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.

Dt20-04 states For it is the Lord your God who goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.

We all understand the underlined phrase it is the Lord your God who goes with you, which indicates that God is with us when we are at war. Rashi however gives further details to this idea of God being with us by citing other verses.

First Rashi cites 1S04-01:11 which discusses a war between the Philistines and Jews in the time of Samuel .... And Israel went out against the Philistines to battle, ... And when the people came into the camp, ... ... the elders of Israel said, ... Let us fetch the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of Shiloh to us, so that, when it comes among us, it may save us from the hand of our enemies. .... And when the ark ....came to the camp, all Israel shouted ... And when the Philistines heard ...the shout, ... And they understood that the ark of the Lord came ... And the Philistines were afraid, ... Woe to us! Who shall deliver us from the hand of this mighty God? ... And the Philistines fought, and Israel was defeated, .... And the ark of God was captured; Rashi comments: The underlined Biblical phrase in Dt20-04, God who goes with you refers to the ark of God.

Next Rashi cites 1S17-45:47 the famous fight between Golyath and David Then said David to the Philistine, You come to me with a sword, ... but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, .... This day will the Lord deliver you into my hand; And all this assembly shall know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear; ..... Rashi observes that David's famous saying sheds contrastive further details to the underlined words of our verse,Dt20-04 it is the Lord your God who goes with you,

Although there is a sermonic flavor to both these Rashis, the underlying method is the other verse method. Rashi concretizes God's walking with us by noting that it refers to the Holy Ark. Similarly Rashi offers contrastive emphasis to the passage For it is God who walks with you by showing the alternative, a reliance on weapons and might.

Interestingly Rashi only cites the Golyath verse but does not cite the Philistine verse. Rashi however does identify God with us to God's ark is with us. We conjecture that such an identification comes from the Other verse method. Such conjectures on Rashi's methodology are caused by Rashi's extreme terseness. The reader is invited to review our explanation and decide if these other verses motivated Rashi's comments.

One of Rashi's 10 major methods is the word meaning method. One word meaning sub-method is the synonym sub-method. We say Rashi uses the synonym submethod when he either differentiates the nuances in two words with almost similar meanings or if one word has two related meanings. Strictly speaking we do not, in English, use the word synonym to describe one word with two related meanings but it is convenient to classify both phenomena as Rashi synonym methods.

Verse Dt20-20a states Only the trees which you know are not trees for food, you shall destroy and cut them down; and you shall build siege works against the city that makes war with you, until it is subdued.

Rashi comments on the Hebrew word Resh Daleth Tauv Hey with root Resh Daleth Hey. Rashi in effect says This root can mean either downed or subdued. Both translations fit the verse nicely. We could translate the verse you shall build a siege against the city ... until it is downed. or we could translate the verse you shall build a siege against the city ... until it is subdued. Since the verse prohibits destroying certain trees it seems reasonable to use the translated subdued. That is it is not a requirement to destroy (to down) every city you conquer but it is enough to subdue it, if the city surrenders to you.

One of Rashi's 10 major goals is to explain grammar the same way modern grammar books explain grammar. For convenience we have divided grammatical rules into 3 major categories
• the rules governing conjugation of roots
• the rules governing whole sentences
• the rules governing individual sentence parts that are not roots

A general rule about sentences in all languages is that sentences can have missing parts which are nevertheless understood by the reader. Grammarians call this ellipsis. Typically the missing sentence part can be inferred from other sentence parts and its repetition would not lead to clarity but redundancy!

Example: Verse Dt17-03a states And has gone and served other gods, and worshipped them, either the sun, or moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded; Rashi comments on this verse by adding the underlined ellipsis: And has gone and served other gods, and worshipped them, either the sun, or moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded to be worshiped

There is another way of explaining Rashi in terms of pronoun references. The abstract pronoun which in the above verse adverbially modifies the verb served, but does not adjectivally modify the words sun and moon. That is Rashi is explaining the verse: The Jews Served in a way which God did not command

Rashi rejects the standard pronoun rule that a pronoun modifies the last occurring antecedent. In such a case the verse would say that The Jews served the sun/moon, whom I did not command . This of course does not make sense.

