Comentário sobre Êxodo 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.