The “Hoshen”, the breastplate of the High Priest that is the seat for communicating with the Divine. The term Urim has been traditionally been derived from the Hebrew word Or, meaning Lights. Thummim is derived from the Hebrew meaning pure, without fault. Thus the meaning of these two terms basically means –“lights and perfections” (Exodus 28:30).

This was some sort of pouch or pocket that was associated with the Hoshen- plate worn by the High priest. On the Hoshen there were twelve gemstones, each for one of the twelve tribes of the sacred community of the Israelites (Exodus 28:17).

This was used to determine a response from God to some significant question that the ruler or king of Israel needed to know about (1 Samuel 14:41).

According to the tradition the names of each of the tribes was engraved on each of the gem stones. When a question was submitted to the High Priest and in some fashion either the gems lit up in a specific sequence or the individual letters lit up to provide a response.

Description of “Hosen” and function is from Rabbi Moshe Dror: