[Avodah] Zipped

[Zev Sero]

Yisrael Medad wrote:
> a) Shmot 28:7 notes that the two sections of the Ephod are simply to be 
> "chovrot" - attached/joined together.
> b)  the attachment mechanism doesn't seem to be by a button but by a 
> blue thread/string.  so "veyirkasu" doesn't necessarily have to mean 
> "they buttoned".

It can't mean that, because buttons (as a means of fastening) had not
yet been invented.  Buttons are relatively modern*.  At the time when
the Mennonites were founded, they were just coming into style; ordinary
people didn't wear them, but soldiers and other flashy dressers did.
Since Mennonites abhor both violence and flashiness, they banned the
wearing of buttons.  (Zips and velcro were still far in the future.)

* Actually, buttons themselves are ancient, but button*holes* are
a modern invention.  In ancient times, buttons were purely for
decoration (e.g. the kaftorim on the menorah).  Nobody thought of
turning them to practical use, by putting a button on one side of
an opening, and a hole opposite, and threading the button through
the hole.  That idea is modern.

-- 
Zev Sero               Something has gone seriously awry with this Court's
zev at sero.name          interpretation of the Constitution.
                       	                          - Clarence Thomas