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.