Rashi-Is-Simple Mailing List
(C) Dr Russell Jay Hendel, 1999
http://www.shamash.org/rashi
Volume 4 Number 9
Produced Nov, 24 1999
Topics Discussed in This Issue
------------------------------
v1b28-20
Rashi (and Ramban) align Gods promise to Jacob (1-28-15)
with Jacobs vow (1-28-30:22). a)WHEN God will be WITH
me, b) & WATCH me c) & Give me FOOD d) & RETURN me HOME
and e)my Household accepts God THEN I Will build an
altar and make this a house of God
#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*# (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: v1b28-20
======
v1z28-20 WHEN God will be with me
v1b28-20 and watch me on the path I go
v1c28-20 and give me food..and clothing
v1a28-21 and I will return in peace to my home
v1c28-21 and God will be my Lord
v1a28-22 THEN this stone will become a House of God
RASHI TEXT:
===========
v1z28-20 IF God will keep his promise to
>BE WITH ME
as it says
>And behold I am WITH YOU (1-28-15)
v1b28-20 IF God will
>WATCH me
as it says
>And I will WATCH you (1-28-15)
v1c28-20 IF God will give me
>FOOD
as it says
>For I will not DESERT you (1-28-15)
and the term
>DESERT YOU means WITHOUT FOOD
as it says
>..deserted...seeking bread(Ps37-25)
v1a28-21 IF I will
>RETURN home
as it says
>And I will RETURN you to this land(1-28-15)
v1c28-21 IF Gods name will be with me from beginning to
end so that there will be no blemish in my
offspring as it says
>..till I do what I promised you (1-28-15)
And this was promised to Abraham as it says
>To be God to you and your children(1-17-7)
v1a28-22 This clause should be interpreted as follows--
>IF God will be with me...THEN this stone will
>become a House of God
(Rashi cites the Targum). And Jacob actually
fulfilled this promise as it says (1-35-1:14)
And we find Jacob actually did this as it says
>And God said return to BethEl & make an altar
>And Jacob said let us go to BethEl
>and I will make an Altar to the God who saved me
>..(To the God) who was WITH ME IN THIS PATH..
>And Jacob came to LUZ=BETHEL and built an altar
>...since God revealed Himself in Jacobs running
>...and Jacob erected a stone, ..annointed it..
BRIEF BUT COMPLETE NARRATIVE EXPLANATION:
=========================================
1-28-20:22 contain a six part vow of Jacob to God. Our purpose
here is to show that Rashi and Ramban are in complete agreement.
Recall that Jacob was running away from his brother who wanted to
kill him (1-27-42:45).
While running away from his brother God reveals Himself to Jacob
(1-28-15) and makes a 5-fold promise
>I will be WITH you
>I will WATCH you
>I will RETURN you to your land
>I will not DESERT you
>Until I have done what I promised you
Jacob in turn, as a response to this 5 fold promise
makes a 6 fold vow to build an altar of Thanksgiving
when God fulfills the vow
>WHEN God will be WITH me
> and God WATCHES me
> and gives me FOOD
> and RETURNS me to this land
> and will be my God
>THEN I will make this monument into an altar/house of God
In translating this vow we have translated the Hebrew root
>IM = WHEN
This is consistent with both Rashi and Ramban as we have pointed
out last week since Rashi in 4 other places translates
>IM=IF=WHEN{LIST3}.
Returning to the 5-part Promise and 6-part Vow we use the ALIGNMENT
method and LINE UP the two verses--the PROMISE and VOW{LIST1}. We
immediately see two obvious correspondences
>I will WATCH YOU = WHEN God WATCHES me
>I will RETURN you home = When God RETURNS me home
A 3rd obvious correspondence is
>Behold I am WITH you = WHEN God will be WITH me
Since the two Hebrew roots
>IMDI = IMCH
both correspond to the same concept of
>BEING WITH SOMEBODY
Reviewing {LIST1} we have left to deal with two phrases.
