#*#*#*#*#  (C) 2001, RashiYomi Inc. Dr Hendel President #*#*#*#*#
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  |      Rashi is Simple Version 2.0                         |
  |      (C) RashiYomi Inc., Dr Hendel President             |
  |       http://www.RashiYomi.Com                           |
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VERSE: Ex20-02a

RASHIS COVERED:  Ex20-02a Dt05-15a  Dt16-12a  Dt24-18a  Lv22-33a
        Lv11-45a Nu15-41c  Ex20-02a  Ex29-46a
        Lv25-38a Lv19-36d

==================== DATABASE METHODS ===========================

VERY BRIEF SUMMARY
------------------
There are only a dozen commandments where it mentions
the EXODUS from Egypt--that is, it states DO THESE
COMMANDMENTS AND REMEMBER THAT I, GOD, TOOK YOU OUT
OF EGYPT. There are 4 reasons for mentioning the Exodus:
(1) BE NICE TO SLAVES AND ORPHANS (cf Dt15-15,Dt05-15
Dt16-12, Dt24-18); (2) SANCTIFY YOURSELVES by avoiding ritual
impurity; (cf Lv22-33, Lv11-45, Nu15-41, Ex29-46).(3) AVOID
ANXIETY PRODUCING BUSINESS PRACTICES (Cf Lv25-38, Lv19-36)
(4) SERVE THE TRUE ONE UNIQUE GOD: (cf Ex20-01,Ex29-46)
All these practices were intrinsic to Egypt.

-----------------------------------------
TODAYS RASHI RULE:       DATABASE METHODS
TODAYS RASHI SUBRULE:    DATABASE METHODS
-----------------------------------------

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF RULE
-------------------------
One of Rashis main goals was to function as a Masorite:
A scholar who preserves the accuracy of the Biblical
text.

A primary vehicle for preserving the Biblical text is
noting RARITY. RARITY simply means that in some domain
of knowledge, Biblical language rarely uses certain
words or terms.

Examples of Biblical rarity are (a) Grammatical conjugations
that do not occur that often in Tnach; (b) Special topics
that occur in only a FEW of the Biblical commandments; (c)
grammatical roots that only occur a few times in the Bible.

I have coined the phrase: TO RASHI A TEXT--which means to
especially note all RARITY that occurs in that text. Rashi
will frequently NOT EXPLAIN this RARITY but simply NOTE IT.
As indicated this is the task of the Masorite.

For those who are familiar with Database theory this can
be succinctly formulated (See footnote *10)

STANDARD EXAMPLE
----------------
There are 613 BIblical commandments. But only a dozen
or so mention the Exodus. Hence the EXODUS is a Biblical
Rarity relative to the commandments. The list below shows
the dozen or so verses containing Biblical commandments.
In most of them Rashi comments on the emphasis that
----------------------------------------
God took us out of Egypt (Exodus) on
condition that we perform these commandments
----------------------------------------

STUDENT EXERCISES:
------------------
- Gather/find all Biblical commandments that mention
  the Exodus

- How many such commandments do you have?

- Are there common themes to these Biblical commandments

RASHIS SOLUTION
---------------
Rashi did NOT have a solution! Rashi simply notes
the Rarity. In each of the dozen or so commandments
mentioning Egypt he mentions this Rarity.

Nevertheless by seeking underlying themes in these
commandments we enrich our understanding of Rashi

STANDARD REFERENCES FOR THIS RULE
---------------------------------
http://www.RashiYomi.com/database.htm
A definitive scholarly paper on Database methods with
many examples.

Todays example may be found at
http://www.RashiYomi.com/dt05-15a.htm

One can also find this example at the Rashi calendar
See http://www.RashiYomi.Com/egypt-5.htm

Or visit the Rashi calendar at
http://www.RashiYomi.com/calendar1.htm
The Exodus series was presented in August 2000

HOW TO USE THESE LISTS FOR SCHOOL PROJECTS
------------------------------------------
You can use the LISTS referenced above for
school projects. Here is how. If you are a
teacher then you can present rarity themes
and ask the students to perform the
3 student exercises listed above.

The students can then compare their analysis with that
of Rashis. This leads to greater appreciation of Rashi.

