Rashi-Is-Simple Mailing List
(C) Dr Russell Jay Hendel, 1999
http://www.shamash.org/rashi
Volume 4 Number 2
Produced Oct, 29 1999
Topics Discussed in This Issue
------------------------------
v1a18-1
When God APPEARS to someone he always gives a PROPHETIC
COMMUNICATION. 1-18-1 is the only verse where God
appeared without also communicating. Apparently after
his circumcision Abraham reached perfection. Hence God
could just visit him as a FRIEND.
v1b18-7
NAAR = a) SHAKE/BRUSH OFF b)WINNOW c)CHILLS/SEIZURES
d)BREY e) To dust off immaturities & become
polished.Unifying theme is a DUSTING /BRUSHING OFF
motion.Hence NAAR refers to a TRAINEE (not someone
young). Rashi identifies likely trainees on each verse
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*** READING TIPS ***
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IF YOU ARE IN A HURRY WE RECOMMEND THE FOLLOWING SECTIONS:
* VERSE:
* RASHI TEXT:
* BRIEF BUT COMPLETE NARRATIVE EXPLANATION:
"HOW DO I FIND QUICKLY A SPECIFIC SECTION?"
ANSWER: Use your FIND menu
For example: FIND VERSE:
takes you to the beginning of the next section.
Similarly
FIND NARRATIVE EXPLANATION:
takes you to the brief explanation of Rashi.
"IS THERE AN EASY WAY TO GO TO EACH VERSE AND POSTING?"
Yes. Use your FIND menu.
"FIND #*#*#*#" takes you to the next posting
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VERSE: v1a18-1
======
v1a18-1 And God appeared to Abraham ..
RASHI TEXT:
===========
v1a18-1 God appeared to Abraham to visit him while
he was sick
BRIEF BUT COMPLETE NARRATIVE EXPLANATION:
=========================================
The entire explanation I am about to give comes from a lecture I
personally heard from the Rav, Rabbi Dr Joseph Soloveitchick whom I
had the privelege of listening to for 7 years. I have indicated
several times that although the content of the material in these
postings is my own the basic methdology I learned from the Rav.
This is one of those rare postings that I personally heard from
him in its entirety. The explanation has 3 stages.
STAGE 1--THE PROBLEM
--------------------
In this stage we review {LIST1} and note that whenever God
appeared to someone He always spoke to him. In other words
prophetic revelation is always accompanied by communication.
The prophetic revelation in 1-18-1 is an exception--God
appeared to Abraham but did not say anything.
Examples of prophetic revelations with communication are
well known and are exhibited in {LIST1}. Thus in 1-12-7
God appeared to Abraham AND promised him Israel. Similarly
in 1-26-2 God appeared to Isaac and warned him against
leaving Israel. Again, 1-18-1 is the only example in which
God appeared prophetically but did not communicate. Why?
STAGE 2--THE DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTIC
------------------------------------------
It is straightforward to find an answer. Chapter 1-18 comes
right after 1-17 in which Abraham circumcised himself. The
chapter 1-17 ends with Abraham and his household circumcising
themselves. So Rashi Is Simple---God came to inquire about
Abrahams health (in other words, the prophetic revelation
in 1-18-1, in which God visits the sick is a continuation
of the prophetic revelation in 1-17 in which God ordered
Abraham to circumcise himself.
Although this partially answers the question we are still
left with an uneasiness that this is the ONLY time that
God did not communicate when delivering a prophetic
experience.
STAGE 3--A PHILOSOPHICAL JUSTIFICATION
--------------------------------------
It is hear where the Rav shows his true brilliance. The Rav
introduced the idea of two types of human relationship which
he summarized using Buber's I-THOU terminology. He gave the
following two examples
EXAMPLE 1: If I go to your house and knock on the door you might
answer and say "
>Yes What Can I Do For you.
You would want to know why I am there.
EXAMPLE 2: But if I was a long term friend and I knocked on your
door you might answer and say
>Hi. Come on in
You would not want to know why I am there--rather my being there
was an end in itself which did not need further justification.
The Rav articulated the difference between the two examples by
saying that one was an
>I-YOU relationship
in which I do relate to people but want to know what each of us
can do/give to the other.
The other relationship is an
>I-THOU relationship
in which my being with another person is an end in itself
Having introduced this concept the Rav explained that after the
circumcision Abrahams relationship with God changed from I-YOU
to I-THOU. THEREFORE, God came to visit Abraham in a vision
without telling him anything....the mere presence of Abraham
was an end in itself.
