Today Hebrew grammar is well understood and there are many books on it. Rashi, however, lived before the age of grammar books. A major Rashi method is therefore the teaching of basic grammar.

Many students belittle this aspect of Rashi. They erroneously think that because of modern methods we know more. However Rashi will frequently focus on rare grammatical points not covered in conventional textbooks.

There are many classical aspects to grammar whether in Hebrew or other languages. They include
• The rules for conjugating verbs. These rules govern how you differentiate person, plurality, tense, mode, gender, mood, and designation of the objects and indirect objects of the verb. For example how do you conjugate, in any language, I sang, we will sing, we wish to sing, she sang it.
• Rules of agreement. For example agreement of subject and verb, of noun and adjective; whether agreement in gender or plurality.
• Rules of Pronoun reference.
• Rules of word sequence. This is a beautiful topic which is not always covered in classical grammatical textbooks.

Today we study a Rashi based on a simple grammatical rule: agreement in plurality. That is, a plural subject must refer not to one person but to several people.

Verse Nu21-27b discussing the reaction to the defeat of Moab states Wherefore the riddle-makers say: Come ye to Heshbon! let the city of Sihon be built and established! The subject of the sentence, riddle-makers, is plural. In fact in the Biblical Hebrew the verb of the sentence is also plural. The plural subject and predicate, according to the rules of grammar must refer to a plurality of people. Hence the paraphrased Rashi comment: Bilam was not the only riddle-maker. Bilam, was not a permanant prophet, but rather an interpreter (Nu22-05) Bilam however aspired to become a prophet. He did this by practicing riddle-making since God spoke to the prophets in riddle-like phrases (Nu12-05.) Apparently Bilam belonged to a school of such riddle-makers. In fact we find an explicit verse Nu24-05...the oration of Bilam, his son [student] was Beor Although Bilam's father was also named Beor (See Nu22-05) Bilam apparently affectionately named his star pupil after his father. It is extremely reasonable to assume that Bilam founded a school of riddle makers who sought by practicing riddles to know the knowledge of heavens and prophecy (Nu24-16)

To be fair Rashi only says The plural, riddle-speakers, refers to Bilam and Beor. However what I attempted to do above, although speculative and conjectural, does have a basis.
• I first point out that Bilam was not a prophet.
• I then conjecture that he used riddle-styles to attempt to know God.
• Finally I suggest that he founded a school of riddle-speakers since people who attempt to learn things usually gather in schools of people to conduct their research.
• Based on the above I then suggest that the strange construction, Bilam, his son was Beor probably refers to his star pupil whom he named after his father.
All these are reasonable assumptions which enrich our understanding of Rashi - it also shows that Rashi was insulting Bilam - Bilam was rather pathetic - he prepared for prophecy by studying childish riddles and thought he knew the wisdom of God.