#*#*#*#*# (C) 2001, RashiYomi Inc. Dr Hendel President #*#*#*#*#
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| (C) RashiYomi Inc., Dr Hendel President |
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VERSE: Gn18-02a
RASHIS COVERED: Gn18-02a Gn19-01a Gn19-22b
========================= Gn18-02a ============================
SUCCINCT SUMMARY
----------------
One of Rashis main methods is the skillful use of
ALIGNMENT to illustrate nuances. The minor differences
between ALIGNED verses powerfully suggests explicit concepts
EXAMPLE Gn18 and Gn19
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To make a very long story short Gn18 and Gn19 describes the
3 angels that visited
- Sarah to tell her she will have a child
- Sedom, to destroy it
- Lot, to save him from Sedom.
Throughout two Biblical chapters the angels are referred to
in a variety of forms. From the alignment of the several
dozen references to the angels we can infer numerous nuances.
More specifically
- From the use of SINGULAR in 3 verses but the use of PLURAL
in all other verses we infer that ANGELS are assigned only
one task...hence one angel told Sarah she was having a
child, another angel saved Lot and another angel destroyed
Sedom
- The speaker is alternatively referred to as GOD, ANGELS,
MEN. Since these men did angelic things (save a person, give
a person a baby, destroy a city) we infer that in fact
they were ANGELS, emissaries of God and that Gn18 was told
in a vision to Abraham. The simplest explanation that
the angels are called men to Abraham was because he too
had angelic status (Similar to MOses who is called an Angel)
SInce he was on their level they are called men.
THe full appreciation of these Rashis is achieved by reviewing
several dozen sentences only 3 of which have singular and
similarly by reviewing the continuous back and forth use of
GOD ANGELS MEN. Thus this posting is an excellent example
of the ALIGNMENT method.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
---------------
This posting came from a post-dinner discussion with Yossi
Wetstein who asked me about the Rambams view on these chapters.
Yossi has made other contributions to this list--for example
he suggested the SUCCINCT SUMMARY section which we now use in
every issue.
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ITEM DETAIL
======================== ====================================
RASHI RULE CLASS: ALIGNMENT
RASHI SUBRULE CLASS NUANCES
RASHI WORKBOOK PRINCIPLE #11
SEE BELOW LIST308f
List of verses with 3 Angels that visited Abe,Sarah,Lot
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===================== LIST308f ==========================================
List of verses with 3 Angels that visited Abe,Sarah,Lot
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VERSE #People Angel-Men Plural-Sing Text of verse
======== ================= ============ ================================
Gn18-02a 3 men P Abe saw 3 men
Gn18-02 P he ran towards them
Gn18-04 P wash YOUR feet
Gn18-04 P REST under tree
Gn18-05 P Feast yourselves
Gn18-05 P then leave
Gn18-05 P*1 you are passing by
Gn18-05 P THey said OK
Gn18-08 P he gave THEM to eat
Gn18-08 P he served THEM
Gn18-09 P THEY said where is Sarah
Gn18-10b Singular*2 HE Said Sarah will have son
Gn18-13 God*3 Singular God said,why Sarah laughs
Gn18-14 God Singular God says Sarah will have son
Gn18-16 Men*4 P The men left for Sedom
Gn19-01 Angels*4 P The Angels came to Sedom
Gn19-02 P Lot invited THEM
Gn19-02 P They refused
Gn19-03 P Lot pestered them
Gn19-03 P They went to his house
Gn19-04 P He made them a party
Gn19-05 Men P where are your men guests
Gn19-05 P throw THEM out
Gn19-05 P we will rape them
Gn19-08 Men P Lot says:Dont hurt men
Gn19-09 P we-ll hurt you more
Gn19-10 Men P The men brought lot inside
Gn19-11 P They smit the intruders
Gn19-12 Men P The men said:Lot,flee the city
Gn19-13 P Because WE are destroying it
Gn19-13 P God sent us to destroy it
Gn19-15 P The angels urged lot to flee
Gn19-16 P They removed him from the city
Gn19-17 P When they removed him
Gn19-18 Singular*2 He said: flee for your life
Gn19-21 Singular*2 He said:I-ll spare city for you
Gn19-22 Singular*2 I cant destroy till you flee
Gn19-24 God Singular*5 God fired and tarred Sedom
NOTES
-----
*1 In Hebrew there are two words for YOU--one is singular and one
is plural
*2 As we can see from the isolated used of SINGULAR
- one angel was assigned to tell Sarah she would have son
- one angel was assigned to save Lot
- one angel was assigned to destroy the city
*3 Compare Gn18-10 and Gn18-14. In both verse the same poetic
language is used to indicate that Sarah will have a son
next year.
But one verse is stated by God while the other is stated
by the men-angels.
We conclude that the 3 men were 3 images of angels in
the form of men which appeared to Abraham in a poetic
vision and prophesized about various events (Such as
births,destruction and salvation)
*4 Notice how TWO MEN left for Sedom while TWO ANGELS
arrived in Sedom. We conclude that the Two angels
appeared in a prophetic vision to both Abraham and
Lot. However Since Abraham like Moses had the status
of an angel, therefore the angels were called men by
Abraham (Similarly since the sedomites had no respect for
Angels therefore they are called MEN in the Sedomite
context of the story)
*5 Note how in Gn19-22 the Angel says that HE will destroy Sedom
while in Gn19-24 it says that God destroyed Sedom. We again
infer that these men were vision images of angels who were
emissaries of God!
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Volume 23 Number 20
#*#*#*#*# (C) 2001, RashiYomi Inc. Dr Hendel President #*#*#*#*#
Volume 23 Number 20