Verses Lv12-02c
describes the ritual impurity
of a woman who gave birth to a child
Speak to the people of Israel, saying,
If a woman conceives, and bears a male
child; then she shall be unclean seven days;
as in the days of her menstruation, shall she be unclean.
As is clear from the underlined words,
as in the days of her menstruation,
this verse cross-references
the laws of ritual impurity of the
menstruant which are described beginning in
Biblical verse
Lv15-19:
And if a woman has a discharge,
and the discharge of her flesh is blood,
she shall be put apart seven days;
and whoever touches her shall be unclean until the evening.
Rashi basically identifies this
cross reference:
Rashi: The laws of ritual impurity, of the woman
who gave birth to a child, are similar
to all
laws of ritual impurity mentioned in
the cross referenced chapter
on menstruant ritual impurity.
Verse Lv13-02 states
When a man shall have in the skin of his flesh a
Sin Aleph Tauv a scab, or bright spot, and it is on the skin of his flesh like the disease of leprosy; then he shall be brought to Aaron the priest, or to one of his sons the pries
Rashi commenting on the meaning of the Hebrew
word Sin-Aleph-Tauv states:
Names of leprosy plagues ...varying degrees of whiteness.
Rashi does not further explain how he knew
this meaning. I would conjecture that Rashi used the
method of meaning by root. Indeed, the Hebrew
root of the word Sin Aleph Tauv is Nun Sin
Alpeh which means (among other things), cloud.
Hence Sin Aleph Tauv would mean cloud-white.
It is common in languages to name colors by related
objects of that color - this technique is known
as metonomy. Some typical examples in English
of colors named by related objects with the
same color are orange, aqua, violet. Similar
examples abound in other languages.
Advanced Rashi: Without the methods
of this email list we might have dismissed this
Rashi as a meaning known through oral tradition.
While Judaism certainly has an oral tradition it also has
a tradition based on logic and inference. It is important
to show logical derivations and inferences when they
apply. Such derivations are supplemental and supportive
or oral traditions and strengthen them.
A simple exegetical grammatical method, readily
understood by everyone, is the skillful use of singular-
plural. Verses Lv12-07:08 states
And when the days of her purifying are fulfilled,
for a son, or for a daughter,
- she shall bring a lamb of the first year
for an up offering, and
- a young pigeon, or a turtledove, for a
sin offering, to the door of the Tent of Meeting,
to the priest;
The priest
- shall offer it before the Lord,
and make an atonement for her;
and she shall be cleansed from the issue of her blood.
Rashi comments on the singular pronoun, it,
versus the plural up, sin offerings:
She brings two offerings; but only one of them
is needed to achieve ritual cleansing.
Note that the Scriptural text does not identify
which offering - up or sin - effects
ritual cleansing. Rashi therefore makes a reasonable
conjecture:
[Most probably] It is the sin offering which effects
ritual cleansing since sin offerings are typically brought
for atonement [which is a synonym for ritual cleansing].
Advanced Rashi:
This Rashi is typical: Rashi first makes a clear inference
from the Biblical text based on a sound grammatical
foundation. Rashi then conjectures on the applicability
of this inference. Thus in this example Rashi first infers
that only one of the two offerings is required for ritual
cleansing. Rashi makes this inference from the contrast of
the singular pronoun, it vs. the plural
reference up,sin offering. Then Rashi applies this
inference of one offering effects ritual cleansing
to the sin offering since sin offerings are typically brought
to effect atonement which is a synonym for
ritual cleansing.
The idea that Rashis should be understood in stages
was first advocated in my paper
Simple and
Exegetical Meaning: A New Approach. This principle of
stages facilitates
the appreciation of many Rashis as being the
simple intended meaning of the Biblical text.
Biblical verse Lv14-09
discussing the
purification procedure of the lepor
is written in a Theme-Detailed-Theme
style. This verse states
But it shall be on the seventh day,
- Theme: that he shall shave all his
hair off
- Detail:
- his head and
- his beard
- and his eyebrows,
- Theme: all his hair he shall shave off;
and he shall wash his clothes,
also he shall wash his flesh in water, and he shall be clean.
We have explained in our article
Biblical Formatting
that the theme-detail-theme
style indicates a paragraph structure.
Consequently the details are seen as the
development of the theme. The Talmudic
sages stated this development idea as follows:
The details in a theme-detail-theme
structure should be partially generalized to resemble the
theme.
Hence the Rashi comment:
Beard, head, eyebrows have hair that
is dense and visible. So only dense,
visible here is shaven. This excludes
- arm-hair, which is visible but not dense,
- armpit-hair, which is not visible but dense
- nose-hair, which isnot visible and not dense.
Advanced Rashi: If you look carefully at
the verse above you will see that the word all
is bolded. The word all always requires
generalization. Hence the additional Rashi comment:
The actual law requires shaving the arm and armpit hair.
In other words all hair is shaven except the nose-hair which
is neither visible nor dense.
This derivation is quite complex. My contribution is
to see the derivation as emanating from two Rashi methods:
The theme-detail-theme method and the special word-
all method.
