Rashi-Is-Simple Mailing List
(C) Dr Russell Jay Hendel, 1999
http://www.shamash.org/rashi
Volume 4 Number 8
Produced Nov, 19 1999
Topics Discussed in This Issue
------------------------------
v1a25-21
ATR occurs 23 times in Tnach. 83% of time it means
PRAYER and 17% it means ALOT. A UNIFIED MEANING is ALOT
(Alot of prayer; alot or propaganda; alot of smoke).
ACTIVE tense=I pray; HIFIL tense=I pray for someone
else.PASSIVE TENSE=God answers.
v1a28-20
IF can mean WHEN.a)2-2-24 = WHEN you loan someone since
loaning is obligatory(5-15-8); b)2-20-22=WHEN you build
an altar (cf 5-27-6);c)3-2-14=WHEN you offer BKRM
(3-23-10);d)4-36-4=WHEN the Yovel comes (3-25-8:12);e)
1-28-20=WHEN God is with me (1-28-15)
#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*# (C) Dr Hendel, 1999 *#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*
***************************
*** READING TIPS ***
***************************
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
#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*# (C) Dr Hendel, 1999 *#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*
VERSE: v1a25-21
======
v1a25-21 And Yitzchak prayed (ATR) to God for his wife
v1b25-21 ..and God answered (ATR) his prayers
v1c25-21 ..and God answered HIS prayers
v2c8-5 And Moses said
>'For what time should I pray(ATR) they stop'
RASHI TEXT:
===========
v1a25-21 The Hebrew root ATR means
>PRAYING/ENTREATING alot
v1b25-21 The passive form of the root ATR means
>God heard his prayer
I (Rashi) suggest that every use of ATR means
>ALOT of prayer
Some supporting verses for this contention that
>ATR means ALOT
are
>Ez8-11 ..the cloud (ATR) of Ketoreth
>Ez35-13 you overburdened(ATR)me with words
>Prv27-6 Overburdening are kisses of hatred
v1c25-21 God answered HIM(Isaac) but did not answer HER
(Rivkah). Because Isaac was a righteous person
the son of a righteous person while Rivkah was
a righteous person the daughter of a wicked
person. And the prayer of a Righteous person
the son of a righteous person is more easily
answered than the prayer of a righteous
person the daughter of a wicked person.
v2c8-5 If the verse had said
>When will I pray
it would denote at what time should I pray for you
But since it says
>When should I pray they be removed
it means that Moses prayed now and allowed (as a sign
from God) that Pharoh should specify WHEN God will
remove them and that is when they will be removed.
Further note that the CAUSATIVE TENSE of ATR is used
>HAATARTI (vs) ATARTI
This is because
>ATR means ALOT
and the causative tense denotes that
>Moses made ALOT OF PRAYER(ATR) on Pharoh
(In a similar manner the Hebrew root
>RVH = ALOT
uses the HIFIL/CAUSATIVE tense).
BRIEF BUT COMPLETE NARRATIVE EXPLANATION:
=========================================
This posting is dedicated to the Radack who is a sort of orphan
among Rishonim. We tend to think of Rashi, Rambam, the Shulchan
Aruch as great movers in History---by contrast Radack was ONLY
A GRAMMARIAN. Nevertheless, Radack heavily influenced both Biblical
interpretation and Jewish Law. We shall show this in this posting
The root ATR is an excellent example. It is only by learning
the RDK that we can truly appreciate Rashi. For Rashi says that
>ATR = Doing alot of something.
Hence you can {LIST1}
>do alot of prayer (1-25-21)
>do alot of propaganda (Ez35-13)
>do alot of wooing (Prv27-6)
>have alot of smoke (Ketoreth Cloud) (Ez8-11)
>Have alot of peace/truth(Jer33-6)
So Rashi is simple and suggests that
>The meaning of ATR = Doing alot of something.
But the Radack greatly clarifies this as well as explain why
4 Rashis are needed for this simple concept.
It turns out that the Hebrew root ATR
>occurs 23 times in Tnach
and
>means PRAYER in 19 of those 23 times (83%).
The plain meaning of these verses is simple prayer eg
>And Isaac prayed to God, his wife should conceive(1-25-21)
>And Manoach prayed to God concerning his child(Ju13-8)
>Return to God; He answered their prayer (Jer19-22)
It does not appear that these verses have anything to do with ALOT
OF PRAYER. Furthermore they occur 83% of the time.
