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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 Nu11-25a
      URL Reference: (c) http://www.Rashiyomi.com/rule1220.htm
      Brief Summary: The 70 elders prophesized but did not REPEAT

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 Nu11-25a discussing the 70 elders that Moses selected and their prophetic experience states And the Lord came down in a cloud, and spoke to him, and took of the spirit that was upon him, and gave it to the seventy elders; and it came to pass, that, when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied [that day] but did not repeat... Rashi translates the Biblical word Yud-Samech-Pay-Vav, YaSaFoo as coming from the Biblical root Yud-Samech-Pay which means to do more / extra / repeat. . We have conveniently embedded the Rashi translation in the translation of the verse. The conjugation rule governing this Biblical word may be found by using tables 5 in the Ibn Shoshan dictionary for the active mode (Qal).

Advanced Rashi: Rashi also brings down the opinion of the Aramaic translation that the word Yud-Samech-Pay-Vav, YaSaFoo means they did not cease to prophesy. The Aramaic translation views the root of this word as Samech-Vav-Pay which means to end. To study the possibility of the Aramaic translation based on an alternate 3 letter root I used Moshe Silberman's Grammatical Konkordance. Form 5586, with 14 subforms, has the punctuation, kamatz-kamatz-maalfoom. All 14 forms refer to the past Qal and none of them use a 3 letter root with a middle letter vav (1-vav-3). This justifys Rashi's first approach that the true root is Yud-Samech-Vav; thus the verse means they did not have extra or more prophecy. We must therefore reject the Aramaic translation. Rashi at times proves the Aramaic translation is grammatically incorrect and our observations are consistent with this approach.


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