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Audio: Track 16 58
The Book of Exodus – חומש שמות
Torah Portion Tetzaveh
In the Torah portion of Tetzaveh the following verse appears:
"You shall make a breastplate of judgment, an act of skillful
workmanship, like the work of the ephod you shall make it; gold,
blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen shall you make it."
(28:15)
R' Yaakov Tzvi Mecklenburg comments on this verse:
The word "breastplate" ( ) ֹּחׁ ֶשןis composed of the same letters as the word
"divination" () ַׁנ ַׁחׁש, except the letters are in a different order.
The Torah prohibits practicing divination:
"You shall not eat with the blood, you shall not practice divination and
you shall not practice soothsaying." (Va'Yikra 19:26)
The meaning of the verb "to practice divination" is to reveal hidden things with
the help of prohibited forces.
In contrast, the breastplate revealed hidden things with the help of sanctified
forces, and through it the Urim and Tumim lit up with a sanctified illumination
from the heavens.
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