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AND THE BRASS OF THE WAVING WAS SEVENTY TALENTS. Said R. Judah: ‘All this descends here below in the supernal image, containing the mystery of Faith. To the same pattern did Nebuchadnezzar make the image that he erected.’ R. Jose said: ‘It was not the image he made that was after the same pattern, but the image that he saw in his dream, an image made of gold, of silver and brass. Now, iron and clay were not worthy to enter into the work of the Tabernacle, but only those three metals. There is a recondite significance in the triad of metals.
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There were other materials that formed into tetrads, as the four fabrics consisting of blue, purple, scarlet, and fine linen, or the four rows of stones (in the breastplate).
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R. Judah said: ‘Some of them formed into threes, some into fours, some into twos, and again others were kept single. Nevertheless, an Order proper consists of a triad.1The text here repeats the passage from Zohar, Gen., 159a, commencing: “There are three orders,” to “perfect unity” [159b].