Decoding the Exile

The high priest’s Breastplate was a piece of material folded in half. A parchment inscribed with G-d’s Name was inserted between the folds; it was called the “urim and tumim,” meaning “lights and sincere devotions.”

You shall make a Breastplate of Judgment of woven design. You shall make it as the Ephod is made; make it out of gold, turquoise, purple, and scarlet [wool], and twined linen.

Exodus 28:15

The urim and tumim lost their ability to make the Breastplate function as an oracle after the destruction of the First Temple. This

is a metaphor for the condition of exile, alluded to by the word for “Breastplate” (חשן), whose numerical value (358) is the same as those of the words for “snake” (נחש) and “Messiah” (משיח). The primordial snake, which brought sin to the world, and the Messiah, who will bring clarity of purpose, are, of course, diametric opposites. Yet that is the paradox of exile: The Messianic reality is implicit within exile; our job is just to reveal it.

Allegorically, then, our present mission is to restore the urim and tumim to the cosmic Breastplate – to “decode” the implicit Messianic perception, goodness, and perfection within the snakeskin of reality – so that it can assume its proper, revealed role, with the advent of the full and final Redemption.

--Daily Wisdom Vol. 3