Verses Lv23-08
discussing the Jubillee year states
And you shall count seven sabbath years to you, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be to you forty and nine years.
Rashi explains the underlined phrase
sabbath years by citing a nearby reference
Lv25-02:04
which describes the land sabbatical:
Speak to the people of Israel, and say to them, When you come into the land
which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath to the Lord.
Six years you shall sow your field,
and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather in its fruit;
But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest to the land, a sabbath for the Lord; you shall not sow your field, nor prune your vineyard.
Hence the Rashi comment:
The sabbath year refers to the earlier mentioned land sabbatical
during which no agriculture is done.
Many students of Rashi are aware of Rashis based on grammatical
peculiarities or excessive words. However Rashi can also be based
on a non-standard word order. A non-standard word order generally
indicates unspecified emphasis. The examples below illustrate this principle.
Before proceeding we point out the difficulty in mirroring these
Rashis in the translations. Some terminology will help clarify this
difficulty. Most languages have a characteristic word order.
- For example the characteristic word order in English is Subject-Verb-Object,
for example, your enemies will reign over you. Here enemies is the subject,
reign is the verb, and you is the object. Hence,
this sentence has the typical subject-verb-object order. Linguists, for short,
call this sequence S-V-O, using the first letters of Subject-Verb-Object.
- However the characteristic word order in Hebrew is V-S-O;
that is the verb comes first, followed by the subject, followed
by the object.
It is therefore hard to capture order, or deviance from order, in an English translation! Instead
we shall adopt the following translation rule: We shall translate a
standard word order in Hebrew into a standard word order in English.
We shall similarly translate a
non-standard word order in Hebrew into a non-standard word order in English.
However we shall not otherwise attempt to translate word-order literally.
With this in mind let us analyze Lv16-17j which states
On you, your enemies will reign. The standard-word order
would require Your enemies will regin on you, since the phrase on you
is the direct object of the sentence. The non-standard word order,
On you, your enemies will reign, indicates an unspecified emphasis
in the phrase on you. Hence the Rashi comment: Your enemies will not only reign
over you but your enemies are on you, they will come from you; you will be the
victim of your own Jewish anti-semitism. Here, Rashi is not just making a pun; rather Rashi
is focusing on the non-standard word-order.
Advanced Rashi: We will further use the word order method in rule #7, Formatting
below. The word order rule is overlooked by many students of Rashi. Its use greatly simplifies
certain Rashis.
Note the contradiction
in the following two sets of verses, discussing
the requirement to allow the land to lie follow every 7th
year (the so-called land sabbatical). Verse Lv25-20:23 states:
- And if you shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our produce;
- Then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year,
and it shall bring forth fruit for three years.
And you shall sow the eighth year, and eat still of old fruit until the ninth year; until its fruits come in you shall eat of the old store.
We see the contradiction,
indicated by the underlined phrases.
Which is it? Are we prohibited from agriculture only in the 7th year?
Or, are we also prohibited in the 6th and 8th year? If we are not
prohibited in the 6th and 8th year why do we need a Biblical promise
that the blessings of the sixth year will carry forward for
three years.
It is not hard to resolve this contradiction. Rashi resolves
it using some simple operational details:
- In each year we sow and harvest for that year and also the beginning of the next year. Hence, in the
6th year we sow and harvest (as usual) for that year.
- However the harvest from the sixth year, which should typically
feed us for that sixth year, will also feed us for the totality
of the 7th year when we can't perform agriculture.
- But then when the 8th year begins we still don't have any harvest.
Rather we have to sow in the 8th year and we do not reap the harvest
of the 8th year till after the summer. But after the summer is the
Jewish New Year and the ninth year begins. Hence the harvest of the
6th year is needed while harvesting the agriculture of the 8th year
which gets completed at the beginning of the 9th year.
Advanced Rashi: We have employed the contradiction
method to explain the above verses. Further clarification may be obtained
from the non-verse-diagram method. The following time diagram
clarifies the above Rashi. Very often the use of two Rashi methods adds
clarity. Please feel free to read rule #9, Spreadsheets-Diagrams now.
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
Lv25-14:15,
which discusses apostasy. The discussion
develops in three pairs of bulleted texts.
The bullets are indicated by the underlined
repeating keywords. With each verselet we
present the Rashi comment. After the citation we explain
how the bullet rule gives rise
to the comments, not language and grammar. Many serious
students of Rashi have errored by misunderstanding Rashi
as emanating only from language and Grammar.
The six verselets describing apostasy are:
-
- But if you do not listen to me [Don't study], and
- do not do [Don't perform] all these commandments;
- And if my statutes [religious laws] are despised
- and if my civil cases[interpersonal civil laws] are loathed by your soul
- until you don't do any of my commandments
[Don't contribute to help others perform and actively interfer with others performing],
- until you break my covenant;[Apostasy]
We now explain what Rashi did, and did not, do. In the first set
of bullets Rashi interprets the Biblical word pair, listen-do as referring to learning-perform.