Clearly in this case Rashi chose the clearer pronoun referent even though it is more distant.

Both ways of explaining Rashi point to a grammatical explanation of the entire verse.

Note the alignment of the underlined words in the following verse Verse Dt17-19 discussing the obligations of the king to follow the law states And it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life; that he may learn to fear the Lord his God,
• to keep all the words of this Torah and
• these statutes, to do them;

Rashi comments that the underlined aligned phrases emphasize different nuances of observance.
• The king must observe the law,that is, the statutes
• The king must observe the words of the Torah that is the spirit, stories and atmosphere of the Torah.

We can use this Rashi to illustrate how the Rabbi and sermonist would extract exhortative messages. A typical sermonic comment might inject yet further emphasis: Kings are supposed to uphold civil laws. Therefore the Torah doesn't mention observing civil laws but even religious statutes. Furthermore statutes are still laws. The Bible goes a step further and requires kings to observe both the law and its spirit.

We brought the above example to show how Rabbinic sermonics is simply one step further in the use of Rashi rules. The alignment rule may require seeing 2 nuances in the text. A Rabbi or sermonist may further compare these nuances against other similar terms and verses and extract further nuances. Thus in our example the sermonist would compare the terms statutes, laws, ordinances, civil laws, stories, exhortations.... The sermonist then identifies why the verse uses the terms statutes and words. Technically the Rabbi or sermonist is supplementing the Rashi method of alignment with the Rashi method of database comparisons. I believe however it is important to emphasize that the grammatical processes of Rashi and the exhortative processes of the sermonist are the same

We should note that we have classified the above verse as an example of alignment. We could have also classified it as an example of Formatting-bullets. In fact the repeating Hebrew keyword Eth serves to indicate a bullet effect. The resulting explanation of Rashi would be the same.

Finally we note that all Rashi says is Observe...the words of this Torah Rashi: This is to be interpreted literally. Rashi is so terse that it is not explicitly clear what he is saying or why he is saying it. After examining the verse we suggested that Rashi is commenting either on the alignment or the bullet listing of items. Rashi requires seeing the emphasis in each aligned item or each bullet. This would be consistent with Rashi's comment---that the phrase the words of this Torah is taken literally. I have simply added that words of Torah is in contrast to statutes one referring to atmosphere and the other referring to laws.

Dt19-16:17 discusses a perjury case. Notice the contradiction indicated by the underlined phrases in the following verses, both speaking about a perjury case Dt19-16:17 states If a false witness rises up against any man to testify against him that which is wrong; Then both the men, between whom the controversy is, shall stand before the Lord, before the priests and the judges, who shall be in those days.

We see the contradiction indicated by the underlined words: Which is it? Are we speaking about one man or two men?

Rashi resolves this contradiction using the 2 aspects method. The 2 aspects of the perjury case is explicitly indicated in the above verses.
• There are two litigants --- two men.
• But the false witnesses are only falsifying one of these litigants --- one man.

The Bible generally taught using the example method. In other words if a verse states a law it is understood that the law not only applies to the particular example mentioned but applies more generally to all similar examples.

The simplest illustration of this occurs at Dt25-04a which states You shall not muzzle an ox when he treads out the grain. The talmud and Rashi consider this law to generally apply It is prohibited to muzzle any animal while doing its work.

If the Bible intended that you interpret a law specifically then it would state it in general-detail form thereby indicating that of all the examples in the general class only this particular detail applies. We present several examples below

• Lv07-26a states
  • General: Moreover you shall eat no kind of blood,
  • Detail: whether it is of bird or of beast, in any of your dwellings.
    Rashi: The Bible only prohibited consumption of the blood of birds and beasts but consumption of the blood of fish is permissable.
• Dt18-03b states And this shall be the priest’s due from the people,
  • General: from those who offer a sacrifice,
  • Detail: whether it is ox or sheep;
    and they shall give to the priest the shoulder, and the two cheeks, and the stomach.
    Rashi: These priestly gifts only apply to ox and sheep but not to offerings from birds
• Dt21-22b:23 states
  • General: And if a man has committed a capital crime, and is put to death, then you shall hang him on a tree...;
  • Detail: ... for the hunged person has despised God;
    Rashi: Among those executed only those who directly despise God --such as the idolater and blasphemer-- are put to death.