PHRASE 1 of 2
-------------
Rashi claims the phrase in 1-28-15
> For I (God) Will NOT DESERT YOU
corresponds to the phrase in Jacob's vow 1-28-20
> WHEN You give me FOOD to eat
In other words Rashi is claiming that
>To DESERT someone = To leave them WITHOUT FOOD
If this assertion is defensible then Rashi is Simple and True
while if this assertion is not defensible then Rashi is homiletic
But Rashi Is Simple because the assertion that DESERTION = LEAVING
SOMEONE WITHOUT FOOD is supported by many verses, for example
>2-2-20 Why have you DESERTED the man; Call him that he may EAT
>1Sam30-12:13 He had not EATEN 3 days..his master DESERTED HIM
See {LIST2} for about half a dozen examples.
PHRASE 2 of 2
-------------
We have left one phrase in Gods promise
>Until I do what I promised you
which must correspond to the one phrase left in Jacobs vow
>and God will be my Lord
To connect these two verses we again need a LINKING verse
which Rashi supplies in 1-17-7
>And I will be a Lord to you (Abraham) and your descendants
So we have an explicit correspondence between
>God's promise to Abraham
to be
>A LORD to Abraham and his descendants
which Jacob paraphrases as
>And God will be my LORD
A summary of the alignment is compactly exhibited in {LIST1}.
We now understand the 3 things that Rashi does in his
commentary on these aligned verses
The 1st thing Rashi does--He shows the alignment
-------------------------------------------------
Rashi shows the ALIGNMENT of the 5 items of Gods Promise and the
6 items of Jacobs promise. Next to each item of
Jacobs vow (1-28-20:22)Rashi shows the corresponding
item in Gods promise(1-28-15)
The 2nd thing Rashi does--He explains the WHEN of the Vow
-----------------------------------------------------------
Rashi shows how Jacobs vow echoes Gods promise. God promised
5 items and then Jacob said
>And WHEN these five items happen (1-28-20:21)
>THEN I will make an altar and house of God (1-28-22)
The 3rd thing Rashi does--He explains the THEN of the VOW
---------------------------------------------------------
Rashi emphasizes that the final clause
>And this monument will become a house of God(1-28-22)
should be interpreted as a WHEN-THEN statement. In other words
>WHEN God does these 5 things to me
>THEN this monument will become a house of God
We are now in a position to show how the Ramban was not
disagreeing with Rashi but only clarifying him. Before
proceeding we emphasize once again the basic idea of
Rashi that
>Gods Promise(1-28-15) ALIGNS with Jacobs Vow(1-28-20:22)
The Ramban complements Rashi in 3 areas
1st Illumination of the Ramban on Rashi--WHEN vs IF
---------------------------------------------------
The Ramban clarifies that Jacob did not say
>IF (IM) God watches me
for it is inconceivable that Jacob doubted Gods word.
And how do I know that Rashi agrees with the Ramban?
On a superficial level I know Rashi agrees since Rashi
aligns the 5 items of Gods promise with the 5 items of
Jacobs vow. Therefore Jacob believed these 5 items.
On a deeper level I know Rashi agrees since as {LIST3}
shows it was Rashi himself who in 4 other verses explicitly
says that
>IF (IM) can equal WHEN
2nd Illumination of the Ramban on Rashi--Holiness of Israel
-----------------------------------------------------------
The Ramban says that the Vow of Jacob reads
>WHEN God does these 5 things
>THEN God will be my Lord and I will make a house for God
The Ramban explains why Jacob had to delay making a house for God
until he returned to BethEl. The Ramban says that the reason
for delaying making a house for God till returning to the place
is because
>Living outside Israel is like having no God
In other words
>The only real place to have God is Israel.
