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      7. RASHI METHOD: FORMATTING
      BRIEF EXPLANATION:Inferences from Biblical formatting: --bold,italics, and paragraph structure.
      • Use of repetition to indicate formatting effects: bold,italics,...;
      • use of repeated keywords to indicate a bullet effect;
      • rules governing use and interpretation of climactic sequence;
      • rules governing paragraph development and discourse
      This example applies to Rashis Nu30-01a
      URL Reference: (c) http://www.Rashiyomi.com/w34n3.htm
      Brief Summary: Nu25 thru Nu30-01 are the command to tell the Jews about the festival offerings. Nu30-02:17 describes Moses' teaching of oath laws.

Very often Rashi will make an inference from the paragraph structure. A typical paragraph structures can be parallel or contrastive with or without bullets. The parallel and contrastive structure naturally generate Rashi comments. This type of inference also follows from the Rabbi Ishmael Style rule of inferring from context since the paragraph structure endows the disparate paragraph sentences with a unified context.

    Verses Nu25-01 thru Nu30-17 have the following structure:
      Festival offerings:
    • Nu25-01 God commanded Moses to say over as follows:
    • Nu25-02 thru Nu29-39 Detailed laws on festival sacrifices
    • Nu30-01 Moses told the Jews as commanded him [that is, concerning festival offerings]
      Laws of vows:
    • Nu30-02 Moses taught the Tribal Governors to say over as follows:
    • Nu30-16 Detailed laws on vows and oaths
    • Nu30-17 These are the statutes that God taught Moses (about vows).

The Rashi comment consists of the observation that we have two paragraphs here: One on sacrifices and one on vows. Rashi points out that without the terminal Nu30-01 the paragraphs would be run on and non-parallel creating an impression that Moses was waiting for a later date to execute God's commands to teach the Jews about the festival sacrifices.

Advanced Rashi: Rabbi Ishmael is the source of the Rashi comment. This is the same Rabbi Ishmael who authored the thirteen Rabbi Ishmael style principles. We see here an early Taanatic source for approaching serious Biblical exegesis through both a technical grammatical and broad stylistic approach. Such a combined approach is one of the hallmarks of this weekly Rashi digest.


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