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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 Nu21-30b
      URL Reference: (c) http://www.Rashiyomi.com/rule1419.htm
      Brief Summary: We have shot at them--Heshbon unto Dibon is destroyed, and we have laid waste and TOTALLY ERASED [Stikeout] even unto Nophah, which reaches to Maydvah

When a modern author wishes to deemphasize a concept they will strike it out. When the Biblical author wishes to deemphasize a concept He places dots over it. The dots in the Biblical version, or the strikeout in the modern version, indicate deemphasis.

    There are 8 examples of dotting or strikeout in the Bible. They are presented in the list below along with the accompanying Rashi interpretation. In each case Rashi interprets the verse as if the word was Stricken out.
    • Nu21-30b: We have shot at them--Heshbon unto Dibon is destroyed, and we have laid waste even unto Nophah, which reaches to Maydvah Rashi: The Waste is stricken indicating an intense laying waste - in fact, totally striking out the inhabitants!
    • Nu03-39a: All that were numbered of the Levites, whom Moses and Aaron numbered at the commandment of HaShem, by their families, all the males from a month old and upward, were twenty and two thousand. Rashi: Aaron was stricken from the census--that is he wasn't counted since he was a Levite.
    • Gn33-04b: And Esau ran to meet him [Jacob], and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him; and they wept. #####
    • Dt29-29a: The secret things [sins] belong unto HaShem our G-d; but the things [sins] that are revealed belong [are visited] unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law. Rashi: Revealed should be stricken. Revealed sins weren't always visited upon the community; they weren't visited upon the community till after the conquest of Israel in the time of Joshua.
    • Gn37-12a: And his brethren went to shepard their father's flock in Shechem. Rashi: The word shepard should be stricken out since they didn't really go to shepard sheep; rather they went to escape their father who favored Joseph.
    • Nu09-10a: Speak unto the children of Israel, saying: If any man of you or of your generations shall be unclean by reason of a dead body, or be in a journey afar off, yet he shall keep the passover unto HaShem; Rashi: The requirement far off should be stricken. One need not be absolutely far away - but far away enough not to be able to come to Jerusalem.
    • Gn18-09: And they said to him: 'Where is Sarah thy wife?' And he said: 'Behold, in the tent.' Rashi: The phrase to him should be stricken. They said it generally, not just to him. When they met Abraham they said to him where is your spouse. Similarly when they met Sarah they said where is your spouse.
    • Gn19-33c And they made their father drink wine that night; and the firstborn went in, and lay with her father; and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose. Rashi: The phrase nor when she arose is dotted indicating a strikeout: Lot really did know when she arose and even so did not avoid a recurrence on the 2nd night with his second daughter. [How can Rashi say he did know if the verse explicitly say he didn't know? Probably Rashi meant that e.g. he had a visual sexual dream about the affair so he really suspected it].

    Advanced Rashi: Rashi literally says VaNaSShim. The [letter] Hebrew Shin punctuated with a dagesh, denoting ‘waste’ Heb. Shemamah. It is tempting to either interpret Rashi as meaning
    • The dotted Shin stands for Shemamah the Hebrew word for desolation beginning with a Shin. or
    • The dotted Shin indicates a silent mem indicating the root Shin-Mem-Mem, which means desolation; or
    • The dotted shin indicates strikeout. Here the strikeout is symbolic of the striking out of people intensifying the desolation indicated by the biblical word, NaNaShim.
    In other words we don't interpret the dot on the letter Shin as indicating the first letter of an alternate word of destruction nor do we see this dotted letter indicating a missing root letter (Which can be inferred in other ways). Rather we interpret the dotted shin consistent with other occurrences of dots in the Bible. The dot indicates some aspect of strikeout which in this case we have applied to the people being destroyed.

Thus this strikeout is instructive of alternate approaches to reading Rashi. We have selected the reading of Rashi consistent with other strikeouts. We think this the most appropriate approach.


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