Weekyly Rashi Digest - Volume 6 #11 Jun - 7,

The 10 RashiYomi Rules
Their presence in Rashis on Parshat SheLacH
Vol 6 #11 - Adapted from Rashi-is-Simple
Visit the RashiYomi website: http://www.Rashiyomi.com/
(c) RashiYomi Incorporated, Dr. Hendel, President, Jun - 7, - 2007

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.

1. RASHI METHOD: REFERENCES
BRIEF EXPLANATION: Commentary on a verse is provided thru a cross-reference to another verse. The cross references can either provide (1a) further details, (1b) confirm citations, or (1c) clarify word meaning. This examples applies to Rashis Nu14-17b Nu14-20a
URL Reference: (c) http://www.Rashiyomi.com/nu14-20a.htm
Brief Summary: Moses prayer GOD FORGIVE THEM FOR YOU ARE SLOW TO ANGER (Nu14-17:18) cross REFERENCES God's description of Himself (Ex34-06:07)

Nu14-17:18

And now, I pray Thee, let the power of the L-rd be great, according as Thou hast spoken, saying: HaShem is
slow to anger, and
abudant in goodness,
forgiving iniquity and transgression,
and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generation.

as Thou hast spoken

referencing

Ex34-06:07

And HaShem passed by before him, and proclaimed: 'The HaShem, HaShem, G-d, merciful and gracious,
slow to anger, and
abundant in goodness and truth; keeping mercy unto the thousandth generation,
forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin;
and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and unto the fourth generation.'

2. RASHI METHOD: WORD MEANING
BRIEF EXPLANATION: The meaning of words can be explained either by (2a) translating an idiom, a group of words whose collective meaning transcends the meaning of its individual component words, (2b) explaining the nuances and commonality of synonyms-homographs, (2c) describing the usages of connective words like also,because,if-then, when, (2d) indicating how grammatical conjugation can change word meaning (2e) changing word meaning using the figures of speech common to all languages such as irony and oxymorons. This examples applies to Rashis Nu15-39b
URL Reference: (c) http://www.Rashiyomi.com/nu15-39b.htm
Brief Summary: Tauv-Vav-Resh means a) To spy / explore b) To Explore fantasies

Testing.

hononym

unifying theme

Tauv Vav Resh

explore.

spying - exploring foreign terrain
lusting / fantasizing - exploring ones fantasies

Nu15-39b,

And it shall be unto you for a fringe [Tzitzith], that ye may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of HaShem, and do them; so that you do not explore your fantasies and sights after which you go astray.

Sermonic points: Rashi here adds insight into how sin happens. One does not get up one morning and decide to sin. Nor is it the case that people who don't sin do not have fantasies. Rather the sinner, upon seeing his fantasies, decided to explore them. It is this dwelling / exploration of fantasies that can eventually lead to sin.

3. RASHI METHOD: GRAMMAR
BRIEF EXPLANATION: Rashi explains verses using grammar principles, that is, rules which relate reproducable word form to word meaning. Grammatical rules neatly fall into 3 categories (a) the rules governing conjugation of individual words,Biblical roots, (b) the rules governing collections of words,clauses, sentences (c) miscellaneous grammatical, or form-meaning, rules. This examples applies to Rashis Nu13-02b/b>
URL Reference: (c) http://www.Rashiyomi.com/ex31-15c.htm
Brief Summary: FOR YOU adverbially connotes a PERSONAL aspect. Make FOR YOURSELF trumpets means Make for your personal use.

A miscellaneous rule in Biblical grammar states that the pronoun for himself when used in a sentence functions adverbially to indicate that the activity of the sentence was done for personal reasons.

