BLESSINGS: JACOB JUDAH
(C) Dr Hendel, Dec-02
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RASHIS COVERED: Gn27-29a Blessings of Jacob vs Judah
VERY BRIEF SUMMARY
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Rashi aligns the following two verses
- Gn27-29a May the sons of your MOTHER bow to you(Jacob)
- Gn49-08 May the sons of your FATHER bow to you(Judah)
Why does one verse say SONS OF MOTHER vs SONS OF FATHER
Rashi is simple: Isaac had ONLY ONE WIFE...hence only the
MOTHERS CHILDREN would bow. By contrast Jacob had 4 wives.
Hence the greater blessing is that all HIS children(not
just a particular wives) should acknowledge Judaean sovereignty
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF RULE
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Many Rashis do NOT focus on an internal analysis of the verse.
There may be nothing bothering Rashi in THAT verse. The words
used may all be normal.
But when the given verse is compared with another verse--that
is, when the two verses are ALIGNED together-- we see blatant
differences.
The ALIGNED verses therefore suggest that these ALIGNED
DIFFERENCES were deliberately placed there to emphasize
certain nuances.
A nifty way of explaining the ALIGNED verses is to think
of ALIGNMENT as the vehicle that the Biblical Author uses
to indicate FOOTNOTES. That is, a modern writer might use
FOOTNOTES to indicate details; the Biblical Author instead
used REPEATED ALIGNED VERSES with DIFFERENT DETAILS.
The simplest case of ALIGNMENT is when the differences
CLEARLY and EXPLICITLY show that we are dealing with
two cases each with different details. The STANDARD
example below from the 10 commandments illustrates this
STANDARD REFERENCES FOR THIS RULE
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http://www.Rashiyomi.com/align-58.htm
This summary may be a bit too terse. You can browse the
57 postings leading up to by going to
http://www.Rashiyomi.com/align-1.htm
http://www.Rashiyomi.com/align-2.htm etc.
Or you can visit the Rashi Yomi Calendar at
http://www.RashiYomi.com/calendar1.htm
This calendar presents a day by day listing of Rashis.
The ALIGNMENT series occurs between 7-28-01 and 10-10-01.
TODAYS EXAMPLE
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We align the two verses mentioned above
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VERSE
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1st PHRASE
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2nd PHRASE
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WHO SPOKEN TO
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Gn27-29a
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May the sons of your
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MOTHER bow to you
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(Jacob)
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Gn49-08
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May the sons of your
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FATHER bow to you
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(Judah)
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Differs
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*1
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*2
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*2
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COMMENTS
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*1 This phrase is the same in both verses
*2 Rashi is Simple
- Jacob whose brothers came from ONE MOTHER was blessed that
the brothers from his MOTHER should bow to him
- By contrast, Judah, whose brothers came from multiple wives
of the same father was blessed that the brothers of his
FATHER should bow to him *10
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LONGER FOOTNOTES
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*10 I think, Rashis like this prove that Rashis main function
and purpose was to be a Masorite not a commentator: That is
Rashi was not concerned with Biblical commentary: Rather,
Rashi was concerned with preserving the Biblical text--the
same goal as the Masorites. Rashi however introduced into
preserving the Biblical text the idea of using humorous,
punchy or insightful commentaries to help preserve
distinctions.
In the case at hand, Rashis comment helps alert a Biblical
reader to the fact that a text that does not have this
MOTHER-FATHER distinction is corrupt.
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