The goal of this Weekly Rashi Digest is to use the weekly Torah portion to expose students at all levels to the ten major methods of commentary used by Rashi. It is hoped that continual weekly exposure to these ten major methods will enable students of all levels to acquire a familiarity and facility with the major exegetical methods.

Lv25-32a states However the cities of the Levites, and the houses of the cities of their possession, the Levites may redeem at any time

Rashi: The underlined phrase cities of the Levites, cross references other verses in Nu35-01:08 which states And the Lord spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho, saying; Command the people of Israel, that they give to the Levites of the inheritance of their possession cities to live in; and you shall also give to the Levites an open ground around the cities. And they shall have the cities to live in; and their open ground shall be for their cattle, and for their goods, and for all their beasts. ... And the cities that you shall give shall be from the possession of the people of Israel; from those who have many you shall give many; and from those who have few you shall give few. Each one shall give of the cities to the Levites according to his inheritance which he inherits.

In conclusion, Nu35-01:08 describes the cities allocated to the Levites which is cross referenced by the other verse Lv25-32.

Lv25-10b states And you shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all the inhabitants of it; it shall be a jubilee to you; and you shall return every man to his possession, and you shall return every man to his family.

To understand Rashi we must first understand the technique of synechdoche, a literary technique present in all languages. Synechdoche refers to naming an entire class or object by a particularly exemplary member of that class or part of that object. Examples are plentiful in all languages.

Examples:
• Honey can refer to anything sweet (or any person that is sweet.
• Bread can refer generically to food
• The word Heart can refer to the totality of a person as in e.g. My heart yearns for you, God
• Day (i.e. the lit part of the 24 hour cycle) can refer to the whole day.

These examples enable us to understand Rashi: The Hebrew word for Liberty is spelled Daleth-Resh-Vav-Resh which comes from the Hebrew root Daleth-Resh which means to live, inhabit.

We can supplement Rashi's comments by explaining them using the synechdoche principle: Hebrew explains the abstract concept of liberty with the concrete exemplary example of live, inhabit. That is, a conspicuous property of free, liberated people is that they have the right to live where they want to.

Lv27-32a states And concerning the tithe of the herd, or of the flock,
• whatever passes under the rod,
• the tenth shall be holy to the Lord.

One function of grammar is to explain the connection between phrases in a sentence or sentences in a paragraph. Rashi knew of 3 basic connection methods:
• (a) cause,enablement,
• (b) effect,consequence and
• (c) unified theme.

On the above verse Rashi states The herd would pass by the owner who had a rod with die. Every 10th sheep would be tapped by the rod which would mark the sheep with the die so that the owner would know which sheep had been designated for tithe.

We supplement Rashi's comment by classifying them as grammatical comments showing connection between sentence phrases. Rashi explains the first bulleted phrase in the verse whatever passes under the rod as enabling the second bulleted phrase in the verse the tenth shall be holy to the Lord.

Note the subtle nuances in the alignment of the following five verses. The alignment suggests five distinct idolatry prohibitions.

• Ownership: Ex20-03 states You shall not have the gods of others while I am alive
• Worship: Ex20-05 states You shall not bow down yourself to them, nor serve them;
• Personal Production for oneself: Ex20-04 states You shall not make for you any engraved image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth;
• Manufacture Production for ones business: Ex34-17 states You shall not make for yourself molten gods.
• Production for others: Lv25-47 -- Lv26-01 states And if a sojourner or stranger becomes rich by you, and your brother who dwells by him becomes poor, and sell himself to the stranger or sojourner by you, or to the offspring of the stranger’s family; After he is sold he may be redeemed again; one of his brothers may redeem him; .... You shall make no idols nor graven image, nor erect a pillar, nor shall you set up any image of stone in your land, to bow down to it; for I am the Lord your God.

In analyzing the above inferences not especially the emphasis on nuance in the last three verses all of which speak about manufacture
• From the underlined word molten Rashi infers the nuance of manufacture production.
• From the context of a Jew selling himself to a stranger (that is, non Jew), Rashi infers the nuance of production for others

Let us be extra clear on these inferences. The verse don't make molten gods, when viewed by itself could be construed as prohibiting idol production for oneself. However because we align the various Biblical prohibitions we feel justified in seeing one verse as referring to personal production while seeing a verse with the extra word molten, a process which is typically done in manufacture plants, as referring to manufacture production. That is, we see the alignment as the driving force and cause of the Rashi statements.

Rashi following a time-honored Talmudic tradition also emphasizes the possible distinctive nuances of each of these five prohibitions Don't own an idol, even if you don't worship or manufacture it; Don't business manufacture idols even if you don't believe in them, don't worship them and don't personally own them. Rather then cite Rashi, the reader may find it instructive to go over each of the five prohibitions and construct his or her own Talmudic-like explanations of their possible exclusiveness. While such logical exercises enrich understanding we should not lose the perspective that the basic driving force of the Rashi comments is an alignment.