Therefore the Radack in his book ROOTS, simply says that
>ATR = Prayer.
Radack then lists the 4 verses above and says that
>ATR can also mean ALOT OF
It is only at this point after you have seen the two above
translations that Radack turns around and says
>You can unify both translations as ALOT OF--
>ALOT OF PRAYER
>ALOT of ANYTHING
By developing the theme in this manner (starting with 2 explanations
and then progressing to a suggested unified translation) Radack
shows us the drama of dictionary interpretation!
In fact his suggested unified translation as ALOT OF PRAYER is
echoed by both Rashi and Menachem, a mideval grammarian that Rashi
frequently cited(See Ez8-11)
In passing we note that
>RADACK (Commentary to Ez8-11)
>IBN EZRA (Commentary to Prov27-6)
translate
>alot of Ketoreth smoke (Ez8-11)
as
>ATR = THICK SMOKE(THICK=ALOT of width).
But as can be seen from {LIST1} the basic meaning seems to be ALOT
OF.
Although this Root, ATR, only occurs 23 times there are a variety
of other issues connected with its meaning. We study three issues
>use of the hifil grammatical mode
>use of the preposition ON ME
>use of the passive mode
It is in the discussion of the passive mode that Radack made
significant contributions to Jewish Law and Biblical interpretation.
[Before continuing we take note that every Hebrew root can be
conjugated in any of several conjugation modes]
USE OF HIFIL
------------
The rule is simple
>When you pray for yourself you use the ACTIVE grammatical mode
>When you pray for someone else you use the HIFIL mode
Thus we have
>Moses praying FOR Pharoh (HIFIL)(v2c8-5)
>Esauv's leaders issuing propaganda for his nation(Ez35-13)
Further examples are presented in {LIST2}
There are 2 exceptions to this rule. In v1c25-21 we have
>And God ANSWERED (ATR) to Yitzchak
The ACTIVE/PASSIVE mode is used. But, if Isaac prayed for his
wife than according to the above rule the HIFIL mode should
be used. Why then is the ACTIVE/PASSIVE mode used.
Rashi answers this by observing that BOTH Yitzchak and Rivkah
were praying for THEMSELVES. Rivkah prayed that
>she should not be barren
while Isaac prayed that eg
>he should not be humiliated by having to take a concubine
>to get children (the way Abraham and Jacob had to take
>concubines to get children)
Thus when Rashi says
>God answered HIM, not HER
the reference is to
>God answering HIS PRAYER
This is not learned (as the Sifsay chachamim thinks) from
>The preposition HIM (God answered HIM, not HER)
But rather it is learned from the
>KAL/PASSIVE form of the root ATR which denotes
>not praying for others but praying for oneself
Before leaving this theme we comment on Rashi's strange reason
>God answered Isaac (not Rivkah) because Isaac was
>BOTH a righteous person and the son of a righteous
>person while Rivkah was ONLY a righteous person
>but not the daughter of a righteous person.
So what? Isn't prayer answered on a person's merits. If
two people are equally righteous couldn't God answer both
of them---couldn't it have said
>And God answered THEM (Cf Sifsay Chachamim)
The simple answer in my opinion is that
>God answers prayer according to the degree of ANGUIGH
>of the person who is praying.
(Cf the explicit statement in Rambam 14:18).
But according to Rambam, Torts 3:1,
>ANGUISH is a function of social class
In other words the embarassment of a righteous person the son
of a righteous person is GREATER than the anguish of a righteous
person the son of a wicked person.
Thus God is not playing favoritism (Righteous son of a righteous)
but rather God is answering the greater anguish---and it would
be more of an embarassment for Isaac to have a concubine than
for Rivkah to have her husband have children from a concubine.
This completes the discussion of HIFIL. For futher details
on other exceptions which are a bit technical see below in
the footnotes to {LIST2}.
THE PRONOUN "ON ME"
-------------------
The standard pronoun used with the Hebrew root ATR is
>TO (L or EL)
Thus eg we have
>He prayed TO God (1-25-21)
>And God answered TO THEM (Jer19-22)
Only one of the 23 occurences of ATR has the pronoun ON ME
>you have propagandad ALOT ON ME(Ez35-13)
It would appear from context that the VERB-PROPOSITION phrase
>ATR ON ME
is pejorative. By contrast the normal phrase
>ATR TO
denotes normal PRAYER (nothing perjorative).
