The 4 meanings of ALL:#18 of 18 ########################################################### # 10 YEAR Ayelet DAILY-RASHI-YOMI CYCLE # # Jul 15, 2000 # # Rashis 141-141 Of 7800 (1.7%) # # # # Reprinted with permission from Rashi-is-Simple, # # (c) 1999-Present, Dr. Hendel # # http://www.RashiYomi.Com/rashi # # # #Permission to reprint with this header but not for profit# # # # WARNING: READ with COURIER 10 (Fixed width) FONTS # ########################################################### In this issue we give a grand summary of the 3 dozen Rashis on the word "ALL". This is the biggest group of Rashis to date. Because of the size we presented 5 subsummaries The reader should walk away from this group with * a basic understanding of the 5 methods and * a good knowledge of some clear examples. #*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*# (C) Dr Hendel, 2000 *#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*# The word "ALL" means "EVERY CASE". This is used in 5 ways. We present each method below with a brief explanation and a LIST of examples ----------------GRAND SUMMARY------------------ METHOD 1: ALL = EVEN OTHER GROUPS -------------------------------------------------------------- In the following verses ALL includes even other groups Thus Gn06-12a says ALL flesh became corrupted during the flood era. Rashi says ALL flesh means not only people but even animals and birds were corrupt -------------------------------------------------------------- VERSE TEXT WILL "ALL" INCLUDES EVEN THE FOLLOWING ======== ========================== ============================ Gn06-12a ALL FLESH became corrupted EVEN ANIMALS were corrupted Gn07-14a ALL Winged creatures EVEN Grasshoppers with wings Lv11-42b ALL crawling on belly EVEN Snails who crawl*1 Lv11-42c ALL walking on claws EVEN beetles who crawl*2 Nu21-08b ANYONE Bitten was cured EVEN Dogbites*3 Lv17-12a ALL shouldn't eat blood EVEN Minors shouldn't eat*4 Lv19-02a Speak to ALL Jews EVEN speak to MINORS*5 Nu18-09c ALL pure priests may eat EVEN your wives may eat Nu20-29b ALL mourned Aaron EVEN women mourned*6 NOTES ----- *1 Rashi gives examples: "CRAWLING ON BELLY" could refer to a SNAKE. "ALL WHO CRAWL ON BELLY" refers to SNAILS Thus the ALL includes even insects *2 Rashi gives examples: "WALKING ON CLAWS" refers to the scoprion---"ALL WHO WALK ON CLAWS" refers to the BEETLES *3 Rashi further FURTHER supports this with the alignment (The Torah is speaking about a plague of BITING SNAKES God told Moses to make a copper snake and those that look at it would live) Consider the alignment of the following verses --------------------------------------------------------------- Nu21-08 And ANYONE Bitten will SEE it & live Nu21-09 And ANYONE Bitten by a snake would STARE at it & live *1 *2 --------------------------------------------------------------- Thus if a SNAKE bit them they had to STARE at it to live But if a DOG bit them they could just see it and live Finally, Rashi in the name of the Talmud explains why "looking" at a copper snake should cure---it symbolically referred to "looking upwards and praying" *4 That is the adults should TRAIN minors not to eat blood *5 This Rashi, besides being derived from the word ALL is further supported by an alignment of introductory verses --------------------------------------------- Lv15-01 speak to the Jews Lv12-02 Speak to the Jews Lv19-02 Speak to ALL the community of Jews *a *b --------------------------------------------- Thus there is an emphasis that the whole community should hear (even children) *6 Again Rashi is supported by an alignment ----------------------------------------------------- Dt34-08 the children of Israel mourned Moses Nu20-29 the whole house of Israel Mourned Aaron *a *b ----------------------------------------------------- The term HOUSE of ISRAEL is more directed to women and children METHOD 2: ALL=EVEN BORDER LINE CASES -------------------------------------------------------------- In the following verses ALL includes EVEN border line cases Thus God said "I will smite ALL first born in Egypt" The word ALL includes even firstborn from other nations that however were in Egypt at the time of smiting --------------------------------------------------------------- VERSE