Rashi did not do this because of requirements of language. Indeed, listen
can equally mean study or performance. Similarly do can easily
mean study-performance together. Rather because the repeating
underlined keyword do not create a bullet atmosphere, therefore, Rashi
was justified in reading into the listen-do sequence the interpretation
of learning-perform.
In the second set of bullets we use the grammar-word-order rule which we
reviewed in rule #3 above. Hebrew is a verb-object language. A reversal
of this order (e.g. civil laws despised vs. despise my civil laws) indicates
unpsecified emphasis. When we couple this emphasis with the repeating underlined keyword, if,
we see that Rashi choses to emphasize the specific nuances of statute and civil law,
which very roughly refer to religious vs. civil law.
Again it was not the word meaning which drove Rashi to this. Indeed, in many verses, the
word statute by itself can refer to all laws just as the word civil law by itself
can refer to all Jewish laws.
Because of the third set of bullets, indicated by the underlined keyword, until,
Rashi contrasts commandments vs. treaty,
as differentiating non-performance vs. apostasy / denial. Rashi sees further nuances
in the repeating keyword, until. Rashi interprets this to mean a general development over
time of non-performance and treaty violation. Hence, this is interpreted broadly to refer to being annoyed
by community performance of commandments and outright denial of God.
Sermonic Points: One does not just get up and suddenly deny God. Apostasy
takes place as a gradual process. The above 6 verselets present a 6-stage process as follows:
- One stops learning every day
- One forgets and doesn't perform every law
- In one's dinner conversations with one's friends, the trans-rational laws are attacked
as meaningless
- One doesn't bother to understand Jewish civil law; one attacks the rational laws.
- When the above 4 happen over a period of time the hatred of the law turns outward to
other people - commandments should not be performed because they are rediculous.
- Finally, after having been cut off from learning, performance, appreciation and community,
apostasy naturally evolves (With nothing to stop it).
Today we ask the database query:
What words or phrases are used to indicate charity
requirements in Hebrew.
The database query uncovers the results
given in the list below. Given the spectrum of words
for charity, Rashi suggests nuances peculiar to each word.
| Word for charity
| Verse
| Text Of Verse
| Connotations of word
|
| Open your hand
|
Dt15-08
|
But you shall open your hand wide to him,
| Monetary charity
|
| laden
|
Dt15-08
|
you should laden him with items sufficient for his needs ...
| Non-monetary charity: food, clothing etc.
|
| Give
|
Dt15-09:10
|
Beware that there be not a thought in your wicked heart,
saying, The seventh year, the year of release from loans, is near;
and your eye be evil against your poor brother, and you give him nothing; and he cry to the Lord against you, and it be sin to you.
You should give him, and your heart shall not be grieved when you give to him;
because for this thing the Lord your God shall bless you in all your works, and in all that you put your hand to.
| Loan
|
| Strengthen
|
Lv25-35
|
And if your brother has become poor, and his means fail with you;
then you shall strengthen him; though he may be a stranger, or a sojourner; that he may live with you.
| Business association
|
Sermonic points:
Although the above Rashis appears to be a simple exercise
they mirror profound halachik requirements. The
various terms used, each with its own connotation, -
money, food, loans, business association - forms the
basis for the Rambam's famous ladder of charitable
activities. Thus creating a business association with
a poor person is superior to loaning or giving him money since the business
association enables self-sufficiency. Traditionally, we think of the Rambam's ladder
as deriving from Talmudic sources. But it has its roots in Biblical sources.
We have already, rule #5, contradiction
presented the diagram approach to the Rashis
on verses Lv25-20:23 which state
And if you shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our produce;
Then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year,
and it shall bring forth fruit for three years.
And you shall sow the eighth year, and eat still of old fruit until the ninth year; until its fruits come in you shall eat of the old store.
The diagram below shows us that:
The produce of the 6th year is used
- at the end of the 6th year
- all during the 7th year
- and at the beginning of the 8th year (until new produce is produced)
Hence, although the land sabbatical is only one year, the
produce of the 6th year is needed for three years.
TIME DIAGRAM FOR AGRICULTURAL CYCLES:
Year 5
| Eat produce of year 4
|
|
|
| Sow for years 5,6
|
Year 6
| Finish Gathering harvest of Year 5
| Eat produce of Year 5
|
| Sow for years 6,7
|
| Harvest for year 6 ----------------------- Year 6 Produce
|
Year 7
|- Land Sabbatical - No sowing or harvest
|- Eat produce of year 6-------------------- Year 6 produce
|
|
Year 8
|- No harvest of Year 7
|- Continue eating produce from Year 6------ Year 6 Produce
|
| Sow for Years 8,9
|
| Begin Harvest of Year 8
| Eat some produce of year 8
|
Year 9
| Complete produce of Year 8
| Eat year 8 produce
|
| Harvest for years 9,10