residing in these Names that the letters inscribed upon the stones of the breastplate would light up before the eyes of the priest who inquired of their judgment.⁸⁵Numbers 27:21. For example, when they inquired, Who shall go up for us first against the Canaanites, to fight against them,⁸⁶Judges 1:1. — Scripture continues [in Verse 2]: And the Eternal said: ‘Yehudah ya’aleh’ (Judah shall go up). the priest fixed his thoughts on those Divine Names which were the Urim [literally: “lights”], and the letters forming the name Yehudah lighted up before his eyes, and [for the word ya’aleh — “he shall go up”] the letter yod lighted up from the word Levi,⁸⁷The twelve stones in the breastplate bore the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. Since there was no letter tzade amongst these names, the patriarchs’ names [Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov] were also inscribed upon the stones. Finally to include the letter tet the words shivtei Y-ah (“the tribes of G-d”) were also written upon them (Yoma 73 b). The answer given to the priest who inquired of the Urim and Thummim was through the gleaming forth of the letters written upon the stones. Thus when the tribes asked, Who shall go up for us first against the Canaanites? the name Yehudah gleamed forth, and as for the word ya’aleh, the yod of Levi lighted up etc. the ayin from Shimon, the lamed from Levi, and the hei from Avraham which was also written there, according to the opinion of our Rabbis,⁸⁸Yoma 73b. See Note above. or perhaps the hei from Yehudah lighted up a second time. Now when the letters lighted up before the eyes of the priest, he did not yet know their arrangement [that is, how these letters were to be grouped together into words], for from the letters forming the words Yehudah ya’aleh (Judah shall go up), it is possible to form the words: hoy heid alehah,⁸⁹“The echo of woe upon it.” or hie al Yehudah,⁹⁰“Lamentation upon Judah.” and very many other words. But then there were other sacred Divine Names [in the fold of the breastplate] called Thummim [literally: “perfection”], through whose power the priest’s heart was made perfect to understand the meaning of the letters which lighted up before his eyes. Thus, when he fixed his thoughts on the Divine Names in the Urim, and the letters lighted up, he would then immediately turn and fix his thoughts on the Divine Names in the Thummim, whilst the letters [of the Urim] were still lit up before him, and then it came to his mind that they combine to form the words Yehudah ya’aleh (Judah shall go up). This knowledge [of how to combine the letters that lit up in the breastplate into words], is one level of the degrees of Ruach Hakodesh.⁹¹Literally: “The Holy Spirit.” See Moreh Nebuchim II, 45, beginning: “second degree of prophecy.” It is lower than prophecy, and higher than the Bath Kol⁹²Literally: “echo” or “reverberating sound.” It is here used in the sense of a Divine Voice which on certain occasions was heard coming forth from the Holy of Holies (Sotah 33 a). which served [Israel] in the Second Sanctuary after prophecy had ceased, and after the Urim and Thummim had ceased, just as our Rabbis have mentioned.⁹³Yoma 21b. It is possible that after Moses placed the sacred Names of the Urim and Thummim in the breastplate, they became known to the great Sages of Israel, having been transmitted to them from Moses together with the secrets of the Torah. Hence we find that David possessed an ephod⁹⁴I Samuel 23:6., which was similar to the ephod of Moses, and together with it was a breastplate similar to the holy breastplate [in the Tabernacle]. It appears, however, that [instead of being made of gold, blue-purple etc.] it was made of linen, just as it says of Samuel that he was a child, girden with a linen ephod,⁹⁵Ibid., 2:18. and of Nob, the city of priests, it is said, fourscore and five persons that did wear a linen ephod.⁹⁶Ibid, 22:18. They would clothe a priest who was of the sons of the prophets,⁹⁷II Kings 4:1. A term denoting the disciples of the prophets, or those who sought the prophetic gift. and inquire of him [regarding certain events] and at times they were answered, just as Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra thought on this point. However, as far as that which he [Ibn Ezra] said, that if [Rashi] had seen the responsum of Rabbeinu Hai,⁹⁸The last of the Gaonim. He was a son of Rabbeinu Sherira Gaon (see Vol. I, p. 97, Note 477). — Rabbeinu Hai Gaon wrote in a responsum that by invoking the Proper Name of G-d, or the names of the angels, one could not predict future events. Using this responsum as a basis, Ibn Ezra commented that if Rashi had seen this responsum he would not have written that the Urim and Thummim were inscriptions of the Proper Name of G-d etc. [as quoted above]. — To this comment of Ibn Ezra, Ramban answers caustically: “We have already seen this responsum of Rabbeinu Hai and have pondered its meaning, and we do know that it was Ibn Ezra’s understanding that did not grasp it.” he would not have explained as he did, [that the Urim and Thummim were inscriptions of the Proper Name of G-d] — now we have already seen that responsum and have considered it, and we know [for a certainty] that it was Rabbi Abraham whose opinion [shows that he] did not grasp it.

