#######################################################
#       12 YEAR Ayelet DAILY-RASHI-YOMI CYCLE         #
#                    Sep 29, 2007                     #
#                    YEAR 8 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) 1999-2007, RashiYomi Inc., Dr Hendel President #
#   Permission to reprint with this header PROVIDED   #
#          it is not printed for profit               #
#                                                     #
#######################################################
#*#*# (C) RashiYomi Inc. 2007, Dr. Hendel, President #*#*#
      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 Dt05-23a
      URL Reference: (c) http://www.Rashiyomi.com/w33n2.htm
      Brief Summary: When the Jews wanted Moses as an intermediary Moses weakened like a female

Verse Dt05-24 discussing the fright the Jews had of prophecy and the request for Moses to be an intermediary between them and God states Go thou [m] near, and hear all that HaShem our G-d may say; and thou [f] shalt speak unto us all that HaShem our G-d may speak unto thee; and we will hear it and do it.'

Recall, in Hebrew, unlike English, there are two distinct words for "you"-one is used for males and one for females Af the beginning of this verse the proper male "you" is used. However in the middle of the verse Moses, a man, is referred to as a female you.

    Here the Bible uses the technique call puns. Puns are fully discussed
  • in my article Puns
  • in the list of puns at List080a on the Rashi website.

As explained in my article A pun is a literary techique of distortion of spoken or written texts to impart relevant secondary meaning That is a pun is a deliberate distortion of pronunciation, grammar and similar items in order to communicate a secondary meaning in a sentence

In this case the primary meaning of the verse is thou [Moses] shalt speak unto us all that HaShem our G-d may speak unto thee; But by using the female thou the verse indicates a secondary meaning Rashi: I, Moses, became 'weak as a female' from this request at the thought that you didn't want to speak to God directly as in a love relationship but rather wanted me as an intermediary as in a fear relationship.

We have used L Heller's 1974 classification of puns Here the pun involves a distortion of grammatical rules. Heller introduces 11 methods of puns including distortions of grammar, spelling, pronunciation, gestures etc.


#*#*#*# (C) RashiYomi Inc., 2007, Dr. Hendel, President #*#*#*#*#