Шмот 28:6 Комментарий: Rashi, Chizkuni, Kli Yakar & Sforno

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.

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 I 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.)

And they shall make the ephod. In all other instances it says and you shall make, but here it says and they shall make, because the Sages said (Arachin 16) that the ephod comes to atone for idolatry, and here the Israelites transgressed and made the golden calf. Therefore, all of them should be involved in making the ephod to provide atonement for everyone. In a similar way, the Sages said (Exodus Rabbah 34:2) regarding And they shall make an ark — let everyone come and be involved in it, etc. Likewise, and they shall make stated here [is because] Moses had no part at all in that act [of the golden calf], therefore [the text] attributed [the making] to the Israelites and not to Moses. We have explained this previously in a different way.
And [the text] says that it should be a work of skilled design in order to atone for idolatry, because the thought regarding it [idolatry] is considered like an action, as it is said in order to seize the house of Israel in their heart (Ezekiel 14:5). The reason for this is that the essence of that sin depends on belief, which is in the realm of thought, and all the services performed for idolatry are secondary to the thought, because the main sin depends on the believing heart.
This is what is meant by and the skillfully woven band which is on it shall be of the same workmanship because although “cheshev” refers to binding or girding, nevertheless, the text uses the term cheshev, which also indicates thought, to teach that the thought regarding it [idolatry] is considered as an action. For this reason, the cheshev [band] was made like its workmanship, to atone for the thought which is considered as an action.