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In general, the Torah does not give detailed advice about how to dress. A Jewish man should be recognizable as a Jew, men should wear only men’s clothes and women should wear women’s clothes. And of course, all Jews should dress modestly – those are the guidelines. However, when it comes to the Cohanim – the priestly caste – the situation changes. While serving in the Beit Hamikdash, or holy Temple, the priests were required to wear special clothes. And the High Priest was required to wear eight special garments. One of those was the ephod – best translated as “apron,” indicating a garment that encircled the torso of the priest. It was made of the same special materials that characterized all of the garments of the High Priest – gold threads, turquoise, purple and crimson wool with fine linen, all woven together by a skilled craftsman. And on top of the ephod went the famous choshen (“breastplate”), containing the urim v’tumim (twelve gems with the names of the tribes engraved upon them, set in gold settings). When an important Jew in a public position needed to ask advice, he would go to the High Priest, who would consult the urim v’tumim, and hopefully receive divinely inspired advice from Above.
So, what would the common Jew, who also needed to consult from time to time, do in order to receive his advice? He would find a member of an interesting subset of Jews, known as the b’nei hanivi’im – the “sons of the prophets.” These “sons of the prophets” were not necessarily priests, but they would also wear an ephod, or “apron.” However, in their case it was made not of gold and colored threads, but of simple cloth. Despite its simplicity, this simple cloth ephod indicated that its wearer had attained a high degree of divine inspiration, and could be counted upon to give accurate advice to other Jews, based upon his powers of prophecy.
This information comes from the Rambam in his Mishneh Torah (Hilchot cli hamikdash 10:13), “This that we find written about in the words of the prophets, that the priests wore aprons of cloth (“eighty-five men wearing aprons of clothŔ – Shmuel 1, 22:18) does not refer to High Priests, since they did not wear aprons of cloth. And even the Levites would wear such aprons, as Shmuel was from the tribe of Levi, and about him it is written, ‘a lad wearing a cloth apron.’ Rather, this apron was worn by the “sons of the prophets” and whomever had achieved a level of divine inspiration. [In this way], he let people know that he was on the spiritual level of the High Priest who would speak with divine inspiration, according to the ehpod and the choshen.”
The question that arises here is, why did the Rambam find it necessary to present this bit of information? The Mishneh Torah is a compendium of halachot, of Jewish laws. It is not a collection of stories or of history. But, since the Rambam wrote at length regarding this piece of history, it must mean that there is a halacha – a directive in Jewish life – for us to learn here. It is not likely that his sole purpose was to tell us that the cloth ephod was not one of the priestly garments, for two reasons;
1) If so, why would he continue by telling us that the “sons of the prophets” reached the same spiritual level of the High Priest? That would seem to lead us in the opposite direction from telling us that their ephod was not a priestly garment.
2) Why does the Rambam bring support by mentioning Shmuel, who was a Levite? He could have mentioned King David, who also wore a cloth apron (Shmuel 2, 6:14). King David was not from the priestly tribe of Levi at all (not as a Levite nor as a Cohen), so if the Rambam’s entire purpose was to tell us that the cloth apron was not a priestly garment, King David would have provided greater proof.
So, it would appear that the Rambam had a greater purpose in mind here. Perhaps he wished to establish another halacha, which is that anyone who reaches such a state of divine inspiration, that they are capable to giving advice to private Jews who need their help, must wear the plain cloth ephod. That is, in order to let Jews know that they were “up to the job,” and could offer advice to those who sought their help, the bnei halevi’im were required to wear the cloth ephod. By wearing this simple cloth apron, those who had achieved the spiritual level of divine inspiration and prophecy could let other Jews know that they were available for consultation. In that way, not only kings and people bearing public positions could consult with divine inspiration (via the High Priest and the urim vetumim), but also the common man who needed advice could receive it. As the Rambam wrote in Hilchot Yesodei HaTorah (10:3), “The prophet is there…in order to inform us of future events that will occur in the world…and he may even inform individual people of their needs, such as King Saul who lost an article and went to the prophet, who informed him of its location.” And in order that all Jews should have access to such advice, and could turn to someone with their questions, these “sons of the prophets” would don a cloth ephod in order to identify themselves. And then, all the Jews could go to them for advice.
With this explanation, the sequence of words of the Rambam (in Hilchot cli hamikdash 10:3) makes sense. First, he spoke of the option of consulting the urim vetumim of the high priest, adding the caveat that only “a king or beit din or one who is involved in public service” could consult, but not the common man. Then, he went on to add that the bnei hanevi’im would wear a cloth ephod, “in order to inform…that they arrived to the spiritual level of the high Priest,” so that all Jews (not only kings, etc) would know that it was possible to consult with them, even on private matters. And for that reason as well, the Rambam quoted from Shmuel, and not from King David, both of whom wore a cloth ephod. But, King David wore the cloth ephod for an entirely different reason, connected with the holy ark, while Shmuel wore the ephod because he himself was a prophet. And since the Rambam wished to establish that prophets also wore the ephod, he quoted from Shmuel.
There is only one problem here that throws a “wrench” into the entire explanation. And that is, why did the Rambam bring up this subject here, in the laws of the holy Temple and its vessels? If the point was to establish a detail in the laws of prophecy – that a prophet should wear a simple cloth ephod – then the place to do that should have been in Hilchot Yesodei HaTorah (“Laws of the basis of the Torah”), where the Rambam discusses prophecy in general. Why does he instead bring it up in the laws of priestly garments? And even though he says the point was to inform us that the prophet “had arrived to the spiritual level of the High Priest…who spoke with divine inspiration,” that itself poses a question: What is the reason to compare the prophet with the High Priest?
