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Until recent decades, the Ivy League permitted few Jews to study in its colleges. Many schools had a numerus clausus, a fixed upper limit, on the percentage of Jewish students who could be admitted. Columbia University famously turned down an applicant named Richard Feynman. Feynman attended MIT instead, had an extraordinary teaching career at Cal Tech, won a Nobel Prize and even has a famous lecture series in his name (“the Feynman lectures.”)
It is ironic, then, that Yale has on its crest the Hebrew words “urim v’tumim”, which are translated a bit lower on the emblem into Latin as “lux et veritas.” (“light and truth.”) These are mentioned in this week’s Torah portion, Tetzaveh, and they apparently were a means of communicating with G-d through the priestly garments. But how, exactly, did the “urim v’tumim” work? The Torah itself offers no clue, so it fell to our Sages to solve this riddle.
In the Midrash Lekach Tov (“good teaching”, c. 1100), the following description of the “urim v’tumim” is offered:
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Our Sages ask, “How were the questions answered via the urim and tummim? The questioner turned his face towards the priest, and the priest turned to the Shekhina (the Divine presence). The questioner might ask, “Should I pursue this enemy battalion?” The priest would respond, “Pursue, says the L-rd, and you will succeed.” How is it done? R. Yochanan says that certain letters on the priestly breastplate would light up. For example, the “ayin” in the name “Shimon”, the “lamed” in the name “Levi”, and the “hay” in the name “Yehuda” would glow. Taken together, these spell the Hebrew word “aleh”, “go up” (i.e., pursue). It was not permitted for a layperson (hedyot) to utilize the “urim v’tumim”, only a king or a head of the court.
In other words, the names of the twelve tribes – actually, even the individual letters of these names – could be made to transmit a direct answer from G-d, spelled out meticulously one letter at a time.
By the time of King David, it appears that the “urim v’tumim” ceased to be used. The last reference we have to this practice is in the time of Saul, when the king used the “urim v’tumim” to ascertain that the person violating his edict against eating during a battle was his own son Jonathan.
I’m happy in a world where there’s no limit on Jewish students in the Ivy League, where we no longer rely upon “urim v’tumim” and where Temple priests and kings are a remnant of the past.
But boy, would I ever like to have “urim v’tumim” in the week before next year’s Super Bowl.
- Rabbi Scott Hoffman
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