And how do I know that Rashi agrees? Because Rashi explicitly
states that
>Jacob was worried that because he lived by Laban
>he might absorb some of his bad characteristics(v1b28-21)
It is easy to see that
>absorbing the bad characteristics of Goyim you work with
>is identical to the dangers of living outside Israel
In other words, Rashi and Ramban are both saying the same thing
but in different forms. Rashi is saying
>I can build a house of God after I am free from Laban
while Ramban says
>I can build a house of God when I am back in Israel
Thus Ramban emphasizes the MYSTICAL nature of the holiness of
Israel while Rashi emphasizes the PSYCHOLOGICAL dangers of working
with non-jews (like Laban) whose characteristics you might pick up.
Hence they (Rashi and Ramban) are both saying the same thing.
3rd illumination of Ramban on Rashi---The WHEN-THEN clause
----------------------------------------------------------
Rashi reads Jacobs vow as follows
>WHEN GOd will be WITH me
> and WATCH me
> and give me FOOD
> and help me RETURN HOME
> and be my Lord
>THEN I will build an altar and house of God
Ramban however reads Jacobs vow as follows
>WHEN GOd will be WITH me
> and WATCH me
> and give me FOOD
> and help me RETURN HOME
>THEN God will be my Lord
>and I will build an altar and house of God
In other words there is controversy on where the THEN part of
the VOW begins.
But there is no problem with this. For we can DISTINGUISH the
WHEN and THEN parts of the VOW by using a CRITERION.
>If GOD does it, then it belongs to the WHEN part of the vow
>If JACOB does it, then it belongs to the THEN part of the vow
But now both Rashi and Ramban are Simple elegant and without
disagreement. Indeed we immediately see that it is God who
>is WITH Jacob
>WATCHES Jacob
>Gives him FOOD
>HELPS him RETURN home
Hence, since it is God who does these things we classify these
4 items in the WHEN part of the VOW
>WHEN God is WITH me
>WHEN God watches me etc
Similarly the last item
>building a house of God
is done by Jacob (1-35-14) and hence it belongs to the THEN part
of the Vow
>WHEN God does these things for me THEN I will build an altar
But now we see the Ramban's genious!!! Does God or Jacob do
>And God will be my Lord
It would appear that GOD does this (so it would belong to the
WHEN part of the vow). But if you think about it this is a
prayer that Jacobs children should not go astray from Laban's
So it is something done by
>Jacob's children
Furthermore, we can point out the explicit verse
>And Jacob's children removed their idols (1-35-2:4)
so indeed
>And God will be my Lord
is not something done by God or Jacob but rather by his children.
This then is the Ramban's point. The first 4 items
>God is WITH me
>God WATCHES me
>God give me FOOD
>God RETURNS me to my HOUSE
were done by God and belong to the WHEN part of the VOW
The last item
>And I will build an altar and house of God
is done by Jacob and belongs to the THEN part of the VOW
But the next to last item
>And God will be my Lord
is done by Jacob's children. So on the one hand
>It belongs to the WHEN part of the VOW (a la Rashi)
since Jacob is saying that
>WHEN my children accept God (1-35-2:4)
>THEN I will build my altar.
On the other hand since it is not done by God
>It belongs to the THEN part of the VOW (a la Ramban)
Since Jacob is saying that
>WHEN God is WITH ME, WATCHES me, Gives me FOOD, RETURNS me
>THEN my children will accept God
>And THEN I will build an Altar
To summarize it succinctly
>The first 4 items--WITH ME, WATCH ME, FOOD, RETURN--are
>Done by God
>The last item----building an altar---is done by Jacob
>the next to last item--accepting God--is done by Jacobs
>children.
This clarification of Ramban on Rashi is summarized in {LIST4}
COMMENTS ON RASHI'S FORM:
=========================
We make 3 comments on Rashis form
1) REVERSAL IN THE ALIGNMENT
----------------------------
Neither Rashi, Ramban or myself explains why Jacob reversed
the order. In the PROMISE God said
>WITH YOU, WATCH YOU, RETURN YOU, FEED YOU
while in the vow Jacob said
>WITH YOU, WATCH YOU, FEED YOU, RETURN YOU
This is an open question and anyone with a suggestion is welcome
to submit it.