A good example of this occurs in Nu10-01:02 And HaShem spoke unto Moses, saying: Make for yourself two trumpets of silver; of beaten work shalt thou make them; and they shall be unto thee for the calling of the congregation, and for causing the camps to set forward. Rashi comments on the personal aspect of making the trumpets by providing three possible methods of personal aspect.
Make the trumpets for yourself--only you can use them. Make the trumpets from your own funds
The trumpets are used for your assemblies

Another example occurs at Ex18-27 which concludes the chapter describing how Jethro recognized the superiority of the Jewish God over other gods. The verse, translated with the above rule, states And Moses let his father-in-law depart; and he went for personal reasons into his own land. Rashi comments on the adverbial phrase: For personal reasons: He returned to found his own personal society/club of people who believe in a monotheistic God. The club/society he founded is referenced in Ju04-11. which states Now the Kenite society, who was of the descendants of Hobab the father-in-law of Moses, had separated himself from the Kenites, and pitched his tent near the terebinth in Zaanannim, which is by Kedesh.

A current example from this week's Parshah occurs in Nu13-01:02 discussing God's allowance to Moses to send spies to scout out Israel before the Jewish conquest: The verses state And HaShem spoke unto Moses, saying: Send for yourself men, that they may spy out the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel; of every tribe of their fathers shall ye send a man, every one a prince among them.' Rashi explains: God told Moses Send for yourself - in other words, God allowed Moses to send spies to scout Israel before conquest,if he wanted to. That is, the spying was at Moses personal discretion.

4. RASHI METHOD: ALIGNMENT
BRIEF EXPLANATION: Aligning two almost identically worded verselets can suggest (4a) 2 cases of the same incident or law (4b) emphasis on the nuances of a case (4c) use of broad vs literal usage of words This examples applies to Rashis Nu14-12b
URL Reference: (c) http://www.Rashiyomi.com/nu14-12b.htm
Brief Summary: Prayer on sin of slander of spies doesn't mention merit of Patriarchs (but Patriarchs mentioned by sin of Golden calf).

The next paragraph aligns the themes of the prayers for forgiveness on the sins of the golden calf and the acceptance of slander. By comparing the underlined themes we discover certain differences which will be the subject of Rashi comments.

Nu14-11:19, presenting Moses' prayer to God to forgive the Jewish people for the sin of accepting the slander of the spies, says
Moses will replace Jewish nation: And HaShem said unto Moses: ,,,, I will smite them with the pestilence, and destroy them, and will make of thee a nation greater and mightier than they.'
Non Jews will interpret-God is helpless: And Moses said unto HaShem: 'When the Egyptians shall hear--for Thou broughtest up this people in Thy might from among them-- they will say to the inhabitants of this land, ... Because HaShem was not able to bring this people into the land which He swore unto them, therefore He hath slain them in the wilderness.
God's Attributes of Mercy: And now, I pray Thee, let the power of the L-rd be great, according as Thou hast spoken, saying: HaShem is slow to anger, and plenteous in lovingkindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generation.
Request for forgiveness:Pardon, I pray Thee, the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of Thy lovingkindness, and according as Thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.'

Ex32-11:14, describing Moses prayer to God when they sinned with the Golden calf, states
Request for not-excessive anger: And Moses besought HaShem his G-d, and said: 'HaShem, why doth Thy wrath wax hot against Thy people, that Thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?
Non Jews will interpret-God is helpless: Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, saying: For evil did He bring them forth, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth?
Request for forgiveness: Turn from Thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against Thy people.
The Merit of the Patriarchs: Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Thy servants, to whom Thou didst swear by Thine own self, and saidst unto them: I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever.'

Rashi, exploring the above alignment notes, as indicated by the underlined phrases, that
Both prayers mention a request for forgiveness;
Both prayers mention the theme that as a consequence of God's punishment, Non Jews will interpret-God is helpless;
however only the prayer by the Golden calf mentions The Merit of the Patriarchs,

Rashi resolves this omission of mention of the merit of the Patriarchs in the prayer for forgiveness on the sin of slander of the spies by pointing out that, as indicated by the underlined bullets, God had addressed this concern, by promising that Moses will replace Jewish nation, and thus the promise to the Patriarchs that a Jewish nation would descend from them would be fulfilled.

