1. RASHI METHOD: REFERENCES BRIEF EXPLANATION: Commentary on a verse is provided thru a cross-reference to another verse. The cross references can either provide (1a) further details, (1b) confirm citations, or (1c) clarify word meaning. This examples applies to Rashis Dt05-16b URL Reference: (c) http://www.Rashiyomi.com/w34n6.htm; Brief Summary: Ten Commandments: Observe the Sabbath AS GOD COMMANDED YOU. Rashi: Commanded at Marah. Similarly for HONOR FATHER/MOTHER.

Verse(s) Dt05-12,Dt05-16b discussing the obligation to observe Sabbath and honor parents states Keep the sabbath day to sanctify it, as the Lord your God has commanded you. ... Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God has commanded you; that your days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with you, in the land which the Lord your God gives you. Rashi clarifies the underlined words as the Lord your God has commanded you by referencing verse(s) Ex15-25,Ex16-28:30 discussing the laws given in Marah and the Seen Desert, which states And he cried to the Lord; and the Lord showed him a tree, which when he threw into the waters, and made the waters sweet; there he set for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he tested them, ... And the Lord said to Moses, How long refuse you to keep my commandments and my laws? See, because the Lord has given you the sabbath, therefore he gives you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide you every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. So the people rested on the seventh day. Hence the Rashi comment: As can be seen from Nu33-08:15, Marah and Seen Desert were pre-Sinai stops on the Jewish journeys. It says explicitly that the Jews were given the (a) Sabbath and (b) a Statute and (c) Ordinance. We are not told further details about this Statute and Ordinance. However in the 10 commandments in Deuteronomy the phrase as your God the Lord commanded you is added by the commandments to honor the Sabbath and to honor ones parents. Hence we infer that the statute and ordinance mentioned by Marah probably refers to the obligation to honor ones parents.

Text of Target verse Dt05-12,Dt05-16b	Text of Reference Verse Ex15-25,Ex16-28:30
Keep the sabbath day to sanctify it, as the Lord your God has commanded you. ... Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God has commanded you; that your days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with you, in the land which the Lord your God gives you.	And he cried to the Lord; and the Lord showed him a tree, which when he threw into the waters, and made the waters sweet; there he set for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he tested them, ... And the Lord said to Moses, How long refuse you to keep my commandments and my laws? See, because the Lord has given you the sabbath, therefore he gives you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide you every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. So the people rested on the seventh day.
Rashi comments: As can be seen from Nu33-08:15, Marah and Seen Desert were pre-Sinai stops on the Jewish journeys. It says explicitly that the Jews were given the (a) Sabbath and (b) a Statute and (c) Ordinance. We are not told further details about this Statute and Ordinance. However in the 10 commandments in Deuteronomy the phrase as your God the Lord commanded you is added by the commandments to honor the Sabbath and to honor ones parents. Hence we infer that the statute and ordinance mentioned by Marah probably refers to the obligation to honor ones parents.

Advanced Rashi: Rashi also mentions that the commandment of the Red Heiffer was given in Marah. Unlike the Seen Desert where it is explicitly mentioned that the Sabbath was given, we are only told that a statute and ordinance were given in Marah. We are not told which statute and ordinance. Rashi therefore notes that the phrases as God commanded you or that God commanded Moses are mentioned by the commandments to honor one's parents Dt05-16 and to observe the Red Heiffer ceremony Dt19-02. Rashi therefore identifies the Statute and ordinance as referring to honoring ones parents and the red heiffer.

True, there are other commandments where it says as God commanded. For example the entire building of the Tabernacle Ex35 - Ex40 mentions the phrase as God commanded Moses 18 times. But in this case we have the original verses where God commanded Moses (Ex25 - Ex28).

So the proper statement is that there are only three commandments were the phrase observe... as God commanded you is mentioned without a corresponding reference text where God actually commanded. Hence Rashi assumes that these three commandments - Sabbath, Honoring Parents, Red Heiffer - are the Statute and ordinance taught in Marah and Seen desert.

There are various manuscripts of Rashi; which commandments are taught has driven alot of speculation. The above analysis is not based on a particular Rashi manuscript but rather based on universal principles that Rashi always used. Hence, based on this analysis, I would assume that those manuscripts which mention Red Heiffer, Honoring Parents, and Sabbath are the correct ones. Notice, here, how we use logic to justify the manuscript rather than using the manuscript to justify identification of the correct text.

We will revisit this example below in rule #7, format and rule #8, database below.