Comentário sobre Êxodo 28:36

ציץ — This was a kind of golden Plate, two fingers in breadth, going round the forehead from ear to ear (Shabbat 63b).

קדש לה׳. "Holy unto G'd." This means that as long as the words "Holy unto G'd" appeared on the headband (golden plate), this was acceptable. When the Talmud said in Shabbat 63 that the words were arranged in two rows, this means that the name of י־ה was engraved on top and the word קדש followed by the letter ל underneath. Such an arrangement of the words was not mandatory. You will find there that Rabbi Eliezer son of Rabbi Yossi reported that while in Rome he personally had seen the ציץ which the Romans had captured, and that the words "Holy unto G'd" were engraved on it in a single line. This proves that the order in which the words were engraved did not matter. When Maimonides wrote in chapter nine of his treatise on Kley Hamikdosh that the words appeared in two rows, with the word קדש in the second line, this does not present a difficulty. He referred only to the preferred way of engraving these words.

ועשית ציץ. The name ציץ reflects the fact that this head-plate is worn on a place that everybody looks at on the forehead of the High Priest. We explained this point in our commentary on 12,7.

V. 36. ציץ, in Lautverwandtschaft mit זיז und שׂישׂ, äußere und innere rege werdende Bewegung, heißt ציץ, das Hervorbrechen zur Sichtbarkeit und daher: die aufbrechende Blüte, ציצת ראש: das hervorquellende Lockenhaar. מציץ בין החרכים (Hohelied 2, 9): den Blick zwischen Gitter hervordringen lassen. Davon heißt wohl hier ציץ: etwas, was sich dem Anblicke in auffälliger Weise darbietet, augenfällig ist. Es war nach Schabbat 63 b ein von Ohr zu Ohr reichendes, zwei Finger breites, goldenes Blech, welches die Inschrift: קדש לה׳ trug, den Gottesnamen in erster Linie; nach Maimonides הל׳ כלי המקדש IX, ר׳ אליעזר ברבי יומי 1 berichtet (dort), er habe es unter den Trophäen in Rom gesehen mit der Inschrift קדש לד׳ in einer Zeile, woraus Maimonides schloss, dass die zweizeilige Schreibweise nicht als unumgänglich statuiert sei.

ועשית ציץ, “you are to make a frontlet; (of gold),” a sparkling kind of jewelry. We find that term in such a connection in Ezekiel 1,7: ונוצצים כעין נחשת קלל, “they were sparkling like the luster of burnished copper or in Psalms 132,18: “and his crown will sparkle on him;”ועליו יציץ נזרו.

'קדש לה. The names of the tribes of Israel are engraved on both the gemstones of the ephod as well as on the breastplate. These names were to remind G’d of the merits of the founding fathers of these tribes and to facilitate atonement for the sins of their descendants. The specific sins referred to are inadvertent violations involving sacred sites entered in violation of the law, or the consuming of sacred sacrificial meat by people either not entitled to eat them or not in a ritually pure state which would be the prerequisite for eating same. While the High Priest wore the ציץ G’d undertook to forgive such inadvertent violations committed by the people concerned.