In other words the root
>ATR meaning ALOT
is
>perjorative if the preposition ON(ALOT ON) is used
>neutral if the preposition TO (ALOT TO) is used
THE PASSIVE TENSE
-----------------
Rashi already pointed out that the passive mode of ATR means
>God answered my prayer
Radack brilliantly points out that a priori the passive could
mean EITHER of two things
>I pray = ACTIVE tense; I was answered = Passive tense
or
>I pray = ACTIVE tense; God answered to me=Passive tense
In other words the issue is,
>Is passive tense an attribute of the person praying
>or Is passive tense an attribute of God who answers prayer
Radack notes that in all of the Bible we only have the latter
of the above two. That is throughout the Bible we have
>I pray = active tense;
>God answered TO ME = Passive tense
By contrast we never have the Biblical phrase with the root ATR
>I was answered (ATR) = Passive tense
Radack goes into great detail on this (as well as giving
a technical analysis of verses with the sister root ANH).
Radack then criticizes
>the groups of poets called liturgists who
>compose prayers for our holidays and use
>incorrect modes of ATR. ...And this is a
>great sin for they abuse the language. And
>whoever prays these poems also sins by
>reminding other people of the ignorance
>of these poets.
Undoubtedly this private protest (in a dictionary!)
influenced prayer books and helped remove inappropriate
prayer. I have heard so many jokes about how ARTSCROLL
and BIRNBAUM determine Judaism. Not so! It is the great
Grammarians like the Radack that determine ARTSCROLL
BIRNBAUM and Judaism. At any rate I thought this little
glimpse into the rich dynamics of a grammar book would
interest everybody.
COMMENTS ON RASHI'S FORM:
=========================
As per usual note Rashi's database genious. He discusses
ATR 4 times
--1) To state the meaning, PRAYER
--2) To show the unified meaning of PRAYER and ALOT
--3) To show the use of the HIFIL (Pray for others)
--4) To explain why Yitzchak prayed for himself(KAL vs HIFIL)
LISTS {For ADVANCED students and for those with more time}:
===========================================================
{LIST1} {Meanings of ATR which occurs 23 times in Tnach.
Note how PRAYER occurs 83% of the time while ALOT
occurs 17% of the time. Hence the Radack's initial
approach that there are TWO meanings--PRAYER and
ALOT---which can be coalesced into ONE MEANING}
MEANING %in Tnch VERSE TEXT
======= ======== ======= ===========================
PRAYER 83% 1-25-21 Do alot of PRAYER
ALOT 17% Ez35-13 Propaganda ALOT
ALOT 17% Prv27-6 Hate kisses are TOO MUCH
ALOT 17% Ez8-11 ALOT of smoke (Ktrth cloud)
ALOT 17% Jer33-6 ALOT of peace & truth
{LIST2} {Use of grammatical modes for ATR. The rule is
>When you pray for YOURSELF use ACTIVE/PASSIVE
>When you pray for SOMEONE else use HIFIL
Further details and exceptions may be found
in the footnotes}
VERSE WHO PRAYED FOR WHOM TENSE USED
===== ========== ======== ==========
2-8-25 Moses Pharoh Hifil *1
Ju13-8 Manoach Manoach & wife Active/Passive
Isa19-22 Egypt Egypt Active/Passive
2S21-14 The Jews Jews Active/Passive*2
Job22-27 A person Children Hifil*3
1-25-21 Isaac Isaac Active/Passive *4
FOOTNOTES
*1 Similar verses (Moses for Pharoh) are 2-10-18,2-8-25,
2-8-4, 2-9-28, 2-8-5 (Cf 2-8-26, 2-10-18 and the
remaining footnotes)
*2 Note the irony that DAVID built the altar but God
listened to the PEOPLE. After all it was the people
who were suffering and God answered THEM and not him.
The familiar themes of God answering (sincere)prayer, not
sacrifices, is frequent in the prophets. Similarly
compare the irony that Chizkiyahu prayed that GOd remember
>how **I** walked before you in righteousness
but God
>answered him for the SAKE OF YOUR **FATHER**
*3 Job22-19:26 clearly speaks about
>God being nice to a person and answering his wishes
Hence it is logical to interpret the next verse Job22-27
>Pray to him and He will listen
to refer NOT to prayers on oneself but eg prayers on ones
children and friends that God should help them This interpretation
is motivated by the principle of CLIMAX.