משפט בני ישראל על לבו, so that he will pray on their behalf that they would emerge exonerated in any judicial confrontation.

את האורים ואת התומים; the function was somewhat similar to that of oracles employed by the priests of idolatrous cults. If those had any value at all, -and we may assume that at least their worshippers had concluded that they did, -how much more influential would these urim vetumim in the sacred garments of the High Priest be in order to elicit answers to questions posed to G’d, seeing that the means employed were holy and sanctioned by G’d Himself?

ונתת אל חשן המשפט את האורים ואת התומים, “you are to place within the folds of the breastplate the Urim and the Tumim.” Nachmanides writes that Ibn Ezra,in an effort to be very astute, wrote that the Urim and Tumim were something constructed by human hands, by artisans. (compare Leviticus 8,8 where Moses is described as placing the Urim and the Tumim inside the breastplate after Aaron already wore the breast plate). He clearly thought that these Urim and Tumim were something man made of silver and/or gold. He appears to have thought that these mysterious inserts were similar to what the astrologers use in order to understand communications from their zodiac signs. [Before translating the scathing criticism by Nachmanides here on the personality of Ibn Ezra, the reader must be cautioned that the commentary by Ibn Ezra found on this verse in most editions of the Chumash is a one liner, not as in the version of the Ibn Ezra’s commentary published by Mossad Harav Kook by Asher Weisman in three volumes in 1976. Anyone reading that version (at the end of volume 2, in the so-called short version) will come away with a totally different impression than if he had read only the standard version available in most editions of the Chumash. Ed.] (continuing Nachmanides’ commentary) Ibn Ezra said absolutely nothing, but the Urim and Tumim were in accordance with Rashi’s commentary a piece of parchment on which the Holy name of Hashem had been written and which Moses inserted between the folds of the cloth supporting the Choshen. The proof of all this is that we do not find a single mention in the Torah of the Urim vetumim as being one or two of the components of either the Tabernacle or the vestments of the priest being constructed by any of the artisans who fashioned all the other items. When the making of the ephod [to which the breastplate was attached. Ed.] was mentioned as well as that of the breast plate, (39,2-6), there is not a single word about the Urim and Tumim having been constructed. Neither is there a mention anywhere of the people having contributed from their materials for the construction of the Urim vetumim. We are dealing here with a mystical element, the apparent function of the Holy Name of Hashem, or a variety of them, being concealed within the folds of the breastplate enabling the letters engraved on the 12 gemstones which decorated the breastplate, to flash in response to queries directed by the wearer, the High Priest, to G’d, queries to which he required a direct answer from heaven as the Sanhedrin, Supreme tribunal, was not competent enough to answer them. One such example is found in Judges 1,1 when Joshua wanted to know which tribe should lead in the attack against the Canaanites. It is quite possible that these names of G’d which Moses wrote on the parchment which he inserted in the folds of the breast plate, were known as such to the elite of the Jewish people at the time, and that this would explain the use of the definitive article used here, i.e. האורים, התומים, something which is never used unless the subject is a known quantity, a phenomenon that at least some people are familiar with. This may also explain why David possessed an ephod comparable to that which Moses had in his time, and why we read that in Nov the city of priests (whom King Shaul murdered) there were 85 priests wearing such a type of ephod. (compare Samuel I 22,18) These priests were all trained by prophets, and possibly they used their ephods to address inquiries to G’d on certain occasions.

