Our Gemara on Amud Aleph discusses the biblical prohibition against removing the breastplate from the ephod. (The ephod is an embroidered garment attached to the breastplate, part of the vestments worn by the high priest.)
The verse states:
“And the breastplate shall not be separated (yizach) from the ephod” (Shemos 28:28).
The Hebrew word yizach is a hapax legomenon, appearing only once in the Torah (Rasag, Introduction to Sefer Hamitzvos, ch. 11). It actually appears twice, but in the same phrase regarding the breastplate (Shemos ibid. and 39:21). Commentaries struggle to define the word accurately. Rashi, Ralbag and Ramban, some quoting Dunash, who suggests it has an Arabic origin.
When a word is unique, it must carry a special meaning or nuance. Yizach might mean to loosen even slightly, indicating a requirement for the breastplate and ephod to be tightly bound (see Malbim, Shemos 28:28 and Yeshayahu 23:10). What is the need for this particular bond, and what does it signify?
Toldos Yaakov Yosef (Shelach 22 and Yisro 155) notes that the expected formulation should be “the ephod shall not be separated (yizach) from the breastplate,” as the minor item typically separates from the major one, not the reverse. (Though the breastplate is holier, the ephod is the physical base, making the grammar technically correct. In terms of derash, Toldos Yaakov Yosef considers this valid because the breastplate is the more significant object, so we should speak from the reference point of the ephod separating from it.) He explains that the breastplate represents the intentions of the heart, while the ephod represents words. Furthermore, the breastplate symbolizes the Sages, who embody the deep intentions of prayers, while the ephod represents the common folk who offer the words of prayer but rely on the spiritual boost provided by the sages.
The requirement that these two entities be tightly bound signifies the interdependence between sages and common folk. Toldos Yaakov Yosef says the sages need the common folk as much as the reverse; this is why the verse speaks of the breastplate not separating from the ephod, as the ephod is a necessary base.
How do we understand this socially and psychologically? As we have seen numerous times in Psychology of the Daf, patterns that manifest physically also play out emotionally and spiritually. In a tree, a hard root base is needed to grow sweet, soft fruit. The greatest intellectual and the most pious saint still needs feet, lungs, and kidneys not just a brain or a heart. Likewise, Torah society’s highest elements require connection to the regular folk. This isn’t just rhetoric for yeshiva dinners to flatter a wealthy baleboos; it’s a profound truth. Without sensitivity to day-to-day life, a sage could get lost in the clouds. Moshe needed practical advice from Yisro; his noble insistence on being available to all Jews deprived people of due process and resolution (imagine the long line of petitioners waiting for answers directly from him; see Shemos 18:13-26). A sage’s brilliance could blind him to common-sense ideas.
Rav Kook wrote in Shemoneh Kevatsim (2:67):
Torah sages are perfected by means of the unlearned masses—for even though the light of the Torah constitutes the life of all [people], nevertheless it is also “an elixir of death for those who turn leftward with it” (cf. Shabbos 88b), and it reduces the strength [of sages] much more than if they had been lacking Torah and [only] simple nature had acted upon them in the pathways of their lives.
And since all people have a component of ugliness, however small, the Torah indeed becomes harmful to them corresponding to this component. And in this area—the harm is incomparably stronger than the benefits (accrued from intellect). And the counter-remedy to the drug of death blended into the Torah sages is activated by the general connection that they have with the unlearned masses of the entire [Jewish] nation, for in this way the latter pour forth the influence of [their] natural straightness, which has not been at all degraded by means of any intellectual argumentation. [Then] the small drop of the elixir of death turns back again into a drug of life. And in this way it also gives life to the entire people, including among them the unlearned masses.
Translations Courtesy of Sefaria, except when, sometimes, I disagree with the translation 
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Rabbi Simcha Feuerman, Rabbi Simcha Feuerman, LCSW-R, DHL is a psychotherapist who works with high conflict couples and families. He can be reached via email at simchafeuerman@gmail.com