Note the possible contradiction indicated by the underlined phrases in the following three verses. These verses are speaking about using people for labor.
• Lv25-39:40 And if your brother who dwells by you becomes poor, and is sold to you; you shall not compel him to serve as a slave; But rather like a worker or fellow citizen, he shall be with you, and shall serve you to the year of jubilee;
• Dt20-16:18 But of the cities of these people, which the Lord your God does give you for an inheritance, you shall not keep alive any person; But you shall completely destroy them: the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the Lord your God has comm anded you; That they teach you not to do after all their abominations, which they have done to their gods; so should you sin against the Lord your God.
• Lv25-44 Both your male slaves, and your female slaves, which you shall have, shall be of the nations that are around you; of them shall you buy male slaves and female slaves

We see the possible contradiction. Which is it? Can we have slaves, people we use for labor, or must we treat Jewish slaves with respect like workers, and kill off the Canaanite nations(So we can't use them)?

Rashi resolves this contradiction using the 2 cases method of resolving contradictions.

When discussing slavery there are 3 classes of people
• Jews:It is prohibited to ever overwork Jewish slaves
• Canaanites:The Canaanite nations must be destroyed. In particular it is prohibited to use them as slaves.
• Other non Jewish nations: These may be used as non-Jewish slaves. Although it is Biblically prohibited to abuse any human being, Jewish or non-Jewish, there is no obligation to treat non-Jewish slaves like full fledged workers.

The astute reader may ask: If it is prohibited to abuse any human being then what does it mean to permit overuse of non-Jewish slaves

The answer to this question is not found in Rashi but is found in the classical Jewish sources of Law. For example the Rambam gives the following examples: You can never abuse, make fun, or deride any person, slave, Jew, or non-Jew. However a Jewish slave can only be given goal specific work such as, water this garden or plough this field. It is prohibited to give a Jewish slave non goal specific work such as work till I come since this is demeaning. On the other hand you can give such non goal specific work to a non-Jew.

One final point. Many contradictions are resolved through logic. However in this particular case Rashi finds the resolution to the contradiction in the language of the verse itself. The verse states you can have slaves from the surrounding nations intimating that from the nations inside the land of Israel there can be no slaves since we must destroy them, but we can own slaves from surrounding, that is, other non-Jewish nations.

Despite this scriptural support I have classified this Rashi as using the contradiction method. For Rashi resolves contradictions whether there is scriptural support for the resolution or whether the resolution uses logic or not.

Lv25-25:28 presents the right of redeeming estate property that was sold because of economic duress: If your brother becomes poor, and has sold away some of his estate,
• and if any of his kin comes to redeem it, then shall he redeem that which his brother sold.
• And if the man have none to redeem it, and himself is able to redeem it; Then let him count the years since he sold it, and restore the overpayment to the man to whom he sold it; that he may return to his possession.
• But if he is not able to restore it to him, then that which is sold shall remain in the hand of him who has bought it until the year of jubilee; and in the jubilee it shall be released, and he shall return to his possession.

Rashi concentrates on the opening phrase If your brother becomes poor, and has sold away some of his estate, . Rashi: The Torah speaks using typical examples. Typically a person only should sell his estate when he is very poor. However this redemption law is general and applies whether the person sold his estate for the typical reason or not.

In summary, Rashi generalizes the verse---the laws apply whether the person sold it from poverty or was wealthy! Here however, Rashi explains why the Torah added the phrase if your brother becomes poor: It was to emphasize the typical situation: A person should only sell from an estate if he is in economic duress.

When a modern author wishes to create emphasis they will use bold, underline or italics. When the Biblical Author wishes to create emphasis He uses repetition. In other words, the Bible uses repetition the same way a modern author uses bold: to achieve an effect of unspecified emphasis. (The December 2006 issues of The Jewish Bible Quarterly will contain my article Biblical Formatting which develops this theme more fully.)

Biblical repetition is strongest when the same word is repeated twice in succession. However this repetition-bold rule applies even when the repetition involves distant words.

Note the repeated underlined word years in the following verses: Lv25-14:17 And if you sell something to your neighbor, or buy something from your neighbor’s hand,
• you shall not defraud one another;
• According to the number of years after the jubilee you shall buy from your neighbor, and according to the number of years of the fruits he shall sell to you;
  • According to the multitude of years you shall increase its price, and
  • if the years are few, you shall accordingly diminish its price;
• for according to the number of the years of the fruits does he sell to you.
• You shall not therefore defraud one another; but you shall fear your God; for I am the Lord your God.