To answer these questions, we need to first understand the Rambam’s approach regarding consultation with the urim vetumim of the High Priest. According to Rashi (in tractate Yoma 73B), when a king or minister or judge would ask a question, the High Priest he would gaze at the urim vetumim. Upon the stones were written the names of the twelve tribes, and the appropriate letters of the tribal names would “stick out” from the stones in order to provide the answer. If, for example, someone asked where a lost article was and the answer was in “Haifa,” then the letters chet-yud-peh-hey (spelling Haifa) would physically bulge out of the stones in order to give the high priest a reading, which he would pass on the answer to the questioner. (This was assuming the High Priest was on the appropriate spiritual level; if not, he would not receive an answer).
The Rambam, however, described another process, in which “divine spirit would “enclothe” the priest as he gazed upon the breastplate, and with his powers of prophecy, he would discern the answer from the letters that stood out and appeared in front of him” (Hilchot Cli Hamikdash 10:11). So, while Rashi determined that the answer was provided by the letters (which physically bulged), the Rambam determined that it was not the letters, but the priest’s power of prophecy that discerned the answer. In other words, according to Rashi, the answer came from the letters of the urim vetumim. But, according to the Rambam the letters only facilitated the answer by stimulating the holy spirit of the priest, but it was the divine spirit of the priest that revealed the answer. According to the Rambam, then, process of receiving an answer was not related to the priestly garments, as much as to the personal spiritual level of the priest. If he was on the appropriate level, he was able to discern the answer, but if not, he was unable.
Nevertheless, the Rambam counts the urim vetumim as one of the eight priestly garments. In the previous halacha (Hilchot Cli Hamikdash 10:10), the Rambam states that even when it wasn’t possible to ask questions of the urim vetumim (as during the second Temple), it was still necessary for the high priest to wear them, because without them, the priestly costume was incomplete. From this, we must deduce that the urim vetumim were not only associated with the priests spiritual level and powers of prophecy, but that they were also part of the priestly costume. What emerges from this is that there were two elements to the High Priest and his garments:
1) The service and worship that was involved, and
2) The spiritual level of the High Priest – his attainment or lack thereof in divine inspiration and prophecy. This as well was an element that was associated with the High Priest and his garments.
These two elements are the content that we find in the urim vetumim;
1) They are among the eight priestly garments, and
2) They function to provide answers to questions via prophecy.
Now, we may understand why the Rambam mentioned this halacha in the section discussing the priestly garments (Hilchot Cli Hamikdash), and not in the section discussing prophecy (in Hilchot Yesodei HaTorah). First (in halacha 12), the Rambam discusses the process of consulting with the High Priest, via the urim vetumim. And since the spiritual level of the High Priest played a role in the consultation, the Rambam proceeds to tell us (in halacha 13) that non-priests who attained a high spiritual level (prophecy) also wore a “priest-like” garment. Since they as well reached a high spiritual level, in which it was possible to consult with them according to divine inspiration, they also wore a “priest-like” garment. It is just that the non-priestly ephod was unlike that of the High Priest: it was made of cloth. But otherwise, the purpose of the prophet was not only to prophecy the future, but, like the High Priest, to serve the public by answering questions, even of a private nature. For that reason, he wore an ephod, similar to the High Priest.
From another perspective, the ephod that a prophet (one of the bnei hanevi’im) wore was of more significance than the woven ephod of the High Priest. For, while to be a prophet in the true sense, as described in the Rambam entailed many difficult conditions, the same was not required of the High Priest. In regard to prophecy, the Rambam (Hilchot Yesodei HaTorah 7:1) explains at length, “Prophecy occurs only to one who is wise, with control over his emotions so that his inclination does not overwhelm him regarding any issue…he must possess wide-ranging knowledge that greatly stabilizes him…have a complete body…who makes himself progressively more holy and separates himself from the masses of people…motivating himself and teaching himself not to think at all about worthless topics…his mind is always available to consider higher spiritual matters…in order to grasp holy abstract forms.” None of these requirements apply to a High Priest, who must simply exceed his priestly brothers in “attractiveness, in strength, in wealth, in wisdom and in appearance” (Hilchot Cli Hamikdash, beginning of Ch. 5). So, although at first glance it we would think that the spiritual attainments of the High Priest (of whom there is only one at any given time) must surpass those of a prophet (of whom there could be many), in reality the bnei hanevi’im may have been on a higher level.
And that higher level was possibly expressed in the cloth ephod of the prophet. For, although the regular garments of the High Priest included the woven ephod, there was one day of the year that the High Priest himself donned only four garments (instead of the usual eight). On that day – Yom Kippur – he donned a cloth ephod and entered the holy of holies to attain atonement for the Jewish people. This suggests that the cloth ephod worn by the bnei hanevi’im was of the same level as that of the High Priest when he entered the holy of holies on Yom Kipppur.
If the above is true, that the Rambam wished to establish as halacha that a prophet should wear a cloth ephod in order to inform others of his status, then it is possible to ask about the future, when all Jews will be prophets. As the verse says, “I will pour out my spirit on all flesh, and your sons and daughters will prophecyŔ (Yoel 3:1), implying that all Jews will attain prophecy in the messianic future. And if so, will it be necessary, according to the Rambam, for them to wear an ephod? On one hand, since all will be able to access prophetic secrets, it should not be necessary to inform others of their new-found status. But on the other hand, there will be various different levels of prophecy, and it may still be necessary to go to prophets who are higher on the hierarchy of prophecy in order to find answers, and this could necessitate that at least the more accomplished prophets should wear the cloth ephod.
We should find out soon, G-d willing!
From Likutei Sichot of the Lubavitcher Rebbe ztz’l, vol. 31, pp. 156-164 Rabbi David Sterne, Jerusalem Connection in the old city of Jerusalem