ונתת אל חושן המשפט את האורים ואת התומים , “you are to place within the breastplate the Urim and the Tumim, etc.” The Torah introduces both the Urim and the Tumim with the letter ה in front as if we were dealing with known phenomena whereas in fact they have never been mentioned before. They had never been mentioned as being either part of the furnishings of the Tabernacle or as being part of the priestly vestments. Seeing that later on when the various furnishings and vestments are being described as having been made, we never read of ויעש את האורים ואת התומים, “he made the Urim and the Tumim,” it is clear that they were not something fashioned by craftsmen. They were something fashioned directly by celestial input. This is the reason they were introduced as a known quantity, something which had been in existence already. We observe something parallel in Genesis 3,24 when the Torah reports וישכן מקדם לגן עדן את הכרובים, “He positioned east of Gan Eden the cherubs, etc.” We had never been told of the existence of cherubs. There too the letter ה in front of the word כרובים taught us that such cherubs had already existed though we did not know of them seeing they had come from an extra-terrestrial domain.
The fact is that the words Urim ve-Tumim are the description of the names of holy beings by means of whom the High Priest was able to divine certain events in the future and to announce them to the people who had inquired about them. The two names Urim, Tumim, represent two different parts of such divine messages. The first refers to the lighting up of letters on the breastplate which were visible to the High Priest and enabled him to place the respective letters into sequences which formed an intelligible message. The flashing of the respective letters on the breastplate was called Urim, whereas the combining of these letters into an intelligent message by properly arranging the letters in question was called Tumim [from the words אור, light, and תמים, perfect, whole. Ed.] The holy name of the Lord was written on a parchment the High Priest folded underneath the breastplate so that the parchment was covered by the stones above and the fabric underneath. Moses placed the parchment inside the breastplate only after he had dressed Aaron in his vestments. This is the meaning of the verse in Leviticus 8,8: “He placed upon him the breastplate and he put inside the breastplate “the Urim and the Tumim.”
It was one of a number of levels of divine revelations such as Ruach hakodesh, Holy Spirit, which is considered a higher level than the revelation called Bat kol, “heavenly echo.” The communications received by the High Priest by means of the Urim ve-Tumim ranked below that called Nevuah, prophecy. We have been told in Berachot 4, that the reason the Urim and Tumim were called by these names is that the first word, i.e. Urim refers to their ability to convey what they had to say by means of light, i.e. the flashing of the letters we mentioned. The word Tumim, on the other hand, means that they would bring their message to an intelligible conclusion, i.e. their predictions would come true. These two phenomena were also known as כרתי ופלתי as we know from Samuel II 20,23, the names suggesting that the answers given to questions directed to these High Priests equipped with the breastplate were clear and unmistakable. When someone asked the High Priest concerning a future event and he received an answer based on the pronouncement of the Urim and Tumim as interpreted by the High Priest he would find that the event forecast would indeed occur. The High Priest would stand with his face towards the Holy Ark when referring the petitioner’s question to G’d for an answer. The person making the inquiry would stand behind the High Priest. He would not phrase his question or inquiry in a loud voice but would speak like people who engage in prayer not expecting anyone near them to hear the details of their prayer. Immediately after the petitioner had uttered his request the High Priest would be granted a measure of Holy Spirit and he would look at the breastplate and he would see the prophetic message flash on the breastplate’s letters, (such as עלה or לא תעלה in the event that the king had inquired if to engage in a certain war and if he would be successful.) The only people entitled to use this facility were the King or the community as a whole as has been pointed out in Yuma 71.

ונשא אהרן את משפט בני ישראל, “Aaron will bear the judgment of the Children of Israel on his heart;” i.e. he will inform G-d of the needs of the Jewish people so that he can give them guidance; we have encountered the term משפט in this sense Deuteronomy 18,3, as well as in Kings I 8,59 inSolomon’s blessing of the people after the consecration of the Temple he had built in Jerusalem.

את משפט בני ישראל [AND AARON SHALL BEAR] THE JUDGMENT OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL — the object by means of which they are judged and admonished whether they should do a particular thing or whether they should not do it. But according to the Midrashic statement (Zevachim 88b) that the breast-plate atoned for those who pervert judgment it was called “judgment” in allusion to the pardon thus given for perverse judgment.