#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*# (C) Dr Hendel, 2000 *#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*
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| Rashi is Simple Version 2.0 |
| (C) Dr Hendel, Summer 2000 |
| http://www.RashiYomi.Com |
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VERSE: Dt01-24b
RASHIS COVERED: Dt01-24b Lv01-06b Lv02-06a
Lv23-03b Lv14-06b Lv20-05b
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: I heard the following Rashi explanation from
--------------- a young Yeshiva student at Scranton Yeshiva.
We met at a 200 person lecture by Rav Matithyahu Solomon
chief spiritual exhorter of Lakewood who spoke at Shomray
Emunah this past Shabbos. Although I had my own explanation
of Rashi this student had an equally valid one.
RULE:
----
There are two words for "IT" in Hebrew.
(a1) The suffix letter "V" is the normal way of indicating "IT"
(a2) The word OTO is used to mean ONLY IT or ALL OF IT
EXAMPLES
--------
{LIST1} {The following verses all have the word OTHO.
In the following verses OTHO means either ONLY IT
or ALL OF IT. This principle was developed by the
Malbim who uses it not only on Rashi but also on
the sifrah *6}
VERSE TEXT RASHI
-------- ----------------------------- ------------------------
Lv01-06b & He'll cut ONLY IT to pieces Don't recut *1
Lv02-06a Crumble ONLY IT to pieces Don't recrumble *1
Lv23-03b he'll prepare ALL OF IT *2 One fill; don't refill
Lv14-06b The bird: Take ONLY IT*3 But not the wood/scarlet
Lv20-05b & I will cut ONLY HIM off from But not his family *4
Dt01-24b They spied ALL OF IT Full scouting *5
NOTES
-----
*1 In other words you cut/crumble the offering. But you
don't keep on cutting the cut pieces to make them smaller
Hence the Rashi "cut ONLY it"
*2 The actual verse says about the Candellabrah "..prepare ALL
OF it for lighting from eve to morning" However eg this could
allow placing 5 hours of oil at the beginning of the evening
and then refilling it for the last half of the night later
By saying FILL ALL OF IT for lighting we infer that a whole
supply of oil for the entire night must be put in at the
beginning (Rashi cites the talmud that this is the volume of
oil in 3 eggs--I have experimented with this and found it
to be true and use these principles in my Chanukah menorah)
*3 The actual verse is speaking about the Lepor sacrifice which
consists of a bird, cedar wood, hyssop and wool. It says
"The bird:Take ONLY IT and the cedar hyssop and wool and
DIP them and the slaughtered bird ...."
The law therefore is that
--you take the bird by itself
--you bind the wood, hyssop and wool and take them
(So the point is that you don't bind the bird with them)
--But even though the binding separates them nevertheless
you dip ALL 4 of them (bird, wood, hyssop, and wool)
There are a variety of ways of learning this law-for example
we could learn it from the contrasting phrases
"Bird: take it and them" vs "dip them and the bird"
But you can also find support for this law in the phrase
"the bird:Take ONLY IT"--so you don't bind with the others
*4 Again there is a contrast in the verse which is speaking about
the Molech worship (which consists of placing children thru
fire) The verse says that if these people go unpunished then
"I will PLACE MY FACE against this person AND his family
and I will CUT OFF ONLY HIM from his nation"
Thus the family is punished with "GODS FACE AGAINST THEM"
While the person is punished with "BEING CUT OFF"
By saying "I will cut off ONLY HIM" there is emphasis
that ONLY the sinner gets cut off
Rashi further explains that the family "knew what was going
on" and hence they are punished by "GODS FACE AGAINST THEM"
*5 "Scouting" could denote "perusing" the land. "Full scouting"
denotes crisscrossing the entire country and looking over
every detail
*6 The above analysis comes from Malbim (The Morning Star)
As I showed on Gn45-27a there is a 3rd possible meaning
to OTHO--which can indicate "SOMETHING PERSONAL" Thus
we have "And Jacob saw the wagons which Joseph had
PERSONALLY SENT HIM (The wagons had signs of conversations
that Jacob and Joseph had had 22 years prior--in this way
Joseph let Jacob know that it was really he that was alive)
Well I thought I had explained this Rashi rather well.
The young Yeshiva Student from Scranton had an equally
valid explanation. As can be seen from the footnotes to
{LIST1} above--multiple explanations for the same Rashi are
common. Here is the supplemental rule
RULE:
----
The 2 Hebrew roots TUR and RGL both mean to SPY.
-TUR has an emphasis on ordinary spying
-RGL literally means "to FOOT the land" or "to TRACK the land"
It is a more intense form of spying and is used prior to wars
to indicate finding out everything about the enemy terrain.
(Hence the Rashi on Dt01-24b that they criss-crossed the land
and intensely looked it over)
EXAMPLES
--------
{LIST2} {Verses with spying. Note how RGL only occurs
when WAR occurs. Moses original intention was
only to have light scouting "to find out how
good the land is"(Dt01-25)--hence the root RGL is
used by Israel only once in the Chumash*1 *2}
VERSE VERB WHY WAS THE SPYING DONE
-------- ---- ----------------------------------------------
Jos2-1 RGL WAR of Yericho
1Sam26-4 RGL "WAR" of David and Saul*3
2S15-10 RGL Proclomation of Civil war
Nu21-32 RGL WAR of Yaazer
2S10-03 RGL Suspicion of WAR-intent of Jews on Amon
Nu13-16 TOR The spying on Israel for the Jew to come there
Nu13-17 TOR The spying on Israel for the Jew to come there
Nu13-25 TOR The spying on Israel for the Jew to come there
Nu14-38 TOR The spying on Israel for the Jew to come there
Dt01-24 RGL Only time that RGL is used for spying Israel*2
NOTES
-----
*1 This BIBLICAL usage is consistent with the ROOT usage
Thus we find that TUR is used for speculation as in
Ecc1-13 Eccl7-25 while we find RGL used for spying
and stalking somebody 2S19-28) As already mentioned
RGL means FOOT so as a verb it could mean to "FOOT a
place"--to closely scrutinize it.
*2 RGL is used to describe the scouting of Israel
once in Chumash in Dt01-24b and also in Joshua
Jos14-16. Apparently the MAIN thrust of Moses
was to find out how good the land is while a
secondary thrust was military 'to see which
cities to conquer first'(Dt01-22)
*3 There wasn't an actual war but see 1Sam26-7:10--David
went into the camp and was 'advised' to kill him
RULES USED: GRAMMAR
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Volume 7 Number 5
#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*# (C) Dr Hendel, 2000 *#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*
Volume 7 Number 5