Rashi expresses this new I-THOU relationship with the thought that
>God came to visit Abraham while he was sick
In other words, God did not come as a King giving orders but rather
as a friend who cared about Abrahams welfare.
Another possible support to this idea of the Rav may be found in
3-9-23 which speaks about a revelation, not of GOD, but of the
HONOR OF GOD. Here too we have a revelation without communication.
It is possible that the lack of communication is because it is
the
>HONOR OF GOD
which is revealed, not
>GOD HIMSELF.
But this is not an adequate answer as shown by the parallel
appearances of the HONOR OF GOD in 4-20-6 and 4-16-19 (each
of these verses has COMMUNICATION).
But the above answer suggested by the Rav, that
>After the circumcision God-Abraham had an I-THOU relation
would parallel the God-Israel relation after the consecration of
the Temple (in 3-9-23). In other words, after the consecration of
the Temple the God-Israel relationship entered an I-THOU state
in contrast to the former I-YOU state.
COMMENTS ON RASHI'S FORM:
=========================
LISTS {For ADVANCED students and for those with more time}:
===========================================================
{LIST1} {Of revelations by God. Gods revelations are always
followed by communications. The only exception is
1-18-1 in which God appeared to Abraham but did not
communicate to him. Another possible parallel
revelation without communication is presented in
FOOTNOTE *1}
VERSE TO WHOM TEXT OF COMMUNICATION
====== ======= =====================
1-12-7 Abraham Promise of Israel
1-17-1 Abraham The Convenant of circumcision
1-18-1 Abraham
1-26-2 Isaac Don't go down to Egypt
1-35-9 Jacob Blessing of being fruitful
5-31-15 Moses/Joshua Coming of day of judgement
FOOTNOTES
*1 There is also no speech in 3-9-23 but there it is an
appearance of
>THE HONOR OF GOD
while in the other verses it is an appearance of
>GOD HIMSELF
Nevertheless we find God speaking after the appearance of
>THE HONOR OF GOD
in 4-16-19. (And hence the question
>Why is there no SPEECH with the Divine appearance
>in 3-9-23
Thus we could alternatively follow our general pattern here &
say that
>when the temple was consecrated
was like
>when Abraham was circumcised.
Just as when Abraham was circumcised he entered a more intimate
state of being with God so too when the temple was consecrated
the Jews entered a more intimate state of being with God--this
intimate state of being with God manifested itself in that
God could appear to a person and just be with him without having
to say anything.
Similar comments could be made for other verses such as 4-20-6.
CROSS REFERENCES:
=================
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
=================
As mentioned above, the above explanation came from
the Ravs shiur which I was priveleged to hear for 7
years and to whom I am deeply indebted. The Rav's
methodology has influenced me a great deal.
RULE CLASSIFICATION {See the web site for comparable examples}:
===============================================================
DOUBLE PARSHAS
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VERSE: v1b18-7
======
v1b18-7 And Abraham gave the food to the lad (ISHMAEL)
v1c22-3 & His 2 lads were with him (ISHAMEL,ELIEZER)
v4-11-27 And the lad(GERSHOM) ran & told Moses
v2a24-5 And the lads (FIRST BORN) offered sacrifices
RASHI TEXT:
===========
v1b18-7 And Abraham gave the food to the lad (ISHMAEL)
v1c22-3 & His 2 lads were with him (ISHAMEL,ELIEZER)
v4-11-27 And the lad(GERSHOM) ran & told Moses
v2a24-5 And the lads (FIRST BORN) offered sacrifices
BRIEF BUT COMPLETE NARRATIVE EXPLANATION:
=========================================
The above 4 verses are almost the only verses in the Bible where
the Hebrew word NAR (usually translated as LAD) occurs without
a direct reference to a specific person. For example in 1-21-17
when they are talking about Hagar who had been banished from
Abraham's house and Hagar and her son Ishmael were wandering in the
wilderness we have the verse that
>God listened to the voice of the NAR (Lad)
The word LAD refers to Ishmael. However there are about half
a dozen verses where LAD does not refer to a specific person
and on 4 of them, listed above, Rashi identifies a specfic person.
Why? What prompted Rashi to do so? The verse could have been left
alone as is.
