פירוש על שמות 28:7

שתי כתפת וגו׳ TWO SHOULDER-PIECES, etc. — The apron was below and the חשב of the ephod was the belt, and this was joined to it on its top edge similar to the apron of ladies who ride on horseback. On the priest’s back there were joined to the belt two pieces like two wide straps, one opposite each shoulder. He lifted these up upon his two shoulders so that they hung down in front of him before his breast, and because they were joined to the rings in the breast-plate they were held fast in front of him upon his heart so that they could not fall off his shoulders backwards, just as is explained in this section (v. 28). Thus they lay on his back in an erect position and then passed over his shoulders and the two onyx stones were fixed on them, one stone upon each shoulder-piece.

שתי כתפות חוברות, carefully matched in the construction of their decorations.

שתי כתפות חוברות יהיה לו, according to my understanding the ephod was designed and constructed to cover only the lower half of the body from the waist down. It covered, (i.e. enclosed) this section both in front and at the rear. This is spelled out more clearly in Leviticus 8,7ויחגור אותו בחשב האפוד ויאפוד לו, “he put the tunic on him, girdled him with the decorated band (sash) with which he tied it to him.” This makes clear that the cheshev was a kind of belt or sash attached to the edge of the ephod firmly attached (sewn) to the body of the garment described as ephod. The shoulder pieces described here were so tightly attached to one another that they covered the entire back of a person from his waist upwards all the way up. [the shoulder pieces (straps) were joined to one another tightly from behind.] This is the reason the Torah repeats once more concluding with the word וחבר, vechubar, “so that it was properly joined together.” In other words, not only were the two shoulder pieces tightly joined together at the upper level of the torso, but they were also tied together by means of these bands at the level of the waist. The choshen was worn above it on his heart, being only one span wide and long (28cm square). This breastplate was also attached to the shoulder pieces above and to the ephod at waist level below. As a result, for practical purposes the breastplate and the ephod were really one garment. This had to be so, for, if the breastplate had only been fastened to the shoulder pieces of the ephod by means of the chains described, every time when the priest had occasion to bend down, the shoulder pieces would have been in danger of falling down.

V. 7. וחבר: die über die Schultern gehenden Teile sollen unterhalb derselben wieder jederseitig mit dem Rückenteile verbunden sein und so "der Ephod" ein einheitliches Ganze sein.

שתי כתפות, “two epaulettes;” these have been mentioned first in verse 7. They looked like short belts joined to one another, and they would be attached to both the front and the back of the ephod. They would rest both over his right shoulder and over his left shoulder. They bore the name “shoulderpieces,” as they stood upright forming a kind of collar around the High Priest’s neck.

אל שני קצותיו AT THE TWO EXTREMITIES THEREOF — on the width of the ephod; for its width was equal only to that of the priest’s back (and did not go entirely round his body, so that one may well speak of the two extremities of the ephod), and its height was up to the elbows — which they call coudes in old French — and not higher, because it is said (Ezekiel 44:18) “they shall not gird themselves (בַּיָּזַע),” i. e. they shall not gird themselves in the place where one perspires (במקום זיעה) namely, not higher than their elbows and not lower than their loins, but only by their elbows (Zevachim 18b).

אל שני קצותיו, toward the two outer extremes of its width.

אל שני קצותיו, to its two ends, which were behind the priest, the ends of the upper part of the ephod beside the sash.

According to a different opinion, these epaulettes were very wide, hence they were compared to shoulders. According to that opinion, this is why they were described as חוברות, for if they had been narrow like thin belts, they could not have been properly attached to the breastplate which would have been in danger of falling down.

וחבר IT — the ephod — SHALL BE JOINED with the two shoulder-pieces of the ephod: he shall join them below the belt with a needle and he shall not weave them together with it, but he must weave them separately and join them afterwards.

וחובר, as a result of which the ephod will be joined to the art work of the shoulder pads.

וחבר, this word from the end of verse 7, means that the shoulder pieces were joined to the ephod by means of pins (like safety pins).