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  |      Rashi is Simple Version 2.0                         |
  |      (C) Dr Hendel, Summer 2000                          |
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VERSE: Gn18-22b

THE BIBLICAL TEXT ACCORDING TO RASHI
------------------------------------
Gn18-22b "And the Angels (which came to tell Abraham that he would
give birth to a son) left and they went to Sedom (where they had
orders to destroy it); but Abraham was still standing in a prophetic
vision before God. And in that Prophetic vision Abraham saw himself
asking God why He was destroying a whole city---couldn't the city
be spared if there were Righteous people in it...and God answered
him that indeed there were no righteous people"

IMPLICATIONS
------------
COMMENT: The above translation has important philosophical
implications: For the great dialogue between Abraham and God
Why is God destroying a whole city did not happen (as some
would take it) by a deeply religious Patriarch who questioned
God---rather the questioning happened in a vision in order
to instruct Abraham on Gods ways.

This interpretation is explicitly stated
        "Gn18-19 For I will give Prophetic Knowledge to Abraham
        in order that he will be able to instruct his household
        to observe the ways of God"
Thus we have an explicit statement that the whole questioning
of the destruction of Sedom was not initiated by Abraham to doubt
Gods way but rather initiated by God in order to instruct Abraham


TRANSLATIONS
------------
Crucial to the above translation is the explanation that
        >STANDING BEFORE GOD means STANDING IN PROPHETIC VISION
vision (cf Gn19-27,Dt29-14, Zech3-1). Some other examples where
STANDING BEFORE GOD=PROPHETIC VISION occurs in

VERSE      TEXT
========== =======================================================
Gn19-27    & Abraham got up to the place where he STOOD BEFORE GOD
Dt29-09:14 You are all STANDING BEFORE GOD..to enter his convenant
Zech03-01  & in a vision I saw Joshua the Priest STANDING BEFORE GOD

This point (that STANDING=PROPHECY) is made by the MARZU commentary
on Genesis Rabbah.


VARIANT TEXTS IN RASHI (Technical discussion)
----------------------
The above is all clear. However some texts of Rashi read
        "The Torah says "Abraham stood before God". But it
        should read "God stood before Abraham". This verse is
        in fact one of the 18 textual fixes made by the Prophet
        Sages of the Great Assembly in which they OVERTURNED
        the text"
Thus it appears that Rashi is saying that the "original Torah
text" said something else and Chazal 'fixed it'.

To answer this we note that
(1) The Yfah Toar explicitly states in Midrash Rabbah
        "Most Rashis do not have this clause (that the text
        was changed). It appears that this was put into Rashi
        by some rash student"

(2nd) We have shown above that the text as is, reads fine

(3rd) The Michat Shai on Zecharia 2:12 brings down around 5
Rishonim that explicitly state that "the 18 textual fixes of
the men of the great assembly" were not CHANGES IN TEXT but
rather notations on 18 texts that LOOKED like they were saying
something else

In passing there is a marginal commentary called the MESORAH
which does exactly that...it lists verses which LOOK like they
have mistakes--the purpose of so doing is to avoid scribal error


(4th) Even if Rashi said "Which the sages OVERTURNED these texts"
it would STILL not mean they changed it. For the word OVERTURNED
means to INVESTIGATE (Cf the Ethics of the Father statement
INVESTIGATE INVESTIGATE). Thus these texts are simply texts
that were investigated.

5th) The suggested alternative phrase GOD STOOD does occur but is
always used when God is about to do something. It might be out of
place here since God and Abraham were having a dialogue and God
was not about to do anything(cf Nu14-14 , Ez03-23, Zech03-05,
1Chr21-15). This requires more investigation since there are not
that many verses with this phrase.

In summary it seems clear BASED ON BIBLICAL USAGE that the
original text was "And Abraham (prophetically) still stood
before God"

I acknowledge the Mail Jewish discussion group in general and
Chaiim Mateh in particular for encouraging me to answer this
question (cf Volume 32 Number 36)
---------------------------------------------------
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Volume 6 Number 13


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