*4 It is logical that Isaac did not only pray that
>his wife should give birth
but he also prayed that
>he should be spared having to get a concubine
Thus when the text says
>And God answered him
and uses the
>Active/Passive tense (his prayer for himself)
we conclude that what was answered was not the prayer
that Rivkah should give birth but the prayer that Isaac
should not be humiliated. My opinion is that Rashi's
statement that
>God prefered the prayer of a righteous son of a righteous
refers not to genealogical considereations (God doesn't judge
people that way) but rather to
>Measures of emotional anguish
The tort laws of embarassment teach us that
>embarassment is a function of social status
Thus because Isaac came from a good family it would be more
embarassing for him to have to have a concubine--hence God
answered him.
CROSS REFERENCES:
=================
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
=================
RULE CLASSIFICATION {See the web site for comparable examples}:
===============================================================
UNIFIED MEANING
UNIFIED MEANING
ROOT+PREPOSITION
ROOT+PREPOSITION
QUESTIONS FOR STUDENTS:
=======================
#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*# (C) Dr Hendel, 1999 *#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*
VERSE: v1a28-20
======
v1a28-20 If God will be with me ..& protect me...
Then I will have God as my Lord
v2a20-22 If you build an altar of stones
v2a22-24 If you lend money to the poor
v3a2-14 If you bring the OMER offering
v4a36-4 And If the Yovel comes
RASHI TEXT:
===========
v1a28-20 The phrase
>if God will be with me
means if God will keep all the promises he made me
(Rashi cites some verses where God made promises)
v2a22-20 'If you build an altar of stones' means WHEN
you build an altar of stones since the building
of the altar is obligatory (see 5-27-6)
v2a22-24 'If you lend money to the poor' means WHEN
you lend money to the poor since the lending
of money is obligatory (See 5-15-8)
v3a2-14 'IF you bring the OMER offering' means WHEN
you bring the OMER offering,since it is
obligatory (See 3-23-10)
v4a36-4 'And if the Yovel comes' means WHEN the
YOVEL comes since it is obligatory (See 3-25-8:12)
[Moderator: Actually Rashi cross references
some of these verses in other verses. However
I have separated each verse out to make the
exposition clearer. Rashi further cites an
opinion that there are 3 IFS which mean WHEN
but Rashi himself supplements this list with
a 4th case]
BRIEF BUT COMPLETE NARRATIVE EXPLANATION:
=========================================
This Rashi Is Simple. The verses have a GENERAL-PARTICULAR format
>IF GOD WILL BE WITH ME
>and watch me on this path that I go on
>and give me food and clothes
>and help me return home
>Then God will be my LORD
So Rashi points out that the opening phrase
>IF GOD WILL BE WITH ME
is simply a general phrase whose details are given by
the succeeding phrases.
The only reason I single this verse out is because of
the Rashi-Ramban controversy. The Ramban points out that
>The word IF (IM)
can function like the word
>WHEN (KI)
and takes Rashi to task for accusing Jacob of saying
>IF you God will keep your promises then ....
Ramban's point is that Jacob should not have doubted
God's promises (By saying IF you ....).
But it was Rashi himself who showed us that
>IF, WHEN, BECAUSE, EXCEPT...
all interchange in meanings {LIST1}{LIST2}.
So Rashi would be perfectly comfortable translating
>IF(IM) GOD WILL BE WITH ME
as
>WHEN (KI) GOD WILL BE WITH ME (& fulfill his promises)
>THEN I WILL HAVE GOD AS MY LORD
In other words we can see Ramban as EXPLAINING RASHI not as
DISAGREEING with him. So the bottom line on the translation
of BOTH Rashi and Ramban is
>WHEN GOD FULFILLS ALL HIS PROMISES
>He Watches me
>Gives me food/clothes
>Enables me to return hom
>THEN, AT THAT TIME, GOD WILL BE KNOWN AS 'MY LORD'
As can clearly be seen from {LIST3} this comment of Ramban
>that IF = WHEN
was already made by Rashi in 4 other cases.
