If they needed natron or ahal, you may not wash them even in water. Others maintain: You may not wash them at all, (1) because there is no poverty in the place of wealth. Our Rabbis taught: The robe [Me’il] was entirely of blue, (2) as it is said, And he made the robe of the ephod of woven work, all of blue. (3) How were its skirts [made]? Blue [wool], purple wool and crimson thread, twisted together, were brought, and manufactured into the shape of pomegranates whose mouths were not yet opened (4) and in the shape of the cones of the helmets on children's heads. Seventy two bells containing seventy two clappers were brought and hung thereon, thirty six on each side. (5) R. Dosa (6) said on the authority of Rabbi Judah: There were thirty six, eighteen on each side. R. ‘Inyani b. Sason said: As there is a controversy here, so is there a controversy in respect to leprous plagues. (7) For we learnt: The appearances of plagues, R. Dosa b. Harkinas said: They are thirty six; Akabia b. Mahalalel said: They are eighteen. (8) R. ‘Inyani b. Sason also said: Why are the sections on sacrifices and the priestly vestments close together? (9) To teach you: as sacrifices make atonement, so do the priestly vestments make atonement. The coat atones for bloodshed, for it is said, And they killed a he-goat, and dipped the coat in the blood. (10) The breeches atoned for lewdness, as it is said, And thou shalt make them linen breeches to cover the flesh of their nakedness. (11) The miter made atonement for arrogance. How do we know it? — Said R. Hanina: Let an article placed high up (12) come and atone for an offence of hauteur. The girdle atoned for [impure] meditations of the heart, i.e., where it was placed. (13) The breastplate atoned for [neglect of] civil laws, as it is said, And thou shalt make a breastplate of judgment. (14) The ephod atoned for idolatry, as it is said, Without ephod there are teraphim. (15) The robe atoned for slander. How do we know it? — Said R. Hanina: Let an article of sound (16) come and atone for an offence of sound. The head-plate atoned for brazenness: of the head-plate it is written, And it shall be upon Aaron's forehead, (17) whilst of brazenness it is written, Yet thou hadst a harlot's forehead. (18) But that is not so, for surely R. Joshua b. Levi said: For two things we find no atonement through sacrifices, but find atonement for them through something else, (19) and they are bloodshed and slander. Bloodshed [is atoned for] by the beheaded heifer, (20) while slander [is atoned for] by incense. For R. Hanania recited: How do we know that incense atones? Because it is said, And he put on the incense, and made atonement for the people. (21) And the school of R. Ishmael taught [likewise]: For what does incense atone? For slander: let that which is done in secret (22) come and atone for an offence committed in secret. (23) Thus slander contradicts slander, and bloodshed contradicts bloodshed? — There is no difficulty: bloodshed does not contradict bloodshed: In the one case the murderer is known, (24) in the other the murderer is unknown. (25) If the murderer is known, he is liable to death? (26) -It means [where he committed murder] deliberately, but was not warned. (27) Slander too does not contradict slander: Here it was done in secret;28 there it was done in public. (29)

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(1). ↑ Even if slightly soiled.
(2). ↑ Tekeleth, wool dyed with a peculiar blue, now no longer obtainable.
(3). ↑ Ibid. XXXIX. 22.
(4). ↑ Overripe pomegranates open up slightly.
(5). ↑ I.e., in front and behind.
(6). ↑ Sh.M. reads: Rabbi.
(7). ↑ Lit., ‘the appearances of plagues’.
(8). ↑ They disagree as to how many colors render these plagues leprous and unclean.
(9). ↑ Immediately after discussing the burntoffering, meal-offering, sin-offering, and peaceofferings (Lev. VII), Scripture speaks of the priestly garments (VIII, (1) seq.)
(10). ↑ Gen. XXXVII, 31. This was a sign that later the coat would make atonement, even as dipping (Heb. Tebillah, in later Hebrew denoting ritual immersion for purification) symbolized atonement.
(11). ↑ Ex. XXVIII, 42.
(12). ↑ On top of the head.
(13). ↑ It was placed at the level of the heart.
(14). ↑ Ibid., 15.
(15). ↑ Hos. III, 4. Where there is no ephod, there is the unatoned-for sin of Teraphim (idols). — E.V.: without ephod or Teraphim.
(16). ↑ Sc. the robe, which was fringed with bells.
(17). ↑ Ex. XXVIII, 38.
(18). ↑ Jer. III, 3.
(19). ↑ Lit., ‘from another place.’
(20). ↑ V. Deut. XXI, 1-9.
(21). ↑ Num. XVII, 12.
(22). ↑ None was present when the incense was offered.
(23). ↑ Slander is first related in private and then it spreads.
(24). ↑ Then the coat makes atonement, so that the whole community should not be divinely punished.
(25). ↑ Then the beheaded heifer makes atonement.
(26). ↑ And until he is executed the community is not forgiven.
(27). ↑ On ‘warning, (hathra'ah) v. p. 372, n. 1. He could not be executed in that case.
(28). ↑ Then the incense atones.
(29). ↑ Then the robe atones.