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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 Lv26-08a
    URL Reference: (c) http://www.Rashiyomi.com/lv26-08a.htm
    Brief Summary: FROM WITHIN YOU (i.e. Jewish anti-semites) your enemies will reign

Many students of Rashi are aware of Rashis based on grammatical peculiarities or excessive words. However Rashi can also be based on a non-standard word order. A non-standard word order generally indicates unspecified emphasis. The examples below illustrate this principle.

    Before proceeding we point out the difficulty in mirroring these Rashis in the translations. Some terminology will help clarify this difficulty. Most languages have a characteristic word order.
    • For example the characteristic word order in English is Subject-Verb-Object, for example, your enemies will reign over you. Here enemies is the subject, reign is the verb, and you is the object. Hence, this sentence has the typical subject-verb-object order. Linguists, for short, call this sequence S-V-O, using the first letters of Subject-Verb-Object.
    • However the characteristic word order in Hebrew is V-S-O; that is the verb comes first, followed by the subject, followed by the object.
    It is therefore hard to capture order, or deviance from order, in an English translation! Instead we shall adopt the following translation rule: We shall translate a standard word order in Hebrew into a standard word order in English. We shall similarly translate a non-standard word order in Hebrew into a non-standard word order in English. However we shall not otherwise attempt to translate word-order literally.

With this in mind let us analyze Lv16-17j which states On you, your enemies will reign. The standard-word order would require Your enemies will regin on you, since the phrase on you is the direct object of the sentence. The non-standard word order, On you, your enemies will reign, indicates an unspecified emphasis in the phrase on you. Hence the Rashi comment: Your enemies will not only reign over you but your enemies are on you, they will come from you; you will be the victim of your own Jewish anti-semitism. Here, Rashi is not just making a pun; rather Rashi is focusing on the non-standard word-order.

Advanced Rashi: We will further use the word order method in rule #7, Formatting below. The word order rule is overlooked by many students of Rashi. Its use greatly simplifies certain Rashis.


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