Sermonic Points: The natural question is,
Why? Why should we care to shave off this hair or that
hair? A beautiful, deep and profound answer is given by Rav
Hirsch who gathers several example of shaving procedures.
(For example the shaving procedure for the Levites mentioned
in Nu08.)
Rav Hirsch explains that shaving symbolically
affirms the presence of the female personality since women
do not have visible dense hair (Except on their heads).
The lepor is guilty of slander. A classical source of slander
is between husband and wife when then man does not understand
the special needs of the woman. To remove this source of slander
the man must enter a female stage in which he becomes empathic
with female feeling. This atones for the slander since now the man
understands the way the woman feels. For this reason
the symbolic feminization of the man by shaving hear
is part of the lepor purification procedure.
We have explained in our article
Biblical Formatting located on the world wide web at
http://www.Rashiyomi.com/biblicalformatting.pdf,
that the Biblical Author indicates bold, italics, underline by using
repetition. In other words if a modern author wanted to emphasize
a word they would either underline, bold or italicize it. However when the Biblical
author wishes to emphasize a word He repeats it. The effect - whether
thru repetition or using underline - is the same. It is only the
means of conveying this emphasis that is different.
With this in mind let us read verse Lv13-35:36
which discusses leprous symptoms appearing after
the two week examination and review process:
But if the patch spread spread
over the skin after his cleansing;
Then ...he is unclean.
Using the formatting principle
presented at the beginning of this example,
Rashi perceives this repeated word
spread spread the same way a modern
reader would see an underlined word:
But if the patch spread
over the skin after his cleansing;
Then ...he is unclean.
The underlined word, spread
indicates an unspecified emphasis. Rashi
interprets this unspecified emphasis:
Spreading always confers a status
of ritual impurity.
He is unclean whether the spreading happened
before or after the two week examination and review
process.
Biblical chapter Lv13
discusses the ritual impurity of leprosy.
The atonement procedure for this ritual
impurity is discussed in Biblical Chapter
Lv14.
A full discussion of the rich and beautiful
symbolism of leprosy would require
applying the objective methods presented in
my article on symbolism. In this weekly
digest we simply sketch a few important ideas.
The atonement procedure for the lepor
is presented in Lv14 which begins
Then shall the priest command to take for him
who is to be cleansed two
birds alive and clean, and
cedar wood, and
scarlet, and
hyssop
Rashi explains the symbolism of each
of the underlined items.
- birds symbolize bird-like chatterers
- cedars symbolize lofty mighty people
- hyssops symbolize the lower classes
We could justify each of these symbolic
associations by citing verses where these symbolisms
are present. Instead we lightly sketch how Rashi
applies these symbolisms.
Rashi states: Leprosy is a punishment
for chattering like a bird which leads
to slander, the core of Jewish sins. The atonement
and remedy for slander is an awareness of the rich
spectrum of human personality from the lower hyssop-like
classes to the mighty cedar like upper classes.
Awareness of the full spectrum of human personality
prevents a person from slandering people since he understands
each individual's behavior based on where they are.
Sermonic points:Rashi does not actually
state the symbolic interpretation presented above. Rather
Rashi states
If a person feels high and mighty like a cedar
then let him lower himself till he feels like a hyssop.
However I believe that Rashi interpreted the symbolic
items as we have indicated above: There is a full
spectrum of human personality. Rashi then gives an
example of this very general idea: If you think you belong
on the upper class, the cedar part of the human spectrum,
then see those aspects of you that belong to the
lower class, the hyssop part of the human spectrum.
However Rashi would be fully comfortable to apply the cedar-hyssop
spectrum in other ways also. In other words we see the Rashi text
as an example of a more general symbolic interpretation.
In summary the full solution to slander and sinful
idle chatter is awareness of the rich spectrum of human
personality. There are many ways to apply this awareness
to avoid slander. For example if you see a person who
behaves like a rif-raf (like a hyssop) then do not
slander him - then find his strong positive attributes, praise
him for them until he reclassifies himself among the cedars.
The following story of the Jewish expert on slander, the Chafetz
Chaim, illustrates
this point:
The Chafetz Chayim saw a certain person
cursing and abusing people. In other words he saw the hyssop
in the person. Everyone slandered the person and described him
as no-good. They committed the sin of bird chatter.
The Chafetz Chaim inquired: This person had been in the
Russian Army for 25 years since he was a child. The Chafetz
Chaim immediately saw the cedar like loftiness of the person.
The Chafetz Chaim approached the person and said: They tell me you were
in the Russian Army for 25 years and the only effect it had on you is that
you drink and curse a little more than most people. You must be some
type of saint that it affected you this little. Here the Chafetz
Chaim performed the atonement procedure for slander by taking/seeing
together in one person the cedar/hyssop the lofty and
low. The person of course repented symbolized by the ritual
purity conferred by the leprosy purification procedure.
Praise be Him who chose them and their learning.
This week's parshah contains no examples
of the spreadsheet method.
This concludes this weeks edition.
Visit the RashiYomi website at
http://www.Rashiyomi.com
for further details and examples.