[Avodah] Arba'a Turim

[Akiva Miller]

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This week, we read Tetzaveh, which tells us about the Choshen and the
twelve jewels placed in it. You may think you know how those jewels are
arranged, but the Torah is actually ambiguous, and the result is a
machlokes.

Shemos 28:17 tells us that there will be four "turim", and which jewels are
to be in the first "tur". The following pesukim tell us about the other
three turim.

Most translations render "tur" as "row", but very unfortunately, most
people read that without realizing that "row" is an ambiguous word. They
think that the four turim are horizontal rows, like in a chart or table,
with the first row on top, and the fourth on the bottom. But isn't it true
that the predecessor to the Shulchan Aruch, namely the Arbaa Turim, is
often depicted as four vertical *columns*?

Consider these two definitions of “row”, from Wiktionary:

> 1) A line of objects, often regularly spaced, such as seats
> in a theatre, vegetable plants in a garden etc.

> 2) A horizontal line of entries in a table, etc., going from
> left to right, as opposed to a column going from top to bottom.

In our parsha, Onkelos translates "tur" as "sidra" - an orderly
arrangement, like Wiktionary's first definition, not related to rows or
columns. I believe this is also true of how "tur" is used in Melachim 1
7:12, Yechezkel 46:23, and Divrei Hayamim 2 4:3.

On the other hand, it is abundantly clear that these 12 jewels are to be
arranged in four groups of three each. The question is whether these
"turim" are rows or columns.

Encyclopedia Talmudit, volume 1, has an article titled "Avnei Choshen
v'Ephod", which brings two opinions at the top of column 93. According to
the Pesikta Zutresa (Parshas Tetzaveh, and Chizkuni there), the four turim
are horizontal rows, and the three jewels of each row are placed in the
Choshen from right to left. According to Minchas Chinuch 99, the four turim
are vertical columns; the first column being on the right, and the three
jewels of each column are placed in the Choshen from top to bottom.

Minchas Chinuch
10 - 7 - 4 - 1
11 - 8 - 5 - 2
12 - 9 - 6 - 3

Pesikta Zutresa
3 - 2 - 1
6 - 5 - 4
9 - 8 - 7
12-11-10

Just for the fun of it, I googled "choshen", and then selected "images".
The result was mostly jewelry of various kinds, and a few educational /
decorative posters too. Of the first 50 that I looked at, 44 had four rows
and three columns, and 6 had three rows and four columns.

Akiva Miller
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