Note the bulleting of the underlined words in the following verses. Verse Dt16-21 discussing prohibitions of building near the Temple states You shall not plant for yourself
• a Tree-god or
• any tree [construction] near the altar of the Lord your God, which you shall make.

The Bible itself has no Bullets. Instead Biblical bulleting is frequently indicated through repeating keywords. The above verse has no repeating keywords. Rather the bullet effect is indicated through the compound object Tree-god, any tree

Rashi comments: The bulleted list creates emphasis. There are two prohibitions
• one cannot build a tree-god on the Temple mount near the altar of God
• one cannot build any tree / wooden construction on the Temple mount near the altar of God. (Rashi gives as an example, building a house.)

A popular approach to Rashi seeks to derive exegesis from Biblical extra words. Our approach is similar but not identical. We don't see extra words per se as requiring exegesis. However when those extra words create a bulleted list then the bullets, as in English, indicate an emphasis of contrastive emphasis and require that each bulleted item be seen as specific and unique. It is the bullets not the extra words that drive the exegesis.

Todays example is a classical application of the database method. Rashi asks the query: For the observance of which commandments does God promise reward? The query uncovers half a dozen commandments. These commandments span all situations:
• easy commandments
• difficult commandments
• Communal commandments
• Commandments I would do anyway...

Hence the Rashi comment Observance of all commandments entails reward. The Bible simply picked extreme cases of all the commandments in order to emphasize the principle. The list below presents the results of the query and shows us the emphasis in each case.

The following commandments mention reward
• Easy commandments: Verse Dt22-07 states If a bird’s nest chances to be before you in the way in any tree, or on the ground, whether they are young ones, or eggs, and the mother sitting upon the young, or upon the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young; But you shall let the mother go, and take the young to you; that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days.
• Communal commandments Verse Dt16-20b states 20. Justice, only justice shall you pursue, that you may live, and inherit the land which the Lord your God gives you.
• Government commandments: Verse Dt17-18:20b states And it shall be, when he [The king] sits upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write for himself a copy of this Torah in a book from that which is before the priests the Levites; ....to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he, and his children, in the midst of Israel.
• Things I would abstain from anyway(Not eating blood) Verse Dt12-25b states You shall not eat it [blood]; that it may go well with you, and with your children after you, when you shall do that which is right in the sight of the Lord.
• Commandments not requiring intention/action: Verse Dt24-19b states When you cut down your harvest in your field, a and have forgotten a sheaf in the field, you shall not go again to fetch it; it shall be for the stranger, for the orphan, and for the widow; that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.
• Educational (non-action) commandments: Verse Dt11-19:21a states And you shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. ... That your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth.
• Common sense obligations: Verse Ex20-12a states Honor your father and your mother; that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God gives you.

Suppose the meaning of a verse is completely understood, that is,
• the words and
• grammar of the verse are clear and
• other verses don't shed further light, but Rashi adds consequences or necessary assumptions to the verse.

  In such a case we say that Rashi is using the spreadsheet method.

If the additional consequences indicated by Rashi can be
• inferred from a spreadsheet of numbers then Rashi is using the algebraic methodof spreadsheets.
• If the additional clarification is a diagram then Rashi is using the geometric method of spreadsheets.
• If the consequence is verbal-logical (neither numeric nor geometric) then Rashi is using the consequence method of spreadsheets.

In numerous verses journey to Israel is termed going up while journey away from Israel is termed going down. We present six such verses below (Rashi makes an almost identical comment on 5 of these 6 verses). These verses simply indicate a Hebrew idiomatic usage. However Rashi infers an additional geometric consequence from this usage The Hebrew language geographically perceives Israel as being at the center and top.

Rashi could have further justified this geographic inference using the other verse method. Verse Ez38-12 describes a nation intending to attack Israel as intending To take booty, and to plunder; to turn your hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people who are gathered from the nations, who have acquired cattle and goods, who dwell on the belly of the land. The underlined description belly is consistent with Rashi's inference that Israel is geographically situated at the center and top of the world.

