Parshat Hashavua: Tetzaveh

...What is the reason the Torah here says, "You shall instruct..." It should have said "Instruct Aaron" or "Instruct the Israelites" as it says in Parshat "Speak to the priests" regarding this mitzvah....?

(1) You shall bring forward your brother Aaron, with his sons, from among the Israelites, to serve Me as priests: Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar, the sons of Aaron. (2) Make sacral vestments for your brother Aaron, for dignity and adornment. (3) Next you shall instruct all who are skillful, whom I have endowed with the gift of skill, to make Aaron’s vestments, for consecrating him to serve Me as priest. (4) These are the vestments they are to make: a breastpiece, an ephod (outer apron), a robe, a fringed tunic, a headdress, and a sash. They shall make those sacral vestments for your brother Aaron and his sons, for priestly service to Me; (5) they, therefore, shall receive the gold, the blue, purple, and crimson yarns, and the fine linen. (6) They shall make the ephod of gold, of blue, purple, and crimson yarns, and of fine twisted linen, worked into designs. (7) It shall have two shoulder-pieces attached; they shall be attached at its two ends. (8) And the decorated band that is upon it shall be made like it, of one piece with it: of gold, of blue, purple, and crimson yarns, and of fine twisted linen. (9) Then take two lazuli stones and engrave on them the names of the sons of Israel: (10) six of their names on the one stone, and the names of the remaining six on the other stone, in the order of their birth. (11) On the two stones you shall make seal engravings—the work of a lapidary—of the names of the sons of Israel. Having bordered them with frames of gold, (12) attach the two stones to the shoulder-pieces of the ephod, as stones for remembrance of the Israelite people, whose names Aaron shall carry upon his two shoulder-pieces for remembrance before the LORD.

"Take the two lapus lazuli stones": To atone for the two tablets that were smashed when the cord connecting God, the Tablets, Moses and Israel became frayed (separated)...As a result of the atonement, all of these would reunite because the two lapus lazuli stones are for the two Tablets...[The word for lapus lazuli] is שהם that Rabbenu Bahya explains are the letters of משה, and all the names of the Children of Israel are engraved on them - so that all 4 (God, Tablets, Moses and Israel) are all in one place since [the time that] they forgot God their Redeemer and caused God to forget them in response. Since they returned [in repentance] and remembered God is their Rock, then also they will be on the two shoulders for remembrance.

(3) in the third year of his reign, he gave a banquet for all the officials and courtiers—the administration of Persia and Media, the nobles and the governors of the provinces in his service. (4) For no fewer than a hundred and eighty days he displayed the vast riches of his kingdom and the splendid glory of his majesty. (5) At the end of this period, the king gave a banquet for seven days in the court of the king’s palace garden for all the people who lived in the fortress Shushan, high and low alike. (6) [There were hangings of] white cotton and blue wool, caught up by cords of fine linen and purple wool to silver rods and alabaster columns; and there were couches of gold and silver on a pavement of marble, alabaster, mother-of-pearl, and mosaics.

(13) Then make frames of gold (14) and two chains of pure gold; braid these like corded work, and fasten the corded chains to the frames. (15) You shall make a breastpiece of decision, worked into a design; make it in the style of the ephod: make it of gold, of blue, purple, and crimson yarns, and of fine twisted linen. (16) It shall be square and doubled, a span in length and a span in width. (17) Set in it mounted stones, in four rows of stones. The first row shall be a row of carnelian, chrysolite, and emerald; (18) the second row: a turquoise, a sapphire, and an amethyst; (19) the third row: a jacinth, an agate, and a crystal; (20) and the fourth row: a beryl, a lapis lazuli, and a jasper. They shall be framed with gold in their mountings. (21) The stones shall correspond [in number] to the names of the sons of Israel: twelve, corresponding to their names. They shall be engraved like seals, each with its name, for the twelve tribes.

(31) You shall make the robe of the ephod of pure blue. (32) The opening for the head shall be in the middle of it; the opening shall have a binding of woven work round about—it shall be like the opening of a coat of mail—so that it does not tear. (33) On its hem make pomegranates of blue, purple, and crimson yarns, all around the hem, with bells of gold between them all around: (34) a golden bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pomegranate, all around the hem of the robe. (35) Aaron shall wear it while officiating, so that the sound of it is heard when he comes into the sanctuary before the LORD and when he goes out—that he may not die.

(35) Aaron shall wear it while officiating, so that the sound of it is heard when he comes into the sanctuary before the LORD and when he goes out—that he may not die.

(1) קדש לה׳. "Holy unto G'd." This means that as long as the words "Holy unto G'd" appeared on the headband (golden plate), this was acceptable. When the Talmud said in Shabbat 63 that the words were arranged in two rows, this means that the name of י־ה was engraved on top and the word קדש followed by the letter ל underneath. Such an arrangement of the words was not mandatory. You will find there that Rabbi Eliezer son of Rabbi Yossi reported that while in Rome he personally had seen the ציץ which the Romans had captured, and that the words "Holy unto G'd" were engraved on it in a single line. This proves that the order in which the words were engraved did not matter. When Maimonides wrote in chapter nine of his treatise on Kley Hamikdosh that the words appeared in two rows, with the word קדש in the second line, this does not present a difficulty. He referred only to the preferred way of engraving these words.