Make sacred garments for your brother Aaron, for honor and adornment. 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.
(15) You shall make a (choshen) breastplate of judgment, 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.
Rabbi Shlomo Riskin (1940- , USA/Israel)
The religious leaders of Israel - the nation of the Book, the nation of the Law, the nation with a mission to the world - must first render judicial decisions for their own people, determine national policy, [and] provide religious, ethical and moral direction. But at the same time, they must be painfully aware that they bear responsibility for their decisions and their consequences. Thus the high priest must literally bear the burden of every member of the twelve tribes; he must carry their names on his shoulders.
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat (1975- , USA)
Names remind us of the people they represent. Imagine wearing the names of everyone in your family on your chest: the ones you love, the ones who maybe drive you a little crazy, siblings and distant cousins alike. Imagine carrying those names with you on every journey inward into prayer. What would that feel like?
Imagine that you are building your own choshen (breastplate). What names would you write upon its stones?
