RASHIS COVERED: Gn18-25b CHalilah=God Forbid or May God punish me
Gn44-07a


VERY BRIEF SUMMARY:
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In these postings we present 4 methods by which Rashi presents
dictionary meaning. The variety enriches our insight to Rashi
- 4 LETTER ROOTS: AVRAYCH means GENTLE (Rch) LEADER (Av)
- NUANCES: KISAY does NOT mean CHAIR;it always means THRONE!
We examine all verses with KISAY & show it means THRONE!
- UNIFIED MEANING: Ch-m-sh always relates to the number 5
There appears to be 5 verses where Ch-m-sh means ARMED
We give elegant arguments that it means FIFTH.Details below
Similarly we show that AYFO always means MORE/FURTHER
- IDIOMS-NEW MEANINGS: ChaLiLah means GOD FORBID

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RASHI RULE USED:                   WORD MEANING
RASHI SUBRULE USED:                NEW MEANINGS
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The translation of ChaLiLa illustrates an important point about
translations. The traditional Rashi on Chalila is
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CHALILA has a connotation PROFANE (from CHOL)
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A literal reading of Rashi leads to 2 misunderstandings
-- First, we are not told the translation! A best translation
into English would be GOD FORBID

-- Second, Rashi makes it appear that Chalilah means the
SAME as Chol (which means PROFANCE not HOLY)

A better approach to Rashi is the following
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- CHALILAH means GOD FORBID.
- CHALILAH is an INTERJECTION
- INTERJECTIONS have not only MEANING but EMOTIONAL CONNOTATION
- Hence CHALILAH not only negates what follows, it also expresses
strong objection
- This meaning of Chalilah is NOT inferred from ETYMOLOGIES
(e.g. its relation to CHOL profane) but rather it is inferred
from its USAGE. The verses in the list below all clearly show
the two nuances of CHALILAH that we just indicated
These verses show both NEGATION and PROTEST of what follows
Almost all verses also show an EMPHASIS (Added support
for what they are protesting)
--------------------------------------------

The point here is that
-- the MAIN issue is MEANING (Chalilah = GOD FORBID)
-- a SECONDARY issue is ETYMOLOGY (CHOL=profane)
Thus Rashi should not be seen as DEFINING CHALILAH but
rather as using other meanings of the root (PROFANE
vs HOLY) to add COLOR to its connotations.

In passing we can think of other equally good etymologies:
For example: CHalilah could come from CHOLEH which means
SICKNESS. CHalilah would then be sort of a curse: Thus
1S27-11 could be translated:
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May I become SICK if I strike the king
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In summary I have emphasized that we must
see Rashi as commenting on the
meaning of CHaLiLah which should be translated as
GOD FORBID. Rashi was telling us HOW it came to mean this.

Here is the list of verses--the connotations should
be clear. The Rashi Rule used here is IDIOMS or NEW MEANINGS
Rashi basically shows how a root with a given meaning (PROFANE
or SICK) can come to mean GOD FORBID.