TEXT WILL "ALL" INCLUDES EVEN THE FOLLOWING ======== ========================== ============================ Lv24-14a ALL hearing the Blasphemy Even the judges *1 Nu14-01a The WHOLE nation rebelled EVEN the LEADERS *2 Lv14-09a Cut ALL hair Even non-dense hair *3 Ex12-43b ALL foreigners Even Jewish apostates *4 Dt20-11a ALL conquered willbe yours EVEN from other nations *5 Ex12-12b I'll smite all 1stborn Even from other nations *5 Gn43-09b I'll owe you my WHOLE life EVEN in the next world Dt13-01a Listen to ALL commandments EVEN the light ones NOTES ----- *1 ALL people (even judges who heard testimony) must stone the blasphemer *2 ALL people cried at hearing the spies story (Even the leaders) *3 Thru the GENERAL PARTICULAR GENERAL principle we learn that only dense-visible hair (like eyebrows) has to be shaved. This is learned by generalizing the examples in the verse ("head", "beard", "eyebrows") Thru the word "ALL" we learn that even non-dense or non-visible hair (like armpit hair or outer-arm-hair) should be shaved. Thus the two items--GENERAL-PARTICULAR-GENERAL and ALL teach us that ALL is shaved except NOSE-HAIR *4 Neither foreigners nor Jewish Apostates can bring offerings *5 Thus eg God smote the Firstborn of Egyptians and also the firstborn of other nations who were visiting Egypt METHOD 3: ALL=NO EXCEPTIONS ----------------------------------------------------------------- In the following examples ALL means EVERYONE without exception ----------------------------------------------------------------- VERSE TEXT WILL "ALL" ======== ================================================= Gn19-04b ALL people in Sedom gathered to rape Gn33-11d I have EVERYTHING I need*1 Ex19-11c The WHOLE nation saw the prophecy(10 commandments) Ex32-26b ALL Levites came(No one served the golden calf) Dt01-01b Moses spoke to ALL Israel at his farewell address*2 NOTES ----- *1 This was incorrectly translated in a previous posting *2 Rashi points out the subtlety in this: People normally act macho--they would say "If I had been there to hear Moses I would have answered him". Therefore it says ALL Israel.. Moses made sure "EVERYBODY" was there so that no one should claim that "I would have answered Moses". METHOD 4: ALL=EVEN THE PARTS ------------------------------------------------------------ In the following verses ALL includes ALL PARTS For example Lv21-11b says don't defile to ANY dead body The word ANY includes a prohibition of a priest touching say a gallon of blood from a dead body(PART of a dead body) ------------------------------------------------------------- VERSE TEXT WILL "ALL" INCLUDES EVEN theFOLLOWING ======== ========================== ========================== Lv21-11b Don't defile on ANY dead EVEN just body parts Lv27-09a ANYthing Dedicated is holy EVEN organs Lv02-13b SALT all offerings EVEN the organ parts Lv06-11b ANYTHING touching willbe holy EVEN part of it*1 Ex12-20b Dont eat bread on Passover EVEN a leaven mixture Lv03-03a & Offer all fat EVEN STOMACH fat Lv04-07a Spill ALL blood EVEN leftover droplets*2 Dt11-06a Earthquake in ALL of Israel TREMORS at all locations Lv11-33b ALL inside will be impure*3 EVEN if hanging in the air NOTES ----- *1 This law is beneficial--if the sacrifice touched other meat then ONLY THE PLACE WHERE IT TOUCHED has to be cut off (Only PART of it is holy) Rashi further learns that TOUCHING does not confer holiness unless there was ABSORPTION of the meat flavor (According to Malbim this is learned from order of words--this will be discussed in another posting) *2 So you spill the blood out of the cup--then you vigorously shake it and spill the leftover droplets (hence ALL the blood is spilt) *3 So eg if the dead organ fell into the cup then anything in the AIRSPACE of the cup becomes ritually impure EVEN if it is not touching the cup but eg suspended In legal terminology we say that (BEING) INSIDE is a VEHICLE for TRANSMISSION of impurity in earthenware cups METHOD 5: ALL=DO NOT EXCLUDE OBVIOUS CASES ---------------------------------------------------------------- ALL can precludes obvious exceptions For example Nu20-01a says the WHOLE nation came to ZTIN A previous verse Nu14-29 says adult males over 20 who accepted the slander