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      2. RASHI METHOD: WORD MEANING
      BRIEF EXPLANATION: The meaning of words can be explained either by
      • (2a) translating an idiom, a group of words whose collective meaning transcends the meaning of its individual component words,
      • (2b) explaining the nuances and commonality of synonyms-homographs,
      • (2c) describing the usages of connective words like also,because,if-then, when,
      • (2d) indicating how grammatical conjugation can change word meaning
      • (2e) changing word meaning using the figures of speech common to all languages such as irony and oxymorons.
      This examples applies to Rashis Nu11-08c
      URL Reference: (c) http://www.Rashiyomi.com/rule1416.htm
      Brief Summary: PAY-RESH-VAV-RESH, PARUR (pieces) means COOKING POT. To facilitate cooking, veggies & meat are cut into pieces.

    The FFF submethod states that words can be named by Form, Feel, and Function.
  • Some examples of naming words by Form include (a) the leg of a chair, (b) the handle of a pot, (c) the branch of a family tree, (d) surfing the net or (e) brainstorming Some of these examples illustrate naming objects by form while other examples illustrate naming activities by form.
  • A good punchy example distinguishing naming by form vs. function is pentagon-UN. The pentagon is named after the shape and form of the building while the United Nations is named after the function and purpose of the building. Although both these buildings have as a purpose world peace they are named differently.
  • Examples of naming by feel/substance are glasses, hardship, ironing-board, plaster etc.

The FFF principle is a special case of the literary techniques of synechdoche-metonomy. These literary principles, universal to all languages, state that items can be named by related items, by parts of those items, or by good examples of those items. For example honey refers to anything sweet since honey is a good example of something sweet. Similarly hot refers to matters of love since the two are related. Todays Rashi can best be understood by applying these principles.

Rashi explains that the Hebrew Pay-Resh-Vav-Resh, Parur means a cooking pot. The root Pay-Resh-Resh means to cut into pieces, to crumble. Recall, a basic principle of cooking: to maximize the surface area exposed to heat one does not put in whole vegetables and meat. Rather one cuts up into pieces or even crumbs before placing in the pot. This maximizes the surface area exposed to liquids and heat.

But then an appropriate name for this type of cooking pot would be the form of the items in the pot. They have the form of pieces and crumbs. Hence we call this cooking utensil the piece-pot or the crumb-pot.

Advanced Rashi: Several decades ago I wrote an unpublished article, The Sacred Letters, in which I showed how biblical Hebrew used a principle of opposites to name objects. We ordinarily think of pieces and crumbs as something bad. However a crumb appearance is good for cooking. Here we see biblical Hebrew at work: crumbs can be both good and bad - they are good for maximal exposure but bad wholistically.


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