VERY BRIEF SUMMARY
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One of Rashis 6 main goals is to explain the
meaning of words the same way a dictionary
explains the meaning of words.

In explaining word meaning Rashi had at his
disposal a variety of vehicles. We illustrate
below 3 vehicles


EXAMPLE: Ex38-07a WORD MEANING by 2 Letter Theory
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NVUV means hollow. This can be justified by verses
It can also be justified by Rashis 2 letter semantic
root theory -- NUN means CHILD OF so N-V(hollow)=
CHILD(Nun) of INSIDE (B). MANY other examples are
presented

EXAMPLE: Ex39-01b WORD MEANING by FORM
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Most people are familiar with the word RKA=HEAVEN
Hence Rashi informs us that the primary meaning
of this root is to FLATTEN/SPREAD OUT. Here, the
Heavens are named by their FORM (FLATTENED & SPREAD
OUT). There are many items named by FORM (eg the
PENTAGON is named by FORM while the UN is named
by Goal). See the LIST below for examples.

EXAMPLE: Ex36-06a WORD MEANING by UNIFIED MEANING
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Here Rashi uses the UNIFIED ROOT MEANING approach
The UNIFIED MEANING of K-L-A is TO HOLD BACK IN.
Hence this root has such diverse meanings as
PRISON, BARREN LAND, DROUGHTS, CATTLE RANCHES,GRAFTS
See the list below for further details

Ex38-07a NVUV = hollow Jr52-21 Ex38-07 Ben BO WORD MEANINGS BEN
Ex36-06a VAYICALAY stopped WORD MEANINGS
Ex39-01b P136-06 To SKY the gold threads (Spread them out thin)

The list below gives objects named by their
FORM.

For example the PENTAGON is named
by its SHAPE An ORANGE dress is named by
its APPEARANCE A utensil HANDLE is named
by its RELATIVE POSITION

In each case some aspect of
the FORM names the object

Rashi believed in 3 letter conjugation roots
and 2 letter meaning roots. That is, Rashi
believed that each root is conjugated
according to the rules of 3 letter roots.

But Rashi supplemented this with the belief
that each root can be explained by ascribing
meaning to individual letters and seeing
the 3 letter roots meaning as emanating from
its letters.

A simple example is that Nun-Beth(HOLLOW)
means CHILD*1 OF (NUN) INSIDE(Beth). Other
examples where NUN means CHILD=POSSESSED are
presented below.

In the list below the English translation
is CAPPED while the Hebrew is LOWERCASE

In this series we explore the UNIFIED MEANING
approach. We show how sometimes a root with
diverse meanings can nevertheless have one
underlying theme