According to the Ramban this verse 1-28-20 should be
included making it a total of 5. Thus our unification
of Rashi and Ramban is well founded and supported in Rashi himself.
COMMENTS ON RASHI'S FORM:
=========================
Rashi cites an opinion of Rabbi Ishmael that there are
>3 cases where IF = WHEN
But then on 3-2-14 Rashi cites a 4th verse (4-36-4)
This is typical of Rashi who tried to show that LISTS
in Chazal were not necessarily exhaustive and were meant
to be added to (WORKBOOK METHODS).
To be fair Rabbi Yehuda apparently has a slightly different
take on these verses then Rabbi Ishmael. We have the following
opinions
>IF = WHEN (Rabbi Ishmael)
>IF = WHEN (with occasional lapses) (Rabbi Yehuda)
>IF = EVEN IF (Sifsay Chachamim, 4-36-4).
Thus according to Rabbi Yehuda the sentence
>If you lend money to my poor
would mean that you SHOULD lend money to the poor but when
you are poor you can't--hence there is an element of IF-NESS
in the commandment (you are only obligated to give if you
have money--hence they use the word IF you lend rather then
WHEN you lend)
In summary it will suffice to simply state that there is a
connotation of WHEN in the word IF.
LISTS {For ADVANCED students and for those with more time}:
===========================================================
{LIST1} {Meanings of KI. Chazal say there are 4 meanings but Rashi
shows at least 7 {LIST2} We suggest that the unified
meaning is ANY SUBORDINATE relationship like
CAUSALITY, CONSEQUENCE, EXCEPTION}
VERSE TEXT MEANING
======= =================================================== =======
1b41-49 ..he stopped counting BECAUSE there was no number BECAUSE
1-18-15 She denied laughing BECAUSE she was afraid BECAUSE
1a31-16 He ate our possessions EXCEPT for what God saved EXCEPT
1-18-15 ..And he said No! RATHER you laughed RATHER
1d19-2 And they said, No!RATHER we will stay on the street RATHER
1d43-7 Did we know THAT he would ask us to bring him THAT
1-24-33 I will not eat until the time THAT I speak *1 THAT
1a24-19 I'll water your animals until THAT time they stop*1 THAT
2a34-9 IF the Jews are stiff-necked, then forgive them IF
1a27-36 Did you call him JACOB to double cross me *2 QUESTION
1a29-15 Is being a relative an excuse to charge you nothing QUESTION
FOOTNOTES
*1 These two verses use the Hebrew word IM rather than KI
*2 Jacob comes from the Hebrew root to DOUBLE CROSS
{LIST2} {Meanings of KI. See {LIST1} for further examples. Note
that there are more than the traditional 4 meanings
that Chazal claim}
MEANING VERSE TEXT
======= ======= ===================================================
BECAUSE 1-18-15 She denied laughing BECAUSE she was afraid
EXCEPT 1a31-16 He ate our possessions EXCEPT what God left us
RATHER 1-18-15 And they said, No! Rather we'll stay on street *1
IF 2a34-9 IF the Jews are stiff necked then forgive them
THAT 1d43-7 Did we know THAT he would ask us to bring him *2
QUESTION 1a29-15 Is being a relative an excuse to charge you nothing
WHEN 5-4-25 WHEN you have children and grandchildren
FOOTNOTES
*1 RATHER & EXCEPT can be perceived as similar concepts
*2 IF and THAT are similar (in Hebrew) but not in English
{LIST3} {Verses where IF means WHEN}
VERSE TEXT WITH "IF" PROOF IT MEANS "WHEN"
======= ===================== =====================
2-20-22 If you build an altar 5-27-6
2-22-24 If you lend money 5-15-8
3-2-14 If you bring Bkrm 3-23-10
4-36-4 If the Yovel comes 3-25-8:12
1-28-20 If God be with me 1-28-15
CROSS REFERENCES:
=================
v1b41-49, v4n1 (Rashi shows IF=WHEN....)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
=================
RULE CLASSIFICATION {See the web site for comparable examples}:
===============================================================
SPECIAL WORDS
SPECIAL WORDS
SPECIAL WORDS
SPECIAL WORDS
SPECIAL WORDS
QUESTIONS FOR STUDENTS:
=======================
HW#3: Find other verses where the translation
>IF = WHEN
if preferable.
#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*# (C) Dr Hendel, 1999 *#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*
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