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      3. RASHI METHOD: GRAMMAR
      BRIEF EXPLANATION: Rashi explains verses using grammar principles, that is, rules which relate reproducable word form to word meaning. Grammatical rules neatly fall into 3 categories
      • (a) the rules governing conjugation of individual words,Biblical roots,
      • (b) the rules governing collections of words,clauses, sentences
      • (c) miscellaneous grammatical, or form-meaning, rules.
      This examples applies to Rashis Ex19-24c
      URL Reference: (c) http://www.Rashiyomi.com/rule1206.htm
      Brief Summary: A verb conjugation with a terminal OH sound changes to an AH sound in a construct situation (This change facilitates joining words)

Most people are aware that Hebrew verbs come from three-letter roots. Each root is conjugated in the 8 dimensions of person, gender,plurality, tense, activity, modality, direct-object, and prepositional connective. For example the root Shin Mem Resh means to watch. The conjugations Shin-Mem-Resh-Tauv-Yud and Nun-Shin-Mem-Resh-Nun-Vav mean I watched and we were watched respectively.

The rules for Hebrew grammar are carefully described in many modern books and are well known. Rashi will sometimes comment when a verse is using a rare conjugation of an odd grammatical form.

When presenting grammatical Rashis my favorite reference is the appendix in volume 5 of the Ibn Shoshan dictionary. This very short appendix lists most conjugations.

Verse Ex19-21 discussing the prohibition of people entering the mountain area during the decalogue states And the Lord said to Moses, Go down, charge the people, lest they break through to the Lord to gaze, and many of them perish. Verse Ex19-24 repeats this prohibition And the Lord said to him, Go, get you down, and you shall come up, you, and Aaron with you; but let not the priests and the people break through to come up to the Lord, lest he break forth upon them. As can be seen both verses use the Biblical root Pay-Resh-Tzade, which means to break through.

However, a possible problem arises in that in one verse the Hebrew word is punctuated with an oh sound - Yifrotz - while in the other verse it is punctuated with an ah sound - Yifahtz. The different pronunciations suggests the possibility of different translations. But as seen above both verses use the same translation!

Rashi explains: A verb conjugated with an oh sound will instead be conjugated with an ah sound when the verb is in a construct state. Hence we have Yifrotz vs. Yifrahtz-Bam. The change from oh to ah facilitates the liasoning of the two words.

Advanced Rashi: Notice how this Rashi comment is made on these verses precisely because the conjugated verb occurs in two different forms clearly suggesting the queestion of which one is right. Very often Rashi will provide grammatical comments on verses where such contradictory pairs - pairs of words with one small difference - are present. Such a provision of comments on such verses makes the Rashi comments more natural.


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