QUESTION
--------
The following question was asked my Moshe and David (son and
father) Eisenberg, of Shomrei Emunah.

- Rashi on Gn22-01a,"AFTER these things God told Abraham to offer
- Isaac" presents two approaches: (A) AFTER Abraham banished
- Ishmael God asked him to banish Isaac, (B) AFTER Satan
- complained to God that Abraham was religious because of Gods
- promise to make Isaac great(and therefore God should test
- Abraham with his son).
-
- Explanation (A) is easy to understand. Where did Rashi
- get explanation (B)?

*10

ANSWER
------
(1st) Review http://www.Rashiyomi.com/gn41-01a which
presents 3 Biblical methods for denoting SEQUENCE

METHOD A: NO SPECIAL WORD--SEQUENTIAL PHRASES
---------------------------------------------
eg. Adam lived 130 years
He gave birth to Sheth

METHOD B: AFTER - 2nd event happened sometime after
---------------------------------------------------
e.g. AFTER these events God asked Abraham to offer
Isaac

METHOD C: COMPLETION - 1st event is prerequisite for 2nd
--------------------------------------------------------
e.g.At the COMPLETION of 6 months of perfuming
the women came to Achasveirosh

(2nd) So Gn22-01 which uses the word AFTER, implies
that the request to offer Isaac came SOMETIME after
some other event.


(3rd) What other event? The simplest answer is
AFTER the event that was just mentioned (The expulsion
of Ishmael). So the simple meaning is that after
God had prepared Abraham for expulsion of children
God asked him to sacrifice Isaac

(4th) Rashi cites two opinions. It is logical
that the expulsion of one child should prepare Abraham
for the sacrifice of an other child. But some sages
demur--after all - the Arabs hurt the Jews a great
deal--why should expelling Ishmael who was wicked
prepare Abraham for the sacrifice of Isaac who was
righteous.

These sages see the Ishmael-Isaac connection as weak.
Therefore, examining Gn21, the chapter preceding the
request to offer Isaac, we see two events: (#1) The
expulsion of Ishmael (#2) the birth of Isaac.

So these sages who dislike the Arabs think that
the AFTER refers to the birth of Isaac.

- AFTER the birth of ISAAC God requested Abraham
- to offer Isaac.

They dress this sequence (BIRTH ISAAC--SACRIFICE)
in allegorical terminology.

- Satan (the angel of instigation) complained
- to God that Abraham was righteous because
- God pampered him with a son. Therefore the
- only way of testing Abraham was asking him
- to offer this son.

(5th) IN SUMMARY: The word AFTER in Gn22-01
emphasizes SEQUENCE. The request to offer
Isaac happened after SOME OTHER EVENT.

Everyone agrees that this some other event
happened in the previous chapter. Some see
the other event as the expulsion of Ishmael
while others see the other event as the birth
of Isaac.

These sages dressed up the idea in allegorical
terminology involving angels and hence the
mythical story of Satan complaining to God.

In terms of Rashi rules the important thing
to understand is that AFTER is what we call
a SPECIAL WORD which denotes SEQUENCE. The
question of what this sequence is depends
on context and peoples attitudes toward
events.

Russell Jay Hendel http://www.RashiYomi.com/

*1 Rashi states the following: "If MOTHERS make mistakes it
is because they raise children; if SINGLE women make
mistakes it is because they try to pick people up"
Rashi should be perceived as giving ILLUSTRATIONS of
why being without children is disgraceful for women

*2 Jacob did not NEED permission to leave with HIS wife
But his father-in-law would perceive it as STEALING
his daughter.

*1 Sometimes the construct is REPEATED while at other
times it is stated ONLY ONCE and carries over ELLIPTICALLY

*2 Names of trees

*3 Rashi shows how the COMPOUND construct combines with
use of adjectives on one of the items
-------------------------------------------------
STICK of LIVNEH, that is MOIST(not dried out)
----- AND looz
----- AND ARMON
-------------------------------------------------

The keyword AND carries over the repeated CONSTRUCT
The adjective (MOIST) is stated without a conjunction

*2 Demons in dreams often appear with HORNS Hence
it is reasonable to call them GOATS

*3 This root seems to be very controversial.
For example some people (Radack cites them) suggest
that the root is Zayin-Nun (WEAPON) with an added
prefix of Aleph.

Hence Rav Hirsch suggests that the etymology is
PERSONAL (ALEPH) WEAPONS.

I would simply say that the UTENSIL BELT with
hanging cases on both sides looks like 2 ears
on a head. Thus the meaning is based on FORM.*10



*4 The verse literally is translated as follows
----------------------------------------------
So they (The Kehatites) shall not come
and look as the holy (objects) are being packed
-----------------------------------------------

For possible further examples see footnote *11

*5 cf these verses showing that LOZ means TWISTED
or DEVIANT Pr03-21, Pr03-33,Pr02-15. (Rashi
cites the French name of these trees)

*10 To be fair Rashi explains TWO words in this verse
- The Hebrew Aleph-Zayin-Nun means WEAPON
- The Hebrew AL which usually means ON can also
mean BESIDES.

For the 6 meanings of AL see
http://www.RashiYomi.com/al-5.htm

Or visit the Rashi word page,
http://www.RashiYomi.com/words.htm


*11 Radack in his book, Biblical roots, lists 3 meanings
-------------------------------------------------
a) SWALLOW as in Jr51-34--He SWALLOWED me like a
Crockodile

b) DESTROY as in La02-02 - God has DESTROYED, without
mercy

c) HIDE/PACK as in Nu04-20
-------------------------------------------------

It is debatable whether there are other verses
illustrating this meaning of HIDE. Radack suggests
Jb27-30 and Jb10-08. I would say Is19-03---
------------------------------
God will HIDE (conceal) their advice
------------------------------
the metaphor of HIDING ADVICE is similar to the tone
at 2S15-31.

Suffice it to say that there is much controversy
on all the proper meaning of all these verses. However
our translation of Nu04-20 seems to be standard

*1 So Jacobs emphasis was not on how much he
SUFFERED (the "boss" didnt care about employee
abuse). Rather the emphasis was on how much
PRODUCTIVITY he had. Jacob was hoping to persuade
Laban that he OWED him something