Shemot 28:30 (also Vayikra 8:8) – The priestly clothing: The urim and tummim

שמות כח:ל - ונתת אל חושן המשפט את האורים ואת התמים והיו על לב אהרן בבאו לפני ה' ונשא אהרן את משפט בני ישראל על לבו לפני ה' תמיד.

Shemot 28:30 records that the urim and tummim were to be placed al (to? on? in?) the hoshen (a priestly garment that Aharon was to wear on his chest) on his lev (not his heart), and the Aharon was to carry the judgment of the people on his lev. The urim and tummim are mysterious since it is unclear what they were and what was their purpose. Are they clothing? 

Many claim, based on Bemidbar 27:21, that the urim and tummim were to enable the high priest to ask G-d questions, and then there are various suggestions as to how this was to be done. Rashi (on 28:30) explains that the urim and tummim was a parchment with G-d's name which was inserted into a pouch of the hoshen, and this would cause the stones on the hoshen to light up to answer the questions. Luzzatto (on Vayikra 8:8) suggests that the urim and tummim were twenty-two letters, and the high priest would pull out the letters to answer the question. Modern scholars (see for example Sarna, 1991, on 28:30 and maybe Ibn Ezra, long comments on 28:6) believe that the urim and tummim were two items which functioned as lots to answer yes and no questions. Benno Jacob (1992, p. 920) suggests that the urim and tummim were some text (24:7?) that accompanied the luchot, and they gave a sign to Aharon when it was time for the people to march in the desert. All of these suggestions are based on the idea that the urim and tummim were placed or put into the hoshen.

If the urim and tummim were something written, then I would think it was the priestly blessing that the high priest would have carried parchment that consisted of these verses. Note, silver amulets were found from the 7th century BCE which consisted of the priestly blessings (see Barkay 2009), but in one of the amulets, the beginning of the second blessings, yaer Hashem panav eilecha, and the end of the third blessings, ve-yasem lecha shalom, were combined. Maybe this combined blessing was the urim and tummim, as the blessing of yaer would correspond to the urim and the blessing of shalom would correspond to the tummim.

Nonetheless, this idea that urim and tummim were parchment or stones is problematic since it is never recorded in the Torah that a person constructed or made the urim and tummim. Chapter 39 records how the people made all the items of the priests’ clothing, but nothing is mentioned of the people making the urim and tummim. The Ramban (on 28:30) writes that this absence of someone making the urim and tummim shows that Moshe wrote the urim and tummim and according to one version of the Ramban, that G-d wrote the urim and tummim. Both of these suggestions are difficult since if Moshe wrote the urim and tummim then the Torah should have recorded this action. Also, if G-d wrote the urim and tummim, then this also could have been recorded and it would counter the whole idea that the people constructed the mishkan/ ohel moed and made all the clothing of the priests.

Apparently due to the absence of the Torah describing the making of the urim and tummim, Chacham (1991, pp. 202,203) suggests that the urim and tummim were the twelve stones that were on the hoshen. He then explains that 28:30 (and Vayikra 8:8) can be understood to mean that the stones were to be fixed into the hoshen.

I would expand Chacham’s idea and suggest that the urim and tummim were the two sets of stones on the high priests, the stones on his shoulders on the efod (another item wore on the chest with straps over the shoulders) and on the hoshen.  The beginning of 28:30 and Vayikra 8:8 then mean that the hoshen was to be secured or tightly connected to both sets of stones by securing the connection between the hoshen and the efod.  The Torah records with great detail how these two items of clothing were to be connected, 28:13,14; 22-28. 28:30 is then a concluding sentence to both sets of stones, which form the urim and tummim. In Vayikra 8:8, the urim and tummim are the last items recorded by Moshe dressing Aharon in reference to the clothing relating to the body (not the clothing relating to Aharon's head) since Moshe’s last action was to tighten the cords connecting the hoshen to the efod, which then connected the two set of stones, the urim and tummim.

This idea might also explain the terms urim and tummim. The term urim probably refers to light, which would be the reflection of light from the stones. The term tummim might refer to completeness, as both sets of stones signify the twelve tribes of the people. Both sets of stones have both ideas, and the plural of each term, urim and tummim, could then signify the double reflection and the double completeness.

This idea does not explain the purpose of the urim and tummim. I doubt that urim and tummim were to ask questions of G-d, and the reference to the urim in Bemidbar 27:21 was that they were used once by the division of the land. 

One interesting possibility is the Seforno’s (on 28:30, also Tzror haMor, quoted by Menachem Kasher, Torah Shelemah, footnote 90 on 28:30) suggestion that the urim and tummim would help or remind the high priest to pray for the people in order that G-d would judge them favorably. 

A different possibility is that in our discussion on 28:6-29, “Stones of remembering,” we suggested that each set of stones was to cause either the high priest or the people to remember, and then this could have been the purpose of the urim and tummim, the two sets of stones.  

Also, following the idea that the word lev in the Torah means mind or brain, 28:30 can be understood to mean that Aharon should have in mind the urim and tummim, the two sets of stones which were connected to the hoshen, when he went before G-d and that he should have in mind the judgement (or the means to judge) of the people before G-d all the time.

Bibliography:

Barkay, Gabriel, 2009, The riches of Ketef Hinnom, Biblical Archaeology Review, Vol. 200, pp. 23-35.

Chacham, Amos, 1991, Da'at Mikra: Commentary on Shemot, Jerusalem: Mossad Harav Kook.

Jacob, Benno (1869-1945), 1992, The second book of the Bible: Exodus, translated with an introduction by Walter Jacob, Hoboken: Ktav Publishing House.

Sarna, Nahum, (1923-2005), 1991, The JPS Torah Commentary: Exodus, Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society.