LIST006c
(C) Dr Hendel, Jan-03
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Part 4 in a 6 part series
on the usage of the key phrase
AT THAT TIME
We list below the 18 or so verses with the phrase AT THAT
TIME*12 The basic idea is causal relationship.
Verses with a Rashi end with a LETTER. Verses without a
Rashi do not end in a letter (eg Gn38-01a vs Gn21-22).
This illustrates the Rashi workbook method. Rashi encourages
us to apply the principle of AT THAT TIME=CAUSALITY to other
situations.
We have identified 6 themes in AT THAT TIME=CAUSALITY
These are elaborated in the footnotes. The six themes are
indicated in the column with a # sign. This lists theme is
C - PROPERNESS - eg when you appoint a Judge you SHOULD
immediately advise him of all his responsibilities
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VERSE
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#
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BEFORE EVENT
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AT THAT TIME-AFTER
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WHY CAUSE
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Dt01-16b
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C
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Appoint judges*6
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Tell responsibilitis
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Position cause
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Dt01-18
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C
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Appoint Judges*6
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People responsbility
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Position cause
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Dt04-14b
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C
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Decalogue*7
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Moses teach oral law
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Oral needed
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COMMENTS
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*6 This illustrates not so much CAUSALITY but rather PROPERNESS
It is PROPER that when you appoint a judge that you
IMMEDIATELY tell him his responsiblities.
Similarly using the workbook method we see that when you
appoint judges you should tell the community to obey laws
and not overburden the judges (In fact Moses several
verses earlier explains that he could not bear the whole
nation himself)
*7 This again illustrates PROPERNESS. The written law(the
10 commandments) by itself is not sufficient to run
a society. One needs COMMENTARY and PRECEDENT--ORAL LAW
One already eg in Ex21 and Ex22 sees elaboration on
THOU SHALL NOT STEAL since all the laws of renters,
watchman and borrowers are there. Thus there is oral
commentary to the law in stone. This oral commentary
got written down in the Torah. But we see further
elaboration of Torahitic laws in the oral law.*13
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LONGER FOOTNOTES
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*12 In previous postings we have outlined 4 methods
of connecting paragraphs (See our cp series on
the Rashi calendar
http://www.RashiYomi.com/cp-1.htm thru
http://www.RashiYomi.com/cp-9.htm
What we do in this posting is show how SPECIAL WORDS
(such as AT THAT TIME) can indicate which of the
4 methods is used
*13 I think the best way to interpret Rashi is not
literally but broadly. Rashis point is that the
law in stone (the 10 commandments) needed ELABORATION
which we already see in the Torah.
But there are two types of elaboration
- the Torah elaborates on the 10 commandments
- the oral law elaborates on the Torah
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