#######################################################
#       12 YEAR Ayelet DAILY-RASHI-YOMI CYCLE         #
#                    Oct 28, 2009                     #
#                    YEAR 10 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) 1999-2009, RashiYomi Inc., Dr Hendel President #
#   Permission to reprint with this header PROVIDED   #
#          it is not printed for profit               #
#                                                     #
#######################################################
#*#*# (C) RashiYomi Inc. 2009, Dr. Hendel, President #*#*#
      8. RASHI METHOD: DATABASES
      BRIEF EXPLANATION:Rashi makes inferences from Database queries. The precise definition of database query has been identified in modern times with the 8 operations of Sequential Query Language (SQL).

      This example applies to Rashis Nu12-13c
      URL Reference: (c) http://www.Rashiyomi.com/rule1220.htm
      Brief Summary: Of all Moses prayer's, his prayer for his sister's recovery was smallest - 5 words. Moses didn't want it appearing that more attention was given to personal prayers.

We ask the following database query: How long - how many words - are in each of Moses' prayers. The reader is encouraged to perform the query using a standard Biblical Konnkordance or search engine. This database query yields the list below. The list justifies the following Rashi inference: Of all Moses' prayers, his prayer for his sister's recovery was the smallest - 5 words. It is reasonable to conjecture that Moses, as a public figure, did not want to create a situation where the public could point a finger at him and argue that he was spending excessive time on personal matters (prayers for his sister) and less time on communal matters. The list below presents the results of the database query and shows examples

Verse Topic of Prayer Length Prayer Category
Ex04-01 Request for signs for Jews 11 Exodus
Ex04-10 Complaint - Moses didn't want Job 19 Complaint
Ex05-22 Complaint - Moses didn't want his job 19 Complaint
Ex06-30 Complaint - Moses didn't want his job 8 Complaint
Ex17-04 Complaint - Moses fearful for his life 7 Complaint
Nu11-11:15 Complaint - Moses prefers death to national service 64 Complaint
Ex32-31:32 Prayer for Jewish welfare (Golden calf) 19 Jewish welfare
Ex33-12:13 Prayer for knowledge of God's way 37 Jewish welfare
Ex34-09 Prayer for God walking with Nation 15 Jewish Welfare
Nu14-13:19 Prayer for Jewish Welfare (Spy incident) 90 Jewish Welfare
Ex32-11:13 Prayer for Jewis Welfare (Golden calf) 56 Jewish Welfare
Nu12-13c Prayer for sister's recovery 5 Personal Prayer

Advanced Rashi: We have emphasized several times in this email newsletter that frequently Rashi will indicate only one conclusion of application of a Rashi method and the student must complement Rashi by applying the method fully and making further conclusions. As can be seen from the above table, prayers for Jewish welfare were significantly long. We also see Rashi's point that the prayer for his sister's recovery was short. But we find additional commentary. We find that Moses' prayer complaints were also short. Such discoveries are fully consistent with the reading and learning of Rashi and enhance the Rashi learning experience. In fairness to Rashi we note that there is one complaint (prayer for death) that took 64 words - perhaps Moses was unusually upset there!

We also point out that our count was not an absolute count of all words but a count of hyphenated words (So each hyphenated word has a count of 1 even if several words were involved in the hyphenated pair).

Finally we note that this Rashi has a modern flavor. Modern journal studies frequently study a domain of discoure - such as Moses' prayers - by computing attributes of forms such as word length. Because word length is objective such studies frequently uncover meaningful commentary. It is interesting that Rashi was aware of this very modern technique.


#*#*#*# (C) RashiYomi Inc., 2009, Dr. Hendel, President #*#*#*#*#