Comentários de Citação sobre Êxodo 28:33

Rabbi Joshua said: This is what it meant when they said: "When [the beast] is alive it possesses one sound, but when it is dead its sound is sevenfold." In what way is its sound sevenfold? Its two horns [are made into] two trumpets, its two leg-bones into two flutes, its hide into a drum, its entrails for lyres and its large intestines for harp strings; and there are some who add that its wool is used for the blue [pomegranates.] Rabbi Joshua provides a colorful analogy to the above strange situation, in which a woman vowed to bring one pair of birds, and ends up bringing seven birds (or eight according to Ben Azzai). While a ram is alive it has only one voice, but its body parts can be used in making seven different instruments. Like Ben Azzai, who adds an eighth instrument, some note that from the wool of the ram, one can make the clothes of the high priests, upon which pomegranate bells are hung (see Exodus 28:33). Thus, the woman used her singular voice and became obligated to bring seven or eight birds.

על שולי המעיל, on the hem of the robe, etc. The wording makes clear that the sages who hold that the pomegranates were next to the bells as opposed to the bells being inside the pomegranates were correct. Why else would the Torah first report that the pomegranates were attached to the hem of the robe and then report the making of the bells as a separate item in a separate verse? Later the Torah reports that these bells were placed in between the pomegranates "on the hem of the robe." The repetition of the words "on the hem of the robe" makes no sense if these bells were inside the pomegranates, i.e. surrounded by them. I am very surprised at Nachmanides who has rejected this approach. As to Nachmanides' answer to the above argument that the pomegranates were not actually suspended at the hem of the robe until after the bells had been placed inside them, it seems to me that the text says exactly the opposite. Nachmanides' using the fact that the Torah repeated the statement that the bells were inside the pomegranates as proof for his contention is not tenable. He does not explain why the Torah should have given the command to place the pomegranates from the hem of the robe at that point (compare 28,33). I believe that in this instance Nachmanides did not examine the text with his customary care.