|
Their presence in Rashis on Parshat ChuKaTh Vol 7, # 2 - Adapted from Rashi-is-Simple Visit the RashiYomi website: http://www.Rashiyomi.com/ (c) RashiYomi Incorporated, Dr. Hendel, President, Jun - 22, - 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.
Using the verses below, which discuss the rights of the Amonite people and the names of their cities, Rashi clarifies that The border city of Amon was named brazen because Amon is protected by prophecy. The protection by prophecy confers a brazen status on this border city - the people are assured it will not leave them. Read the verses yourself and experience the joy of independently deriving the Rashi comment.
Further Resources: The above table clearly shows the Rashi reference method. The meaning of the studied target verse is clarified by the cross reference. The underlined phrases hilight what is clarified. The Rashi comment column summarizes the illumination of the underlined words through the cross referenced verses. If you as a teacher, teacher aid, Rabbi, or student wish to review other examples of the reference method visit http://www.RashiYomi.com/reference-question.htm and http://www.RashiYomi.com/reference-question.htm.
There are about half a dozen examples of naming by feel in the rest of the Bible in Numbers and Deuteronomy. Today we start slowly. Rashi explains that a snake bite is called a burn because of the burning feeling associated with it. English has a similar etymology - its refers to certain wounds as burns. Over the next few months we will further develop this set of examples into a full table. Verse Nu21-06 illustrates this usage: And HaShem sent burning serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.
A well known conjugation rule in all languages is the distinction between a noun and a verb. Hebrew has such distinctions also. The noun-verb distinction has well known philosophical connotations: Verbs typically require time to develop while nouns are static. We shall use this philosophical distinction to enhance the Rashi comment. Verse Nu20-03c discussing the rebellious request of the Jews, that they would have rather died in a plague, then die by starvation, states And the people strove with Moses, and spoke, saying: 'Would that we had died during the national death before HaShem! The Rashi comment on the underlined words is a technical comment in Hebrew but the gist of it is that The Bible uses the noun form - national death - versus the verb form - the dying of the nation. For those more familiar with Hebrew Rashi distinguishes between BiG-Vo-Ah (verb-to die) and BiG-VaH (noun-death). Sermonic Points: The use of a noun vs. a verb paints a picture of psychological state. The verb denotes process while the noun denotes instantatiety, The desert Jews feared ...to die...a process of death; they instead wanted death the instantatiety of immediate death. The Jews wanted to get it over with and have it end. Because of their Egptian experience they were afraid of anything involving a process.
Notice how the structure of each table-row is the same. Two confronting nations each have their own source of strength. The alignment heightens this contrast. By using the aligned structure we are able to participate and empathize with Rashi in construction of the Rashi comment.
The table below presents presents two contradictory verses. Both verses speak about the request for peace when Israel passed by Sichon's land. The underlined words highlight the contradiction. But one verse says Moses sent the delegates while the other verse says Israel sent the delegates. Which is it? Did Moses send delegates or did the Jewish people send delegates?
Rashi resolves this contradiction using the 2aspects method. Moses, as leader, has 2 aspects: He can be represented both by himself and by his delegates. By using the table structure with underlines we are able to participate and empathize with Rashi in construction of the Rashi comment.
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. We illustrate this using verse Nu21-15 which we present in modern bulleted notation. The repeating keywords indicating the bulleted structure are underlined.
Advanced Rashi: We recap how this bullet method works. The verse could have said the Egyptians dealt ill with us and our fathers. But instead the verse repeats the connective keyword with: The Egyptians dealt ill with us and with our forefathers. This repeated keyword, according to our theory creates a bullet effect. The bullet effect demands distinct interpretation to each bulleted item. Hence the two Rashi comments explaining how the Egyptians caused anguish to both us and our forefathers. The actual Rashi comment states From this verse we infer that the Patriarchs suffer in their grave when their children suffer. We have interpreted this to mean The Patriarchs prophetically saw our sufferings and thereby suffered with us. We have elastically interpreted the phrase in their grave to refer to prophetical awareness. We are not denying that the Partriarchs after their death are aware of the suffering of the Jews. We are simply adding an extra dimension of plausibility to accompany the bold Rashi comment. Such additions to Rashi enrich the Rashi experience and facilitate focusing on the underlying driving force in Rashi.
Today we ask the database query: Does the Bible use puns in its Biblical commandments. The query uncovers several commandments which use puns. They are listed in the table below. Since puns are an example of symbolism this table will be repeated in rule #10, Symbolism, below.
_________________
' | |
' | Emori |
' | |
' |___ ________|
' | | E
' | |
' | |
' | | D F
' |Arnon|<--------
Zered C
-------------------- ^
| N | |
|W Moab E | |
| S | ^
|------------------| |
|
| B
OVOTH------>--------->Eyay Avarim
A
Already, in rule #8, Databases we have showed that the Bible uses puns to reaffirm Biblical commandments. The table below summarizes several unexpected puns reinforcing serious commandments.
Sermonic Points: Many people consider puns childish and silly. The Bible however considered them useful. Puns are a powerful way of reinforcing and getting across a point.
Conclusion
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. |