Advanced Rashi: The careful reader would note that the alignment uncovers a second difference between the two prayers, a difference, not addressed by Rashi. The prayer for the forgiveness on the sin of the Golden calf includes both a request for forgiveness as well as a request for non-excessive anger. Why? Perhaps the answer here could be the following Rashi-type comment: The sin of slander is greater than the sin of idolatry. For thus we see that Moses prayed for non-excessive anger by the sin of the Golden calf but did not (or could not, or dare not) so pray by the sin of acceptance of the slander of the spies. The reason for this distinction is simple. The idol can't do anything and the worshipping of the idol is simply a sin of insult to God. By contrast the sin of slander is a substantive sin which permanantly effects future actions, for, as a result of accepting the slander, the people permanantly, no longer wished to go to Israel.

contradiction

Verse Ex31-14 states Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore, for it is holy unto you; every one that profaneth it shall surely be put to death; for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people.
Verse Nu15-32:34 states And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks upon the sabbath day. And they that found him gathering sticks brought him unto Moses and Aaron, and unto all the congregation. And they put him in ward, because it had not been declared what should be done to him.

We see the contradiction. Which is it? Were they not told about the punishment for descecrating the Sabbath? Or, were they in fact told that there was a death penalty?

broad-literal

Nu15-35:36,

And HaShem said unto Moses: 'The man shall surely be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp.' And all the congregation brought him without the camp, and stoned him with stones, and he died, as HaShem commanded Moses.

Ex31-14 states the general punishment of death.

Nu15-32:36 states the specific form of death penalty, by stoning.

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 indicated a bulleted or table structure by skillful use of repated keywords.

That is, if a modern author wanted to get a point across using a table then the Biblical Author would use repeated keywords.

Nu13-17:20,

Nu13-19,

bulleted

and what the land is that they dwell in,
- whether it is good
- or bad;
and what cities they are that they dwell in,
- whether in camps,
- or in fortifications;

table

keywords

and what,

whether

Label	See What?	Test whether is is...	Rashi comment
A1a	Land	'	'
A1b	People	Strong or Weak	'
A1c	'	Small or Many	`Combine A1a,A1b,A1c. See the land as it affects people. Does the land encourage strength and big population growth in its inhabitants or weakness and small population growth.`
A2	Land	Good or Bad	`Cf. A1,A2,A3. All deal with the land. (A3) Deals with plumpness/fertility of land; (A1) deals with land as it affects people; So it is reasonable that (A2) deals with water supply of land.`
B	Cities	Camps or fortified	`All other pairs in the previous column -- strong/weak, small/many, good/bad -- are contrastive.Hence camps/fortified must be contrastive. We conclude that camps means open-camped.`
A3	Land	Fat or thin	`See previous Rashi comment: A1,A2,A3 all deal with land from point of view of people, fountains, and here land itself (Fertility). The force driving the interpretation of land in (A2) as referring to fountains is the bulleted structure.`
C	'	Does it have trees or not	`See the 2nd column. The other inquiries were about the land, people and cities. But here the Test for-column is blank. Hence we interpret tree as symbolically referring to a strong upright person whose merit protects the inhabitants. The force driving this interpretation is the absence of a category in the 2nd column suggesting that this row presents a general inquiry on overall protection of the land.`

Advanced Rashi:

Notice how the first three rows (A1a, A1b, A1c) have many blanks. This led Rashi to suggest a unified overall interpretation.
Many readers dismiss Rashi's interpretation of Land in (A2) as homiletic. Not so! The interpretation is based on the simple premise that bullets are contrastive and exhaustive. If there are three bullets on land - A1, A2, A3 - and the other two deal with land as it affect people, land then the remaining bullet must deal with the remaining aspects of the land - its water supply.
Many readers similarly dismiss Rashi's interpretation of Tree as referring to an upright person as fanciful and homiletic. Not so. The driving force behind the symbolic interpretation is the absence of an item in the See what column. This led Rashi to interpret tree as referring to a general category of protection.

In all cases the driving force behind the Rashi comment was not the meaning of words or grammar or even superfluity. Rather the driving force was the indications of table structure. Those who wish mastery in Rashi and exegesis should carefully study the above table and the Biblical text that gives rise to it.

database

When is remember Egypt used in Biblical commandments?