2) Use of the Word VV to denote a CLAUSE
----------------------------------------
We illustrated this in the Rashi on v2b25-22 in v1n13. VV can
mean
>The letter VV
>The word AND
>Or the CLAUSE (introduced by VV)
It is common for words to have multiple meanings. We will have
a posting on this in the near future.
3) 1 example vs many
--------------------
Recall that Rashi had to prove that
>TO DESERT someone = To deprive them of food
Rashi cites JUST ONE verse to prove this.
Very often the citation of ONE verse makes a concept appear
homiletic. After all there are verses where DESERT does
not have anything to do with food eg 5-31-16:17
>And they (The Jews) will DESERT me
>And I(God) will DESERT them
The rule of thumb adopted in this list is that
>EVERY RULE CAN BE JUSTIFIED BY A LIST
Thus we have produced {LIST2} below that shows about half
a dozen verses where DESERT means DEPRIVING OF FOOD
This is a very important concept and can illuminate many midrashim
LISTS {For ADVANCED students and for those with more time}:
===========================================================
{LIST1} {Alignment of the two sets of verses--(1-28-15) and
1-28-20:22. Note how each clause in 1-28-15 corresponds
to one clause in 1-28-20:22}
1-28-15 WHEN/THEN 1-28-20:22
========================= ========= ==============================
I(God) am WITH You When God will be WITH me
And I will WATCH you And WATCH me
& Will RETURN you home And I will RETURN home *1
& won't DESERT you And give me FOOD
Until the PROMISE is kept And God will be my Lord *2, *3
Then I will build a house of God *4
FOOTNOTES
*1 Actually 1-28-20:22 lists getting FOOD prior to RETURNING home
We have changed the order to show the correspondences
*2 Of course this assumes that
>DESERTING somebody = DEPRIVING THEM OF FOOD
This equation is in fact proven in {LIST2}
*3 The full set of quotes is as follows
>I will not desert you till I do as I promised(1-28-15)
In fact God did promise to Abraham
>I will be a Lord to you and your descendants (1-17-7)
Finally although Rashi does not bring this down we see that
it explicitly says that
>And they (Jacobs household) removed their idols(1-35-2:4)
Thus we see that
>God was indeed the LORD of Jacob and all his descendants
Furthermore with regard to Jacobs prayer I would say that
Jacob prayed that just as eg Ishmael was Abrahams descendant
and although evil, repented, so too Jacob prayed that if
he had any bad descendants (from the influence of living with
Laban) that they should repent. Jacob viewed this
>ultimate repentance as = Being the Lord of my household
which is what God had promised Abraham to him (Abraham) and
his descendants
*4 The building of the altar and house of God is mentioned in
1-35-1:14
{LIST2} {Verses showing that to DESERT SOMEONE means to
leave him WITHOUT FOOD}
VERSE TEXT SHOWING THAT >TO DESERT< = >TO HAVE NO FOOD<
============ =======================================================
2-2-20 Why have you DESERTED the man, Call him and let him EAT
5-18-19:20 ..EAT before God with the Levite..don't DESERT him
Ps37-25 a righteous person DESERTED.....SEEKING FOOD
2Ch28-14:15 And they DESERTED the captives..others came & FED THEM
5-14-26:27 ..EAT before God & enjoy...do not DESERT the Levit
1Sam30-12:13 ..he not EATEN or DRINKEN..for his master DESERTED HIM
{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
PHRASE WHO DOES IT WHEN vs THEN
===================== ================ ==========================
God be WITH me God When God is with me
God Watch me God When God Watches me
God gives me Food God When God gives me Food
God returns me home God When I return home *1
I will build an altar Jacob THEN I will build an altar
God will be my Lord Jacobs household WHEN or THEN *2
FOOTNOTES
*1 Interestingly in 1-28-15 it says
>And I (God) Will RETURN you to your home
Although Jacob himself did the returning nevertheless it was by
prophetic order
>(1-31-13) RETURN to BethEl
*2 So on the one hand
>WHEN God becomes the Lord of my house (A la Rashi)
but also
>THEN my household will accept God (A la Ramban)
The verse 1-35-2:4
>And Jacobs household removed their idols
shows that there is a THEN aspect (human effort) to this clause
Similarly the verse 1-17-7
>I will be the Lord to you (Abraham) and your descendants
shows a WHEN aspect since it is ultimately God who does it. Thus
there are nuanes of both.
