#######################################################
#       12 YEAR Ayelet DAILY-RASHI-YOMI CYCLE         #
#                    Mar 13, 2008                     #
#                    YEAR 9 of 12                     #
#                                                     #
#           VISIT THE RASHI YOMI ARCHIVES             #
#           -----------------------------             #
#         HOME   http://www.RashiYomi.Com             #
# WEEKLY RASHI   http://www.RashiYomi.Com/rule.htm    #
#  DAILY RASHI   http://www.RashiYomi.Com/calendar.htm#
#                                                     #
#  Reprinted with permission from WEEKLY RASHI,       #
#  (c) 1999-2008, RashiYomi Inc., Dr Hendel President #
#   Permission to reprint with this header PROVIDED   #
#          it is not printed for profit               #
#                                                     #
#######################################################


#*#*# (C) RashiYomi Inc. 2008, Dr. Hendel, President #*#*#
      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 Gn47-19b
      URL Reference: (c) http://www.Rashiyomi.com/w33n6.htm
      Brief Summary: holocaust land means NON-PRODUCING land.

Students of Rashi must bear in mind that Rashi could sometimes use universal principles applicable in all languages. This particularly applies to the meaning methods.

    The synechdoche principle basically says that any language can use a good example to name an entire category. For example, in English,
  • the word honey can mean anything sweet.
  • Similarly bread can refer to any food.
  • Man can refer to any person (male of female)
  • day can refer to the entire 24 hour period
  • heart can refer to the entire person as in e.g., (Ps 43)My heart yearns for you, God which really means My entire person yearns for you God
  • The loss of a person can refer to the destruction of that person (Dt28-22i)

    The metonomy principle basically says that a word can be named by something related to it. Metonomy is closely related to synechdoche. Some typical examples of metonomy would be
  • hot refers to temper or pashion
  • going to bed refers to intimacy
  • by sweat will you obtain bread metonomycally refers to by hard word will you obtain food
  • He is a man of the cloth refers to the clergy
  • the pen is mightier than the sword means that publication can have greater impact than military means

Verse Gn47-19b discussing the petition of the Egyptians to spare them and the land states Wherefore should we die before thine eyes, both we and our land? buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be bondmen unto Pharaoh; and give us seed, that we may live, and not die, and that the land not be a holocaust.' Rashi explains: The Bible uses the word holocaust to indicate non-productive land. Indeed a land made into a holocaust, for example, by fire or hurricane, cannot produce ordinary yield. Hence holocaust is a good example (Synechdoche) of non-productiveness. The reader might have also noticed that the use of holocaust to indicate non-productive is an example of exaggeration another literary technique. 


#*#*#*# (C) RashiYomi Inc., 2008, Dr. Hendel, President #*#*#*#*#