ציטירנדיקער פּירוש אויף במדבר 28:28

ומנחתו ושני עשרונים, ונסכו יין, “and its gift offering, two tenths of fine flour and its libation, wine. Seeing that this libation was not introduced until Numbers 28, the reference to it here is grammatically ambiguous; we find another example of such an ambiguity in verse 18 of our chapter: שבעת כבשים ופר אחד ואילים שנים, “seven male sheep and one bullock and two rams,” which are offered on account of the two loaves representing the firstling fruit of the new wheat harvest on the festival of Shavuot; The Torah adds here: “and their respective gift offerings and libations,” (without spelling out what the latter consisted of.) All the other sacrifices offered on the festivals, mentioned here without specifics, are all described in the feminine mode, as only in Numbers chapter 28 they are considered as complete, as there the libations accompanying them are spelled out.

I have seen in a book by Aristotle devoted to stones that the stones require the wearer of them to be pure in order for each of them to effectively carry out its special function, the properties we have listed above. If the wearer is ritually impure, they either lose their power altogether as far as he is concerned, or their power is greatly reduced. As soon as the wearer undergoes purification rites, the gemstone around his neck will recover its power. It is perfectly in order to accept what Aristotle says as there is no gemstone which does not contain some power given to it by celestial sources. Just as we have been taught in Bereshit Rabbah 10,7 that there is no herb on earth which does not have its counterpart in the celestial regions providing it with its individual mazzal, so the same is true of the precious stones. Having carefully absorbed what we have written about the gemstones in the garments of the High Priest you will note that he was surrounded by the names of the tribes of Israel both in front and behind, seeing these names were inscribed both on the breastplate and on the shoulder pieces of the ephod. [I suppose the fact that the ephod was closed from behind makes the whole garment appear as if it were worn on the back. Ed.] Whenever the High Priest put on his special vestments, he would put on the ephod and the breastplate at the same time, seeing that they were joined together and the Torah had instructed (verse 28) that the breastplate not be detached from the ephod. The band (belt) was tied together under the High Priest’s heart. The two shoulder-straps were inserted in the two rings at the upper end of the breastplate and two threads of blue wool cord were fed to beneath his armpits from the rings at the lower ends of the shoulder straps of the ephod.

THREE TENTH-PARTS SHALL YE OFFER FOR ‘A BULLOCK’ — that is, for each of the [two] bullocks, [mentioned in the preceding verse]. Similarly, three tenth-parts for ‘the one bullock’²⁰⁶Ibid., 29:14. means for each one of the [thirteen] bullocks [mentioned in the preceding verse]. And [the expression in the following Verse 21] for the one lamb shows us [the meaning of] this [phrase — for ‘a bullock,’ in Verse 20 before us], since it says [there in Verse 21], ‘isaron isaron’ [literally: ‘a tenth-part, a tenth-part’ shalt thou offer for ‘the one lamb’ — thus indicating clearly that this amount of the meal-offering is for each of the Iambs; and here too the amount stated is for each of the bullocks and rams]. Scripture further states explicitly [in Verse 21]: for every lamb of the seven lambs. So here too, for ‘a bullock’ means for [each of] the two bullocks. Scripture, however, sometimes speaks briefly in a matter which is self-understood, for it is obvious that there are not three tenth-parts [of an ephah offered up] for one bullock, whilst the second one has none [at all]. And [the reason why] He stated explicitly [in the following Verse 21] in connection with the lambs [that the meal-offering specified is for each one of the lambs], is because they are many [i.e., seven], and it follows all the more so in the [case of the] bullocks [mentioned here in Verse 20 that the meal-offering specified there is to be offered up for each of the two bullocks]. And in [speaking about the first day of] the Festival of Tabernacles, when the bullocks were more [than on any other festival], He explains three tenth-parts for the one bullock of the thirteen bullocks.²⁰⁶Ibid., 29:14.