TODAYS EXAMPLE
--------------
We present the dozen or so commandments where
the exodus is mentioned. Footnotes elaborate further
=================================================================
VERSE     COMMAND    Why this commandment mentions the Exodus
========  ========== ============================================
Dt05-15a  Slavery*1  Remember how you were a slave in Egypt
Dt15-15a  Slavery*1  Give gifts to your slaves(Like God gave you)
Dt16-12a  Slavery    Remember the orphan widow levite etc
Dt24-18a  Slavery    Remember the poor and leave food for them
Lv22-33a  Holiness*2 Be Holy (avoid the impurity methods of Egypt
Lv11-45a  Holiness*2 Be Holy (avoid the impurity methods of Egypt
Nu15-41c  Holiness   Do all commandments; Separate from impurity
Ex20-02a  One God*3  I am the one God despite various appearances
Ex29-46a  One GOd    Dwell with ME(God); Not with Egypt
Lv25-38a  Anxiety*4  Dont take interest on loans
Lv19-36d  Anxiety    Dont have bad weights

NOTES
-----
*1 In other words a standard Egyptian practice was CLASS
   DISTINCTIONS. This destroyed initiative and muffled
   individuality. Therefore the Bible especially emphasizes
   Egypt on commandments showing compassion to slaves, poor
   widows and orphans

*2 A classical humiliation technique of Egypt was exposure
   to dead animals, eating blood, visiting graves, idolatry
   etc. This destroyed the personality. The BIble counteracts
   this by emphasizing holiness *11

*3 We could classify this set of commandments with holiness.
   The idea here is that Egypt assigned everyone a PLACE
   based on THEIR god. In Judaism there is one God and all
   are equally accessible to Him

*4 A classic technique of Egypt was use of business anxiety
   measures such as loaning on interest or use of bad
   weights. This destroyed the desire for excellence.
   The overall goal of Egypt was destroying individuality
   and creating a machine of people. Towards this end
   they needed to humiliate people enough to destroy
   their individuality.

---------------------- LONGER FOOTNOTES -------------------------

*10 This is a slightly technical footnote for those who know
    SQL the accepted database standard for all
    databases

    ------------------ HENDELS RARITY ALGORITHM -----------------
    Let B=Bible= database with fields  BIblical words,Verses
    Let C=Commandments = Any domain of expertise
    We suppose C enumerates Commandments, Verses of occurence

    Then B x C, the Left Join of B and C contains the fields
    Biblical Words, Verses they occur in, Which commandment it is

    We want to measure how frequently certain words occur in
    certain verses.

    Let W be all words that occur in any Biblical commandment
    The SQL statement is: SELECT distinct w FROM b X c;

    We can now count the number of commandment verses where
    each Biblical word occurs. The SQL statement is

    SELECT w, count(verse) FROM w X b X c WHERE w in W;

    The last Query produces a list of all words that occur
    in Biblical commandments as well as their frequency.

    Certain words like DO NOT occur in hundreds of commandments
    Certain words like REPRODUCE only occur in one or two
    commandments.

    Rashi is not interested in these.

    But certain words like EGYPT, REWARD etc occur in a dozen
    or so commandments. These words and verses are where you
    will find Rashis.

    In the above algorithm certain extra intermediate steps
    may eg produce tighter distinctnesses. We omit details
    Similarly certain steps may be combined with subqueries.

    Note the extreme elegance of the Hendel algorithm With
    only 5 lines of compact code we have succinctly
    described several 100 Rashis.

    Praise be Him who Chose Them and Their Learning
    ------------------------------------------------------------

*11 A beautiful comment by the University of Rabbi Ishmael
    occurs on this verse which further illustrates the
    database method.

    Rabbi Ishmaels school points out that among the dozen
    rare commandments that mention Egypt all use the term
    I AM GOD THAT took YOU OUT OF EGYPT.

    Lv11-45a however uses the expression, I AM GOD
    WHO elevated YOU FROM EGYPT. Thus there is emphasis
    on ELEVATION from impurity to Holiness.
=================================================================

RASHI RULE USED: DOUBLE PARSHAS
---------------------------------------------------
WARNING: The following additional references may be too wordy
However they frequently contain additional information & lists
The hyperlinks only work on the main website

Volume 14 Number 3


#*#*#*#*#  (C) 2001, RashiYomi Inc. Dr Hendel President #*#*#*#*#
Volume 14 Number 3