Comentário sobre Êxodo 28:6

ועשו את האפד AND THEY SHALL MAKE THE EPHOD — If I set myself to explain the making of the ephod and the breast-plate in the order of the verses, the description of them would be fragmentary and the reader might err in piecing the details together: therefore I shall write down how they were made, just as each of them was, in order that “he who runs may read” (may have a comprehensive idea of them in their entirety), and afterwards I shall explain it in the order of the verses. The ephod was made like that kind of apron of women who ride on horse-back. He (the priest) tied it on behind him opposite (at the height of) his heart below his elbows. Its breadth was equal to the measure of a man’s back and somewhat more (cf. Rashi, end of v. 26), and it reached to his heels. The belt was attached to its top edge along the whole of its width, being of weaver’s work (i. e. woven in one piece with the ephod) and it extended on both sides beyond the width of the ephod in order that it might go right round the body and gird on the ephod by means of it. The shoulder-pieces were attached to the belt, one on the right and one the left, behind the priest, at the two ends of the width of the apron, and when they were lifted up they stood (we should say “they lay”) upon his two shoulders, so that they were like two straps made of the same material as the ephod itself, and sufficiently long to lift them up to reach to his neck on both sides, and they hung over in front of him a little below his shoulders. The onyx stones were fixed in them, one on his right shoulder and one on his left shoulder, and the settings were placed in their ends in front of his shoulders on his breast. Two cords of gold were inserted through two rings which were on the breastplate at the two ends of its upper width (edge), one on the right and one on the left, and the two ends of the chain (or cord) were fixed in the setting on the right, and similarly the two ends of the left chain were fixed in the setting which was on the left shoulder. Consequently, the breast-plate hung in front of him over his heart from the settings of the ephod. Further, there were two rings at the two ends of the breast-plate on its lower edge, and opposite them two rings below on the two shoulder pieces of the ephod on the lower edge of each where this was joined to the belt. The under two rings on the breast-plate were opposite the rings on the ephod, lying one upon the other, and they fastened them (each pair of rings) together by a blue purple thread which was inserted through the rings in the ephod and breast-plate, so that the lower edge of the breast-plate should lie close to the belt of the ephod and should not move about and come apart from it, swinging to and fro.

אפוד, a garment that covers a person from the waist down. Its upper rim is constructed like a sash or belt, artistic work. This sash is used when the wearer ties the ephod above his tunic. This is the meaning of Leviticus 8,7ויחגור אותו בחשב האפוד, ויאפוד לו בו, “he girdled him with the belt of the ephod and thus adorned him with it.”

ועשו את האפוד; although my grandfather (Rashi) has explained both the ephod and the choshen in detail, I plan to concentrate on some aspects which he has not mentioned in his commentary.

The settings were put in their ends in front of his shoulders. . . I.e., the settings were put on the shoulder-straps in the place where the shoham-stones were fixed.

V. 6. Mosche hat nur die Arbeiter zu ernennen, sie aber empfangen die Stoffe zur Anfertigung der Kleider unmittelbar aus den Händen des Volkes. Bedenken wir, dass mit diesen Kleidern die für alle Zeiten bleibende Weihe und Würde der Aaroniden verbunden sein sollte, wodurch sie als die auserwählten Vertreter der Nation im Heiligtum zu hoher Auszeichnung gelangten, von der anderen Seite aber ihren Dienst im Heiligtum nur als Diener der Nation zu vollziehen hatten, und daher, wie bereits zu V. 2 bemerkt, das "Kleid des Volkes" im Heiligtum zu tragen hatten: so begreifen wir nach beiden Seiten hin die bei den Kleidern ausdrücklich hervorgehobene Bestimmung, dass die Verfertiger dieser Kleider den Stoff dazu unmittelbar aus den Händen des Volkes empfangen sollten. Es erklärt das Volk damit seine Zustimmung zu dieser Auszeichnung, und es ist das Volk, das mit seinem Kleide den Priester bekleidet.

ועשו את האפוד, “they are to make the ephod.” Apparently only a single ephod was to be made. When we read in Samuel I 23,6: “he brought down an ephod with him,” and in Samuel I 22,18: “he killed eighty five men on that day wearing a linen ephod,” this is no contradiction to what the Torah wrote, as none of these eighty five men also wore a breastplate attached to their ephod. The Jewish High Priests, when consulting G-d, did so only by means of the breastplate which had the urim and tumim folded in the pocket at the back of the breastplate. When in Samuel 23,9, David told the High Priest Evyatar to bring forth the ephod, he referred to the one attached to the breastplate that was attached to it. The artisans constructed the ephod, according to what is written in the Torah, and as explained by Rashi. There is proof that the ephod was a vestment, as we are told in Samuel II 6,14, that David was girded with an ephod. We also have proof that the daughters of the king would wear such a garment so as to be identified of their rank as princesses. (Compare Samuel II 13,18.)

זהב תכלת וארגמן תולעת שני ושש משזר OF GOLD, OF BLUE PURPLE, AND OF RED PURPLE, OF CRIMSON AND FINE TWISTED LINEN — The five materials were intertwined in every strand: they beat out the gold into the form of thin plates and from them they cut threads, and they wove that gold thread together with six threads of blue purple and a gold thread with six threads of red purple, and similarly with the crimson and similarly with the fine linen; because all the materials had their threads sixfold and there was a gold thread with each of them. Then they intertwined them all into one thread; it followed, therefore, that their thread was 28-fold. This is how it is explained in Treatise Yoma 72a and it is derived from the following verse: (Exodus 39:3) “And they beat out the gold into thin plates and cut it into threads to work the threads of gold in the blue purple and in the red purple, etc.” — this tells us that a gold thread was intertwined with each material.

Similarly the two ends of the chain. . . Explanation: These are the golden braided chains. After they are inserted in the rings [of the breastplate], each chain has two heads; they are thus double. [They are attached to] the settings of the eiphod, which are actually the settings on the shoulder straps [of the eiphod. They are so called] because everything connected to the eiphod is called “eiphod” — and the shoulder straps are connected to the belt of the eiphod.

מעשה חשב THE WORK OF AN ARTIST — I have already explained (Exodus 26:1) that this was weaving on both sides: that is, that the designs on both sides were not similar one to the other.

Lying on each other. . . Explanation: The rings of the shoulder straps were on the outside and the rings of the breastplate were on the inside. He then מרכסן , i.e., joins them with a thread of greenish-blue wool, so the breastplate will not move about and separate.