Class distinctions - mistreatment of widows and orphans
Spiritual impurity such as comes from sexual excesses
Business anxiety

Why mention Egypt	Verse	Text of verse
Don't mistreat orphans/widows	Dt16-11:12	And thou shalt rejoice before HaShem thy G-d, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy man-servant, and thy maid-servant, and the Levite that is within they gates, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are in the midst of thee, in the place which HaShem thy G-d shall choose to cause His name to dwell there. And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt; and thou shalt observe and do these statutes.
Avoid spiritual impurity	Nu15-39:41	And it shall be unto you for a fringe, that ye may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of HaShem, and do them; and that ye go not about after your own heart and your own eyes, after which ye use to go astray; that ye may remember and do all My commandments, and be holy unto your G-d. I am HaShem your G-d, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your G-d: I am HaShem your G-d.'
Avoid anxiety producing Business Practices	Lv19-36	Just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin, shall ye have: I am HaShem your G-d, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.

9. RASHI METHOD: SPREADSHEETS
BRIEF EXPLANATION: The common denominator of the 3 submethods of the Spreadsheet method is that inferences are made from non textual material. The 3 submethods are as follows: Spreadsheet: Rashi makes inferences of a numerical nature that can be summarized in a traditional spreadsheet Geometric: Rashi clarifies a Biblical text using descriptions of geometric diagrams Fill-ins: Rashi supplies either real-world background material or indicates real-world inferences from a verse. The emphasis here is on the real-world, non-textual nature of the material. This example applies to Rashis Nu13-21a
URL Reference: (c) http://www.Rashiyomi.com/nu13-21a.htm
Brief Summary: Spies went from SE (Tzin Dessert) to SW (Mediterranean) to NW (Mount Mount, Chamath)

Verse Nu13-17 describing Moses instructions to the spies states: And Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said unto them: 'Get you up here into the South, and go up to the Mount; Verse Nu13-21 describing the actual journey of the spies states that they went up, and spied out the land from the TZin desert unto Rehob, at the entrance to Hamath.

They traveled like the shape of the letter L They started in the SouthEast at the lower right tip of the L They journeyed on the L bottom along the south to the left tip of the L in the southwest

They then journeyed vertically upwards on the L to the NorthWest

The diagram below illustrates this diagrmatic Rashi as well as supply scriptural references for the various underlined places mentioned in the above two verses describing their journey.

	|NW Mount Mount, Chamath (Nu34-07:08)
	^
	|
	|
	^
	|
	|
	|
        ^                                               START
	-------<---------------<-----------<-------------
        SW Mediterranean (Nu34-05)           SE Tzin Desert (Nu34-03)

10. RASHI METHOD: SYMBOLISM
BRIEF EXPLANATION: Rashi provides symbolic interpretations of words, verses, and chapters. Rashi can symbolically interpret either (10a) entire Biblical chapters such as the gifts of the princes, Nu-07 (10b) individual items, verses and words The rules governingsymbolism and symbolic interpretation are presented in detail on my website.
This examples applies to Rashis Nu13-20a
URL Reference: (c) http://www.Rashiyomi.com/nu13-18a.htm
Brief Summary: TREE symoblizes an UPRIGHT person, a SPIRITUAL leader who guides the community.

We have presented the beautiful symbolism of the tree - as referring to an upright person, a spiritual (in the clouds) leader who guides the community - in rule #7 above, Formatting. We also explained there that Rashi was not simply playing the symbol game but rather formatting techniques indicated that the use of tree connoted something of broad general interest. The reader is encouraged to reread that section now. We add here that there are many scriptural verses supporting the symbolic interpretation of tree as person. One such set of verses comparing people to trees/plants occurs in Ju09-06:21. This passing is too long to cite here but an act of injustice, the selection of a rif-raf for leadership over solid family members is picturesquely compared to the reign of the thorns over the olives, dates and cedars. There are many other passages thoughout the Bible.

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