CROSS REFERENCES:
=================
v1a28-20, v4n8 (IF = WHEN)
v2b25-22, v1n13(VV= clause)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
=================
RULE CLASSIFICATION {See the web site for comparable examples}:
===============================================================
DOUBLE PARSHAS
DOUBLE PARSHAS
DOUBLE PARSHAS
DOUBLE PARSHAS
DOUBLE PARSHAS
#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*# (C) Dr Hendel, 1999 *#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*
COMMUNICATIONS
--------------
Send via email SUBMISSIONS/responses/contributions to
rashi-is-simple@shamash.org
If you want your communication published anonomously (without
mentioning your name) simply say so (and your wishes will be
respected). All other submissions (whether thru Shamash or ANY
of my email addresses are made with the understanding that
they can be published as is or with editing)
NOTATIONAL CONVENTIONS
----------------------
e.g. v5b2-1 means as follows:
The "v" means verse
The "5" means Deuteronomy--the 5th book
The "2" means The 2nd chapter
The "1" means The 1st verse
The "b" means The second rashi on that
verse ("we rounded mount
Seir)
Similarly v5-2-1 would mean Dt 2:1 and probably refer to all
Rashis. (These conventions start with issue 14---beforehand
the notation is similar and will be updated retroactively
in the future)
Asterisks (*,#) in a list usually refer to footnotes that follow it
Parenthesis with the word List and a number--[LIST3] refers to
LISTS in the LIST section of each posting.
THE WEB SITE
------------
To review all past issues as well as to see all principles go to the
web site HTTP://WWW.Shamash.Org/Rashi/Index.Htm. You can download all
past issues from this website.
THE ARCHIVES
------------
Alternatively to get PAST ISSUES goto
http://www.shamash.org/listarchives/rashi-is-simple/
To retrieve a specific past issue email to listproc@shamash.org and type
in the body of the message: get rashi-is-simple rashi-is-simple.v#.n#
Issues 5,10,12 are not located here but can be retrieved from the
web site.
SUBSCRIBE & UNSUBSCRIBE
-----------------------
To UNSUBSCRIBE send mail to listproc@shamash.org and type in the body
of the message: unsubscribe rashi-is-simple email-address.
To SUBSCRIBE send email to listproc@shamash.org, and type in the body
of the message: subscribe rashi-is-simple email-address FName LName
OUR GOALS
---------
RASHI-IS-SIMPLE
* will provide logical explanations to all 8,000 Rashis on Chumash.
* the preferred vehicle of explanation is thru list of verses and exceptions
* These postings will be archived in Shamash in Quartuplet
-- By Volume and Number
-- By Verse
-- By Grammatical Rule
-- By quicky explanation
* Rashi-Is-Simple should prove useful to
layman, scholars, rabbis, educators, and students
* Although this list is orthodox we welcome all logical
--explanations
--contributions
--modifications
--questions
--problems
provided they are defended with adequate examples.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
----------------------
For further information on the character of this list
* read your welcome note from Shamash
* read PESHAT and DERASH: TRADITION, Winter 1980 by Russell Hendel
End of Rashi-Is-Simple Digest
#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*# (C) Dr Hendel, 1999 *#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*