Part 1 of a 6 Part series

SUCCINCT SUMMARY
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Many of Rashis comments deal with dictionary meaning
or grammar. Some Rashis however deal with overall
paragraph structure.

Recall that in modern writing we use such items as
- indentation or
- a line of space
to indicate distinct paragraphs. Each paragraph
has a distinct idea. The fact that a paragraph
is a unified whole helps in reading and deciphering
it because we know that its constituent sentences
reflect the unifying theme.

EXAMPLE
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Dt12 has a natural 2 column 3 paragraph format.
Here is a brief overview

The first paragraph states that when the
Jews come to Israel there is to be a unique
place chosen by God where the temple will
reside and the Jews will offer sacrifices
there.

The 2nd paragraph states that while the Temple
is up(or afterwards for Jerusalem) Jews cannot
offer private personal sacrifices on their
private altars (Which everyone had in the
wilderness).

The 3rd paragraph states that just as sacrifices
can only be offered in Jerusalem (The central
temple location ) so too, the tithes and
Priest gifts and 1st born can only be eaten
there.

These 3 paragraph themes are repeated in 2
columns. The 1st column talks about the
period WHEN THE JEWS COME AND CONQUER THE
LAND -- this refers to the Temple Tent of
Shiloh which the Jews had during the 14
years of Conquest. The right hand column
however speaks about the period WHEN THE
JEWS HAVE NO MORE ENEMIES AND SECURELY
DWELL IN THEIR LAND -- this refers
to the Jerusalem Temple built by Solomon
after King David had conquered the
Philistines.

The use of formatting facilitates easy
reading of these natural groupings.

To ease exposition we will study
Dt12 over a 2 day period. Today we
start with the basic idea that
there are 2 columns one speaking
about Temple DURING CONQUEST and
the other speaking about temple
AFTER CONQUEST.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: See Torah Temimah for
an excellent and clear exposition on
the whole idea of Unique Temple vs
the personal private altars.