And their gold will be niddah, their silver and their gold will not be able to save them on the day of the Lord’s wrath . . . for the obstacle was because of their iniquity. The beauty of His adornment is what he made for their glorification, but they made there the despicable images of their abominations; therefore I made it niddah to them.
Ezekiel 7:19-20.
את האורים ואת התמים --- THE URIM AND THE TUMIM. הוא כתב שמ המפרש - It is a writing of the Explicit Name, the Tetragrammaton of HASHEM, שהיה נותנו בתוך כפלי החשן - which he would put inside the folds of the Choshen, שעל ידו הוא מאיר דבריו ומתמם את דבריו - for by means of [the Urim VeTumim], [the Choshen] would illuminate its words and bring perfection to its words.
Rashi, Shemos, 28:30 (brackets in Sapirstein Edition Rashi).
Note 3 on the paragraph above (in the
Sapirstein Edition Rashi) points out that the Hebrew word for "
urim" אורים literally means" light," or lights, ergo "illumination." The note goes on to point out that the ornamental
urim (that adorns the priest) would illuminate the meaning of an issue brought before it so that we have parallel passages in Ezekiel 7:19-20, 16:11-17, and Psalms 132:16-18 illuminating for us the fact that the ornament God makes
niddah for Israel is, clearly, undeniably, exegetically, the
chosen חשן, worn by the high priest.
The
chosen חשן is the adornment/ornament made
niddah for Israel.
Ezekiel 7:19 says that:
their gold will be niddah, their silver and their gold will not be able to save them on the day of the Lord’s wrath . . . for the obstacle [to their salvation] was because of their iniquity. . . The text is claiming that the very ornament, adornment, designed to "save" ("I will cloth its priests with salvation ישע"), becomes the "obstacle" (Hebrew: "stone of offense") denying Israel the salvation that God designed in association with the ornament, the adornment, the glory of Israel (the
chosen חשן).
When we realize that Psalms 132:16-18 unabashedly proclaims that this ornament is Messiah, the light, or illumination of the world, the very anointed one of God, Rashi's further clarification concerning the nature of the
chosen חשן starts to take on a rather heavy, even dark, rather than a light, meaning. This is particularly the case when we realize that Rash has already been quoted claiming the Divine Name, the tetragrammaton (the Name of the Lord) is placed inside the
chosen חשן (see quotation above); such that paralleling Psalm 132:16-18, where what the priests wear is called "Salvation," and is explicitly stated to be Messiah, the horn of David, the anointed one, ישע, well, naturally, modern Judaism isn't going to like where this is going one iota: the passages are equating Messiah with the Divine Name, the tetragrammaton.
חשם משפת -- THE CHOSHEN OF JUDGMENT. שמכפר על קלקול הדין -- It is called this because it atones for miscarriage of justice.
Rashi, Shemos, 28:15 (brackets in Sapirstein Edition Rashi).
The note to the statement above (in the
Sapirstein Edition Rashi), says: "
Rashi is saying here that the term חשן משפט indicates that the Urim VeTumim proved the truth of its words, just as one presenting his claims before the court tries to show the truth and justice of his arguments." Rashi goes on to state that the Hebrew word used with the
chosen חשן, i.e., משפט, speaks "of the claims of the litigants," which is to say that "
choshen חשן of judgment," משפט (
mishpat) meaning "judgment," implies that the
chosen חשן itself is (represents) a litigant with a claim against Israel.
את משפט בני ישראל --THE JUDGMENT OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL. דבר שהם נשפטים ונוכחים על ידו --The Choshen is a thing through which they are judged and arrive at a conclusion . . . According to the aggadic Midrash which says that the Choshen atones for those who pervert justice, נקדא משפט על שם סליחת המשפט -- [the Choshen] is called "judgment" because of forgiveness of the sin involving judgment.
Rashi, Shemos, 28:30 (brackets in Sapirstein Edition Rashi).
Exodus (
Shemos) chapter 28 goes on to say that the
chosen חשן shall be worn on Aaron's heart, as a necklace bearing the light of Messiah, an ornament of glory, the tetragrammaton, whenever Aaron comes before the Lord. Which is to say the Lord will not entertain Aaron the high priest of Israel unless he's wearing the ornament of glory, the
chosen חשן of judgment, through which the sins of Israel will be forgiven, atoned for, and made clean תהור.
Imagine for a moment what it would mean for the
chosen חשן, the very means through which Israel is atoned for, and forgiven (of their sins), to be made
niddah for Israel, i.e., the thing that cleans טהור the unclean, instead makes Israel unclean טמא,
niddah. That's what's in the cross-member, the cross-hairs, of a study on
parah adumah, the red cow, the mother (
Shekinah) of a virgin born god, whose blood, the blood of the mother, the red cow, and the son, the gold calf, make the clean ---Israel ---unclean, and the unclean, the nations (
goyim), clean as the driven snow.
Which all segues right back to the question of questions that's central to this examination, i.e., the very cross-member in the cross-hairs of the study: what could be cleaner than the water of a
mikveh? Which is partly answered by understanding the nature of the chosen חשן and its being made
niddah for Israel, such that all the foregoing (rather than a slight ritual cut), leads to a question that should help with the question of questions: if
parah adumah is required for Israel to function as a priestly nation, and it is, according to Jewish law (such that accordingly Israel hasn't function as such since the first century of the current era), then we're left with just one very important question before we call airman Cecil O'Malley and Anthony Rodriguez. We're wondering how, if Israel needs the blood of the red cow,
parah adumah, to be clean priests in the first place, then how can the blood of the red cow,
parah adumah, make the priests and participants from Israel who are preparing the blood of the sacrifice, unclean, when they should need the blood of the sacrifice to be made clean in the first place?
John