פירוש על שמות 28:16

זרת ארכו וזרת רחבו A SPAN IN LENGTH AND A SPAN IN WIDTH, being double (Exodus 39:9) and it lay on him in front over his heart, as it is said, (v. 30) “And they shall be upon Aaron’s heart.” It was suspended from the shoulder-pieces of the ephod which came from behind him upon his shoulders and hung over and fell down a little way in front of him, and the breast-plate was suspended from them by means of the chains and rings, as is explained in the section (vv. 22—29).

כפול, something like a pocket. This was necessary in order to place the urim vetumim inside it.

V. 16. רבוע יהיה כפול: es war zwei Spannen lang und eine Spanne breit, so dass es zusammengeschlagen ein Quadrat von einer Spanne bildete.

כפול, “double;” the material from which the breastplate was made was folded over, the jewels being fastened to the upper side which was visible to all. The lower part was used as reinforcement to hold the jewels and their settings in place securely. This is the way this has been explained by Torat kohanim on Leviticus 2,4, section 10. on the section entitled “symbolisms of the jewels on the breastplate.” It is quite possible that just as the material for the breastplate was folded over so was the material containing the jewels on the Ephods, epaulettes. Rashi explains the words urim vetumim that the Torah describes as having been placed in the folds of the breastplate (verse 30), by writing that the word אורים explains the word המשפט, which precedes it as meaning מדינות, “establishment of legal rules,” whereas the word תמים would refer to the “limits set for the application of all these rules.” In practice, the High Priest during the period of Second Temple used the breastplate to obtain confirmation from G–d rather than to obtain instructions from G–d as in Isaiah 24,15:באורים כבדו את ה' , “honor the Lord with lights” [Rashi speaks of the High Priest’s breastplate during the time of the second Temple when the parchment with the tetragram from the first Temple was no longer in existence. During Moses’ lifetime, Aaron never needed to use the urim vetumim in order to communicate with G–d, as Moses spoke to G–d directly. During the period after Moses’ death and the destruction of the first Temple, the High Priest would address queries to G–d and these would be answered by letters on the breastplate being illuminated, and these had to be interpreted by the High Priest. During the period of the second Temple, -if I understand this correctly,- the High Priest phrased his query so that it required to be answered either positively or negatively, and the letters for “yes” or “no” would become illuminated. It is not known what Rashi’s source was for writing that the parchment with the tetragram was kept in the folds of the breastplate. Ed.] According to our author, the communication from the breastplate confirmed the boundaries of the parcels of land allocated to each tribe when he distributed it to the various tribes.

(2) ZERET. Half an amah.