[Avodah] On the Ephod

[Isaac Balbin]

I had obviously been reading the Rashi on the Ephod mechanically over the years. This year, his words “VeLibi Omer Li” screamed out and bothered me (he doesn’t use that phrase in any other Rashi). I wondered whether this suggests that Rashi’s own Rebbes seemingly had no Mesora either for the look of the Ephod. Was it just taught as being “some style of apron secured by its own belt” etc? And then I wondered how does the “heart” per se adduce what the actual Ephod looked like (yes, the Rambam and Rashbam etc have different opinions, to boot).
I saw that the Rav (Soloveitchik) as quoted in the Chumash Mesoras HoRav wrote about this being a level of Kesser Torah and that his Zeyda, Reb Chaim was suffused with this when unearthing Pshat in the Rambam.
Of course some may say the expression "of the heart" is a euphemism for *Ruach* HaKodesh …
That being said, a learned friend pointed out very nice lomdus from the Lubavitcher Rebbe, here

https://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=16021&st=&pgnum=282 <https://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=16021&st=&pgnum=282>

especially from page 192:2 onwards
See also 198-199.
You need to be comfortable with Yiddish. (I don’t know if it has been translated)
I don’t know anyone else who seriously tries to dissect the “Libi Omer Li”. Do you?
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