Kommentar zu Schemot 28:32

....THE EDGE FOR THE OPENING etc. The hint here is that one's prayer should always be regarding the bitter exile of the Shekhinah (from which we should be quickly saved). The language from our mouths should be continual prayer regarding the pain of Shekhina's exile.

והיה פי ראשו AND THE HOLE IN THE HEAD OF IT SHALL BE — the hole of the Robe which is at its top — that is, the opening which serves as a receptacle for the neck,

לא יקרע, the robe should not have a regular collar and neckline running down the front of the garment open, but it should be round as a ring. The expression יקרע, is applied to vertical openings in a garment or building. The expression occurs in a similar sense in Jeremiah 22,14 וקרע לו חלוני, “provided with narrow windows cut out, etc.”

פי תחרא, an opening in the garment at the top, permitting the wearer to slip into it by pulling it down over his head.

So that it will not be torn. . . Rashi is saying that in the verse’s plain meaning, לא יקרע comes to explain what preceded it. [I.e., its opening should have a border so that it will not tear.] However, since it does not say שלא יקרע , we may infer that it is a negative precept on its own. In all the cases that Rashi brings, the proof is the same, [i.e., it does not say שלא .]

V. 32. והיה פי ראשו וגו׳. Die Öffnung seines oberen Endes soll nach innen geschlagen, somit doppelt werden, und dadurch einen starken, festen Saum bilden. Der Saum soll סביב ganz geschlossen und מעשה ארג, von Anfang an daran gewebt, nicht erst nachher durch Umnähen gebildet sein. — תחרא ,כפי תחרא, nach Onkelos: שריון, Panzer. Es kommt nirgends wieder vor und ist die Ableitung dunkel. — לא יקרע ist ebenfalls ein Verbot, das aber Joma 72 a auf alle Priestergewänder angewendet wird. Nach einer Auffassung wäre aber dieses Verbot bei allen anderen Gewändern nur hinsichtlich eines in vernichtender Absicht, דרך השחתה, geschehenen Zerreißens. Der geschlossene Saum des מעיל dürfe aber überhaupt nicht eingerissen werden. (Siehe ׳מ׳למ zu הל׳ כלי המקדש IX, 3.) —

בתוכו “inside it,” i.e. in its center. Compare to what the Torah wrote in Genesis 2,9, about the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

בתוכו IN THE MIDST THEREOF — Understand this as the Targum renders it: כפיל לגויה “turned in towards the inside” — the turn-in shall serve as its seam. It was weaver’s work (woven as such with the Robe) and not made with a needle.

בתוכו, in its middle (the middle of the top). להבדיל, similar to garments worn by the members of the clergy.

מעשה אורג, woven work; the Torah means that it was continuous along the entire neck of the garment. The garment had been woven from the neck down to its hem. At the top it was reinforced so as not to tear easily.

כפי תחרא AS IT WERE THE HOLE OF A HABERGEON — This informs us that their habergeons had the neck-opening turned in.

לא יקרע. The collar does not open downwards (like our shirtfronts) but one leaves an opening for the neck when weaving it before finishing it at the top.

לא יקרע means SO THAT IT BE NOT RENT — Indeed, whoever rends it, transgresses thereby a negative commandment because this is among the number of the negative commands contained in the Torah. The same is the case with (v. 28) “that the breast-plate be not loosened”, and similarly, (Exodus 25:15) “they shall not depart from it”, which is said of the staves of the ark (Yoma 72a).