#*#*#*#*# (C) 2001, RashiYomi Inc. Dr Hendel President #*#*#*#*#
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| Rashi is Simple Version 2.0 |
| (C) RashiYomi Inc., Dr Hendel President |
| http://www.RashiYomi.Com |
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VERSE: Nu24-01a
RASHIS COVERED: Nu24-01a Nu24-01b Nu24-02a
================== FIVE STAGES LEADING TO DEFECTION ============
How does it happen? How does a person who would never think
of worshipping idols all of a sudden worship them?
Rashi on these verses presents 5 stages to sin inspired
by the master of sin, the evil Bilam.
These five stages leading to sexual sin are
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* A state of PLAYFULLNESS
* light SOCIALIZATION with the opposite sex
* party INVITATIONS
* Symptoms of arousal such as OVEREATING
* weakness and SIN
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This posting follows the other great Rashis dealing with
STAGES leading to a CLIMAX. The interested reader can find
a good list at url
http://www.RashiYomi.Com/example9.htm
This list of stages will also be of interest to those who
specialize in OUTREACH. Indeed; to stop sin they can intefer
with the five stage process.
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VERSE STAGE TEXT OF VERSE
======== ========= =============================================
Nu24-01a PLAYFUL The nation sat in PLAYville*1
Nu24-01b SOCIALIZE They SOCIALIZED with Midianite Women*2
Nu24-02 PARTIES Women invited them to religious PARTIES*3
Nu24-02 EATING And the Jews ATE*4
Nu24-02a SIN And the Jews BOWED to their pagan gods*5 *6
NOTES
=====
*1 Rashi is citing a controversy in Sanhedrin between Rabbis
Eliezer and Yehoshua. The actual verse states that
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& the nation sat in SHITTIM
--------------------------------
One view is tha SHITTIM is simply the name of a place
The 2nd view is that SHITTIM comes from the root STH which
means FOLLY.This would denote PLAYING AROUND and being FOOLISH
Being PLAYFUL (not necessarily with members of the opposite
gender) is STAGE #1 in the progression towards sin.
I follow my usual view that Rashi frequently cited the FIRST
of several opinions expecting that the teacher would fill in
the other views. Thus Rashi was not necessarily ruling out
the 2nd view (that SHITTIM was more than the name of a place--
it in facts denotes how the people were behaving (amongst
themselves)--they were being playful and foolish.
I can even go a step further and suggest that the Talmudic
views complement each other! SHITTIM was the name of this
place because of its scenic beauty; people came there to
GET AWAY and be playful. Accordingly I have translated this
place as PLAYVILLE.
If the reader dissents to what I have done then my
interpretation of Rashi (as a sequence of stages towards sin)
would still hold with 4 stages instead of 5.
I again emphasize that the PLAYFUL stage may denote
PLAYFULLNESS amongst oneselves without yet necessarily
involving women.
*2 The verse literally says
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the nation BEGAN to PROSTITUE with Midianite women
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I interpret the phrase BEGAN TO PROSTITUTE as
SOCIALIZED(since a SOCIALIZATION in an atmosphere of
PLAYFULLNESS can be termed the BEGINNING OF PROSTITUTION)
Rashi says on this verse
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The Midianites were acting under the advice of Bilam
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On a simple level I can say that Rashi was simply
using the technique of OTHER VERSES. Indeed it explicitly
says in Nu31-16a
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These women were against the Jews in the Peor incident
(the language used in Nu24-03 of our chapter); TO CAUSE
THE JEWS TO DESCECRATE GOD ON THE ADVICE OF BILAM
-------------------------------------------------------
Also see url http://www.RashiYomi.Com/dt17-04a.htm
for a justification of translating the Hebrew DVAR as
ADVICE.
The above certainly justifies this Rashi. However on
a deeper level recall that Bilam was an (evil) prophet.
Hence he was trained in how to accomplish items that
encouraged initial resistance.
It follows that Rashis comment that BILAM ADVISED THIS
pointed to the WHOLE SEQUENCE of stages that led to
DEFECTION. That is Bilam advised them
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--wait till the Jews are playful
--only then begin with socialization
--then invite them to religious parties
--wait till the Jews partake in them
--Then when they are weak you can get them to defect
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In other words Bilam did more than advise prostitution
He advised HOW TO EFFECTIVELY IMPLEMENT this
prostitution.
*3 The Talmud (Sanhedrin) gives a play of words here.
The root of TO CALL, KARAH, is related to the Hebrew
KRI, denoting a nocturnal emission. So the Talmud
suggests that the verse be translated as THE WOMEN
AROUSED THEM TO COME TO THEIR PARTIES. One opinion
is they went around naked.
Without being so graphic I would more simply suggest
that an environment of JEWISH-PLAYFULLNESS and
SOCIALIAZATION with Midianites led naturally to
INVITATIONS. In this environment, the invitations
seemed innocuous and natural.
*4 Consistent with our idea of stages we need NOT assume
that the Jews ate at the religious parties. Rather
an environment of PLAYFULLNESS, SOCIALIZATION and
INVITATION could naturally lead to heightened arousal
which the Midianite women could detect by the natural
side-effect of extra eating.
Thus we would interpret AND THE NATION ATE to mean
--either THE NATION AT (KOSHER FOODS) at their parties
--or THE PEOPLE STARTED EATING EXTRA(because of arousal)
*5 Recall the previous 4 stages
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--playfullness (amongst oneselves)
--socialization
--invitations (without necessarily acceptance)
--(excessive) eating (from being aroused)
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Rashi now explains the final stage. When a man
already shows signs of arousal (Excessive eating) he
might initiate relations with the women. In such a state
he is weak. Thus if a woman takes out an idol and says
SURE BUT BOW FIRST TO MY gOD then the man who normally
wouldnt do such a thing might do it out of weakness
(thinking that all he really wants is an affair)
To summarize: Rashis comment here is based on the
principle of STAGES. Other examples of Rashis based
on stages leading to CLIMAX may be found at url
http://www.RashiYomi.Com/example9.htm
*6 This Rashi is an example of a Rashi where there was
no PROBLEM; nothing was BOTHERING Rashi. Furthermore
it would be a mistake to interpret Rashi as trying
to use the verse as a springboard for ethical lessons.
Rather Rashi was responding to the SIMPLE MEANING OF
THE SEQUENCE OF STAGES IN THE TEXT. Thus this is
a Rashi based on THE STYLE rather than THE PROBLEM
The Rashi should be perceived as the INTENDED SIMPLE
MEANING OF THE TEXT TAKEN AS A WHOLE
As such this Rashi is a good example of Dr Hendel
meeting Dr Boncheck (A clash between the Philosophy
that Rashi is Simple vs What is Bothering Rashi)
========================================================
RASHI RULE USED: Example9
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WARNING: The following additional references may be too wordy
However they frequently contain additional information & lists
The hyperlinks only work on the main website
Volume 10 Number 20
#*#*#*#*# (C) 2001, RashiYomi Inc. Dr Hendel President #*#*#*#*#
Volume 10 Number 20