Комментарий к Шмот 28:21

איש על שמו EVERY ONE WITH HIS NAME — As the order in which they were born shall be the order of the stones: a sardius for Reuben, a topaz for Simeon, and so in the case of all of them.

והאבנים תהיין על שמות בני ישראל, as soon as the Israelites when donating these various materials had dedicated them to their sacred purpose, i.e. that their names be inscribed on these gemstones, they became sacred, so that the word תהיין, meaning “they will remain, etc.,” is fully justified.”

As was the order of their birth so was the order of the stones. . . I.e., it was in the order by which the matriarchs [started to] give birth. Whoever gave birth first, [all her sons came before those of the next matriarch]. This disregards the order that the tribes were actually born — Reuvain, Shimon, Leivi, Yehudah, [Dan, Naftali] — as the תולדותם of the eiphod is ordered. Therefore here, Yissachar and Zevulun [who are sons of Leah, the first matriarch to give birth,] come before Dan and Naftali. As a result, Dan’s name was written on the leshem stone, as it is written in Yehoshua (19:47): “They called [the town of] Leshem ‘Dan,’ like the name of Dan their father” [see Rashi on Shoftim 18:29]. Re”m elaborated, and I summarized.

V. 21. והאבנים תהיין וגו׳, siehe oben zu V. 9. — פתוחי חותם וגו׳. Nach Joma 73 b stand außer den Namen der zwölf Stämme auch: אברהם יצחק ויעקב und שבטי ישורון und zwar, nach מ׳׳ר Ende תצוה, stand auf אברהם יצחק ויעקב ראובן :אדם, auf שמעון :פטדה, und so fort, bis auf בנימן שבטי ישורון :ישפה zu stehen kam. Dadurch befanden sich sämtliche Buchstaben des א׳׳ב behufs des Ausspruches der Urim und Tumim auf den Steinen; es würden sonst ט ,צ ,ק, n gefehlt haben, die in den Namen der Stämme nicht vorkommen.

איש על שמו, each jewel symbolised the name of the tribe in whose row it was placed and engraved.. According to Rashi, the order in which these jewels have been named here corresponded to the order in which the names of the twelve tribes had been arranged on the breastplate, in order of their ages. If Rashi were correct, then the jewel leshem should not have been the one symbolising the tribe of Dan, as is clear from Joshua 19,47. We would have to say therefore that the order followed the ages of their respective mothers, i.e. Leah, Bilhah, Zilpah, Rachel. When we accept this then the jewel leshem corresponds to the position of Dan on the breastplate. There is an argument between Rabbi Yochanan and Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish if the respective letters of the name of the tribe stood out, as for instance the letter ע of the name שמעון, and the letter ל in the name לוי, and no letter would move from its place to be joined to its counterpart, so that the whole name would not appear arranged consecutively, or that each name appeared on its jewel completely spelled out consecutively. [We must remember that according to tradition there were a total of 72 letters but seeing that they did not represent each letter in the alphabet, another verse had to be inscribed on the breastplate. [The significance of the number 72 is that it is the number of letters in the longest version of G-d’s name. Ed.]

שתים עשרה על שמותם, the Torah emphasises that the number 12 is not arbitrary but represents the names of the 12 tribes, no fewer nor any additional ones. [Joseph is represented by one gemstone not two, and the tribe of Levi was included though they did not share in the distribution of the land of Canaan to the tribes. Ed.]

פתוחי חותם איש על שמו, this sounds like an instruction to the engraver of these gemstones to have in mind the specific name of the tribe when he engraves letters on the gemstone representing that tribe.