The six verses using language whose underlined words indicate that Israel is at the top and center are as follows:
• Verse Dt01-25a states And they took of the fruit of the land in their hands, and brought it down to us, and brought us word again, and said, It is a good land which the Lord our God does give us.
• Verse Gn45-09a states Hurry back to my father, and say to him, Thus said your son Joseph, God has made me lord of all Egypt; come down to me, delay not;
• Verse Ex33-01a states And the Lord said to Moses, Depart, and go up, you and the people whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt, to the land which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, To your seed will I give it;
• Verse Dt32-13b states He drove us on the high places of the earth, [ Israel ] so that we ate he ate the produce of the fields; and he made him suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock;
• Verse Gn46-03:04 states And He said, I am God, the God of your father; fear not to go down to Egypt; for I will there make of you a great nation; I will go down with you to Egypt; and I will also surely bring you up again; and Joseph shall put his hand upon your eyes.
• Verse Dt17-08f states If there arises a matter too hard for you in judgment, between blood and blood, between plea and plea, and between plague and plague, being matters of controversy inside your gates; then shall you arise, and go up to the place which the Lord your God shall choose; Note that in this verse going up refers to Jerusalem and the Temple. But again the idea is the same--the Jewish viewpoint as indicated by the Hebrew language sees the Temple, Jerusalem and Israel as sitting on top and at the center of the world.

Verse Dt18-03 states And this shall be the priest’s due from the people, from those who offer a sacrifice, whether it is ox or sheep; and they shall give to the priest
• the shoulder, and
• the two cheeks, and
• the stomach.

Rashi explains these priestly gifts as rewards because during a public sex act Pinchas the priest took a spear with his hand and stabbed the woman in the stomach/womb and then prayed that the plague God brought for the public sex act should stop which it did. Rashi comments The symbolists explained
• the shoulder was given as a gift to the priests since Pinchas used his arm/shoulder to stop a public sex act by grabbing a spear and killing the couple
• The cheeks were given as a gift to the priests because Pinchas prayed using his mouth/cheeks to stop the plague by which God was punishing the Jewish people
• The stomach was given as a gift to the priests because Pinchas stabbed the woman involved in public sex in her stomach/womb.

In my article explaining the principles of symbolism, based on the teachings of Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, Genesis 1 speaks about the creation of prophecy not the creation of the world I lay down the principles that Rav Hirsch shows must be used when interpreting a passage symbolically. Based on these principles I would keep Rashi's basic idea of symbolic correspondence but change the symbolic interpretation.

The context requires seeing these Priestly gifts as symbolic descriptions of how sexual sin happens. The priest could then use this knowledge to help people abstain from sin. It would seem that the simple Symbolic meaning of the passage is that sexual sin happens in three stages
• Upper nudity: This corresponds to the shoulder gift
• Droplet secreting organs: This corresponds to the cheeks which house the saliva glands
• Lower nudity: This corresponds to the stomach/womb.

  Priestly Gift	Rashi	Me/Rav Hirsch	Correspondence
  Shoulder	Pinchas's hand	Upper nudity	hand = (female) power
  Cheeks	Prayer	Droplet organs	Prayer = tears
  stomach/womb	womb	lower nudity	womb = nudity

  Table showing possible correspondence of Rashi vs my symbolic explanation.

  I will not debate whether Rashi himself intended this. We can see some correspondence presented in the table below. It then remains a difficulty why Rashi was not more explicit. Perhaps because he wanted to be discrete in sexual matters. At any rate both Rashi's literal interpretation and my interpretation based on Rav Hirsch's methods use symbolic methods. Based on the criteria that Rav Hirsch lays down and that are summarized in the article I would suggest that these Symbolic interpretations are the simple intended meaning of the text.

  I have explained this example at length to show the issues in examining a Rashi. Even when you modify Rashi's literal interpretation you are still adhering to Rashi's original method and appraoch.

  Conclusion

  This week's parshah contains examples of all methods. This concludes this weeks edition. Visit the RashiYomi website at http://www.Rashiyomi.com for further details and examples.