of the spies died throughout the journey of the Jews in the wilderness. Therefore the statement "the WHOLE nation came to ZTIN" means that everyone who had to die had already died. This list does not appear simple but rather appears "Talmudic"--in each verse the challenge is to find what exceptions appear natural This requires knowledge of other verses ----------------------------------------------------------------- VERSE TEXT WILL "ALL" INCLUDES EVEN theFOLLOWING ======== ========================== ========================== Ex35-22b Bzalel did all God told Moses Even if Moses forgot*1 Nu20-01a The WHOLE nation came to Tzn Even adult men over 20*2 Nu18-09b Priests get ALL sacrifices EVEN Peace offerings*3 Lv17-10a ALL eating blood will die*4 Even non sacrificial blood Lv06-11a ALL male priests can eat it Even blemished ones*5 Dt18-01a ALL priests will not inherit EVEN blemished ones*6 Lv06-32b ALL sin offerings EVEN Guilt Offerings*7 Dt14-11a ALL Kosher birds may be eaten EVEN sent-away leporbird*8 Ex12-47a ALL Jews offer the Passover By Individual not family*9 Ex01-22a ALL children killed in river EVEN Egyptian Children*10 NOTES ----- *1 I would logically think that Bzalel couldn't do things that God told Moses but Moses forgot to tell Bzalel. Rashi brings a possible example--In Ex25 Moses orders the temple utensils to be built first and then the Tabernacle But in Ex36 and Ex37 Bzalel builds the Tabernacle first and then the temple. Logically Bzalel knew that you build the house first and then fill it with utensils *2 Nu14-29 states that the adult males over 20 who listened to the spies slander of Israel died. However they had all died by the time they came to Tzin---hence the WHOLE community came (because they didn't bury anyone in the previous place) *3 Nu18-09 lists 3 types of sacrifices that priests get. It does not list peace offerings. HEnce I need the word ALL to include it. This is further indicated in Lv06 and Lv07-23. *4 It says Lv17-11 that the reason blood is prohibited is because it is used to atone on the altar Hence it is logical to conclude that only sacrificial blood is forbidden but ordinary blood that can't be offered is permissable. Therefore the verse says ALL BLOOD to include this other blood. *5,*6 It explicitly says (Lv22--21:22) that blemished priests may not offer sacrifices (But may eat them). Hence the word "ALL" includes even blemished priests-- since they can't offer sacrifices I might think they DO inherit Israel--I might also think that they do not join the Priestly rotations (which offer and eat the sacrifices). Therefore the word ALL is used. They do join the priestly rotations, do not inherit Israeli land, do not offer sacrifices do eat them *7 There are 3 opinions of what the word ALL includes. The best literary approach is to use Lv07-07 "The sin offering is like the guilt offering" (Since both sin and guilt offerings deal with matters of sin) Thus the word "ALL sin offerings" includes even guilt all offerings. We used this Rashi to show Rashis literary style. See above *8 Recall that most sacrifices are HOLY and cannot be eaten even if they are Kosher. Further recall that the Lepor was atoned by having a Kosher bird sent away and another one offered (Lv14-04:07). I might think that this sent-away-Lepor bird is like any other sacrificial object and prohibited from eating. Therefore Dt14-11 says "ALL Kosher birds..." may be eaten--even the Kosher lepor bird. *9 The first passover offering has one lamb PER family(Ex12-03) Hence I might think that future passover offerings are PER family. Therefore when Ex12-16 says "The WHOLE community must offer it" it means EVERY individual *10 Added Dec 27, 2001. This verse discusses how Pharoh decreed death on all children. The Bible explicitly says that Egypt was run by magicians and stargazers (Ex07-11, Ex08-15). It therefore seems reasonable that they told Pharoh that they were told my magic that a savior was born to the Jews Since Pharoh didnt know if the savior was Egyptian or Jewish Pharoh ordered ALL children -- EVEN Egyptian children -- killed by drowning. #*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*# (C) Dr Hendel, 2000 *#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#