The understand Rashi we must review the meaning of the Hebrew Root
NAR. As we shall see below NAR which is usually translated as
>NAR = LAD
really means, according to Rashi
>NAR = TRAINEE or APPRENTICE
Accepting this for the moment we see what Rashi did and why. For
example on 1-18-7 which reads
>And Abraham gave the food prepared for his guests to the LAD
we would, if we follow the traditional translation of
>NAR= LAD
have translated the verse to read
>Abraham gave the prepeared food to one of his SLAVES
But if by contrast we translate
> NAR = TRAINEE or APPRENTICE
then we should translate the verse as
> NAR = ISHMAEL (or mayber Eliezer)
so the verse would read
> Abraham gave the prepared food to ISHMAEL
In other words it is the true translation of the word NAR which
motivates Rashi to identify WHO the NAAR was. It is because NAR
means TRAINEE or APPRENTICE that Rashi feels compelled to advise
us that the verse should not be translated as
>Gave the food to one of his slaves
but instead
>Gave the food to ISHMAEL.
Similarly on the other verses, Rashi cites Midrashim and identifies
the most likely TRAINEE that the person could have had. Thus in
1-22-3 it speaks about Abrahams TRAINEES and the Midrash makes the
guestimate that these are ISHMAEL and ELIEZER. Moses TRAINEE in
4-11-27 is either his son GERSHOM or JOSHUA but since JOSHUA is
mentioned in the next verse we chose GERSHOM. Finally 2-24-5
refers to TRAINEES that offer sacrifices; again Rashi deviates
from the translation
>NAAR = Slaves or hired help
and translates it as
>NAAR = FIRST BORN
since according to 4-3-40:51 the FIRSTBORN participated in
sacrifices and helped the priests till the Levites replaced them.
We have left to explain why Rashi thinks NAAR=TRAINEE. {LIST1}
contains all meanings of NAAR in the Bible. There are 6--
>BREY
>WINNOW
>LAD
>TO GROW UP
>SERVANT
>CHILLS/SEIZURES.
{LIST1} exhibits these 6 meanings and provides verses to clarify
their usage. The footnotes show that certain meanings are well
known while others are the RDK's opinion on singular verses.
Before proceeding we note that
>WINNOW
is used in the bible to denote
>any SHAKING motion like 'dusting ones clothes to clean them'
To give 2 good examples of this we have
> ..he SHAKES his hands from accepting bribes(Isa33-15)
which picturesquely refers to someone refusing an offer and
waiving his hands emphatically to indicate refusal. Similarly
> ...& God 'dusted off Egypt' into the sea (2-14-27)
picturesquely describes God saving the Jews from Egypt, the
mightiest empire on Earth as the equivalant of BRUSHING OFF
YOUR CLOTHES FROM DUST. In other words God simply DuSTED
the earth and threw the Egyptian dirt into the sea(it was no
big deal). In both these cases
>NAAR = A Shaking/brushing off motion
We take this concept of SHAKING/BRUSHING off motion to be
the UNIFYING theme of the root NAAR. We immediately see that
this interpretation of NAAR as SHAKING/BRUSHING off accounts
for the meanings
> SHAKING/BRUSHING OFF
> CHILLS SEIZURES
> WINNOWING
since all these involve the same type of MOTIONS. We can
also see how SHAKING/BRUSHING OFF MOTION accounts for the meaning
> NAAR=TO BREY
since a BREYING animal usually shakes itself when BREYING.
Finally it is the RDQ himself (in the book Roots) on 1Sam1-24
that identifies the meaning GROWN UP to be
> GROWN UP = TO DUST OFF YOUR IMMATURTIES
Thus we picture say a teenager as someone who is almost an
adult and almost trained in adult ways but because of their
lackings has to dust off their immaturities to complete the
growing up process.
The relation of the meanings of NAR to the fundamental UNIFYING
meaning of SHAKING/BRUSHING OFF is exhibited in {LIST2}.
It would follow from this that
>NAAR = A TRAINEE DUSTING OFF IMMATURITIES
is the PRIMARY meaning of NAAR while
>NAAR = LAD
is a secondary meaning (since it is usually young people that
have to dust off immaturities).
Thus Rashi Is Simple--he took the primary meaning of NAAR as a
trainee in the 4 verses in question. He identified the NAAR
as the person's son to emphasize that the NAAR was not just
hired help but rather a son that was being trained to take
the fathers place
Three additional comments are made in the COMMENTS ON RASHIS FORM
SECTION
COMMENTS ON RASHI'S FORM:
=========================
We make 3 additional comments
1) TO INTERPRET 2-24-5 we need to know 2 items:
-----------------------------------------------
We need to know BOTH that
>NAAR = Trainee
>The first born were trainees to offer sacrifices
Many of the commentaries on Rashi raise the last point--it
would help to further mention the first point (that NAAR=TRAINEE)
2) Rashi explicitly indicates our thesis on 1-18-7
--------------------------------------------------
Rashi explicitly says on 1-18-7
>NAAR = Ishmael--Abraham wanted to TRAIN HIM to do Mitzvoth
By the extra words
>Abraham wanted to train him to do Mitzvoth
we infer that Rashi adopted the thesis that the unifying theme
of the root NAAR is
>NAAR = TRAINEE
It is for that reason that the extra words were added. (Note
that this is the first of the Rashis on NAAR in the Bible..hence
Rashi added the comment here)
3) Why did Rashi say 'THERE ARE THOSE WHO SAY' in 4-11-27?