The verses have many interesting features which we have indicated with the double nested list. The main thrust of the verses is the equation

This explanation of Rashi is an example of the spreadsheet method. Please see the spreadsheet method below for a more thorough discussion of the linear evaluation method provided here.

Rashi also comments on the repeated underlined word, years. Rashi (Paraphrased): If it only said years once I would not be entitled to infer anything from the word. But the repeated repetition of the plural years in each example creates an unspecified emphasis similar to the emphasis created by a modern author using bold, italics or underline. A natural way to interpret this unspecified emphasis is to use a restrictive interpretation---only if the sale was for a plurality of years. Hence the law A person who sells his estate must wait two years before he is allowed to redeem it.

Today Rashi examines a Database query on those verses indicating where God prophesied to Moses. Interestingly three verses make explicit the place of prophecy.We present below a typical list.

• Lv14-01: And God cited to Moses to say to others
• Lv20-01: And God cited to Moses to say to others
• Nu01-48: And God cited to Moses to say to others
• Nu16-01: And God cited to Moses to say to others

  ---

• Lv25-01: And God cited to Moses at Mount Sinai to say to others
• Lv01-01: And God cited to Moses from the temple to say to others
• Nu35-01,Dt01-01: And God spoke to Moses in the Plains of Moab to say to others

As can be clearly seen the typical usage is God cited to Moses to say to others. However there are three verses where the place of prophecy --- Mount Sinai, Temple, Plains of Moab---is explicitly mentioned.

There have been many explanations of why these three places are mentioned. The simple yet elegant explanation below follows the Malbim's explanation of Rashi. Much more could be said but we suffice with the citation of the database query and the basic idea.

It is very reasonable to think that the Torah was given in stages. For example, the basic civil laws by which society govern themselves was given in Mount Sinai at the initial revelation. Then sacrifices were given when the Temple was erected. Finally those laws affecting Israel were given in the plains of Moab prior to entry to Israel. Such a historical view of the evolution of prophetic commands is appealing and simple.

For this reason the Torah singles out one law---the so called shmitah--- loan-annulment free-land law (every 7 years). It would appear that such a law, dealing with commerce is only relevant to State life in Israel. It does not seem relevant to the miraculous wilderness existence where the Jews had manna and did not need to work for their living. Loan annulment certainly has no relevance to sacrifices!

But the Torah singled out the loan-annulment free-land law and showed how this law was given in all three places: It was given at the Sinaitic revelation (Ex23-10:11), at the Temple relevation (Lv25-01:07)), and at the Plains of Moab (Dt15-01:04).

And just as this law was given in all three places so also, were all Torah laws given in all three places.

The Rashis on Lv25-47:53 describe how a Jew who sold himself to a non-Jew can redeem himself. The basic idea of Rashi can be paraphrased as follows:

Rashi(Paraphrased): The Bible describes a pro-rated linear method of redemption.For example if he sold himself for $25,000 in year 25 of the Jubilee then
• His redemption price after 0 years of service is $25000
• His redemption price after 5 years of service is $20000
• His redemption price after 10 years of service is $15000
• His redemption price after 15 years of service is $10000
• His redemption price after 20 years of service is $5000

The reader is invited to read the verses which we have conveniently presented as a double-nested list and see how the various aspects of the linear method are verbally described in the Biblical text. The Rashi comments are inserted in the body of the text by underlining the Biblical phrase that Rashi is commenting on and inserting the Rashi text in non-italics.

Lv25-47:53 states And if a sojourner or stranger becomes rich by you, and your brother who dwells by him becomes poor, and sell himself to the stranger or sojourner by you, or to the offspring of the stranger’s family;
• After he is sold he may be redeemed again; even immediately
  • one of his brothers may redeem him;
  • Either his uncle,
  • or his uncle’s son, may redeem him, or
  • any who is near of kin to him of his family may redeem him; or
  • if he is able, he may redeem himself.
• And he shall reckon with him who bought him from the year that he was sold to him to the year of jubilee; and
• the price of his sale shall be according to the number of years, according to the time of a hired servant shall it be with him that is, the servant's/slave's aggregate hire is divided equally on a yearly basis (so that if he quits in the middle we apply the proportion of years worked to the aggregate hire.)
  • If there are yet many years, to the Jubilee according to them he shall give that is, we apply the proportion of time worked to the aggregate sale price (linear method) in computing his redemption
  • And if there remain but few years to the year of jubilee, then he shall count with him, and according to his years shall he give him again the price of his redemption.
• And as a yearly hired servant shall he be with him; and the other shall not rule with rigor over him in your sight.

This week's parshah contains no examples of the symbolism method. This concludes this weeks edition. Visit the RashiYomi website at http://www.Rashiyomi.com for further details and examples.