----------------------------------------------------------
In the other verses Rashi simple translates
>NAAR = ISHMAEL
>NAAR = ISHMAEL and ELIEZER
>NAAR = FIRST BORN
But on 4-11-27 we have
>NAAR = 'SOME SAY IT WAS GERSHOM'
Why did Rashi add
>SOME SAY
In fact the opinion that
>NAAR = TRAINEE = HIS (MOSES) SON = GERSHOM
is stated in the Midrash Bamidbar Rabbah. It is stated there
without any other opinions. So why did Rashi ADD the words
>there are those who say it was...
It would appear to me that Rashi did this because of Moses
descendant (grandson) from Gershom who assisted idols (Jud18-30)
Consequently if we blame the grandson's behavior on his
training we could say that maybe Gershom his father wasn't
brought up properly by Moses (who spent all his time serving
the community and hence did not have the traditional
sufficient time to bring up his son properly). Hence Rashi
added the words
>there are those who say it was Gershom
to cast doubt whether Gershom really trained with Moses.
In passing I would take Rashi's doubt a step father and
suggest that
>NAAR = TRAINEE = ELIEZER (Moses 2nd son)
But the Midrash does NOT bring this opinion and hence
Rashi only cast some doubt into
>NAAR = GERSHOM
without giving altenatives.
LISTS {For ADVANCED students and for those with more time}:
===========================================================
{LIST1} {Of meanings of the Hebrew root NAR,courtesy of RDK}
MEANING VERSE TEXT
=============== ======== ======================================
Brey/Roar Jer51-38 They ROARED like lions
Winnow/shake Isa33-15 He who SHAKES his hand from bribery
Winnow/shake 2-14-27 & God DUSTED OFF Egypt into the sea
Grow up 1Sam1-24 And the lad (Samuel) had GROWN UP
Lad 1Sam1-24 Someone who is GROWING UP
Servant 1-37-2 And Joseph SERVED Bilhah's children
Chills/Seizures Job36-14 May they die with Chills & Seizures *1
FOOTNOTES
*1 This insightful interpretation is presented by the RDK in ROOTS
We note in passing that the obvious alternative explanation given
by other commentaries to this verse,
> May they die in their YOUTH
does not make sense since we are talking about establishment
people who have been doing evil for many years. Hence the RDKs
explanation appears to be PSHAT, the simple meaning
{LIST2}{The meanings of the Hebrew root NAR were presented in
{LIST1}. Here we show the relationship of each meaning
to the unified meaning of 'Dusting off motion'}
MEANING OF NAR RELATION OF THIS MEANING TO 'dusting off motion'
=============== ================================================
Winnow Same FUNCTION/FORM as a DUSTING OFF/MOTION
Brey/Roar Same FORM as a DUSTING OFF MOTION
Grow up Literally TO DUST OFF YOUR IMMATURITIES *1
LAD/SERVANT A 'DUSTY PERSON' who must mature *2
Chills/Seizures Same FORM as a DUSTING OFF MOTION
FOOTNOTES
*1 A simple approach is to take
>GROW UP
as a verb form of
>LAD
But the RDK suggests in his book ROOTS that
>A YOUTH
looks like
>A POLISHED VESSEL WITH DUST ON IT
You have to
>DUST OFF THE VESSEL
to make it look right. In a similar manner you have to
>REMOVE SOME IMMATURITIES DURING TEENAGE YEARS
in order to look polished.
*2 The female form of LAD seems to refer to a
teenage girl. Using our DUST OFF analogy we would say
>A TEENAGE GIRL
throws out
>ANNOYING BUT MINOR (SEXUAL) SIGNALS
As she grows up she
>DUSTS HERSELF OFF
until she reaches maturity and becomes a mature (polished) woman.
CROSS REFERENCES:
=================
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
=================
RULE CLASSIFICATION {See the web site for comparable examples}:
===============================================================
UNIFIED MEANING
UNIFIED MEANING
UNIFIED MEANING
UNIFIED MEANING
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NOTATIONAL CONVENTIONS
----------------------
e.g. v5b2-1 means as follows:
The "v" means verse
The "5" means Deuteronomy--the 5th book
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The "b" means The second rashi on that
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Seir)
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