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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.
Verse(s)
Dt26-18:19
discussing
the choseness of the Jewish people
states
And the Lord has declared you this day to be his special people, as he has promised you, and that ...
And to set you high above all nations ... and that you may be a holy people to the Lord your God, as he has spoken.
Rashi clarifies the underlined words
to make you a holy nation...as he promised/said
by referencing verse(s)
Ex19-06, Lv20-26
discussing
the holy status of the Jewish people
which states
And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. These are the words which you shall speak to the people of Israel.
...
And you shall be holy to me; for I the Lord am holy, and have separated you from other people, that you should be mine.
Hence the Rashi comment:
The Biblical statement Dt26-18:19 that God has made you
today a holy nation as he said references the explicit
statements in Ex19-06, Lv20-06 that God has chosen the
Jews to become a holy nation unto him.
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Text of Target verse
Dt26-18:19
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Text of Reference Verse
Ex19-06, Lv20-26
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And the Lord has declared you this day to be his special people, as he has promised you, and that ...
And to set you high above all nations ... and that you may be a holy people to the Lord your God, as he has spoken.
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And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. These are the words which you shall speak to the people of Israel.
...
And you shall be holy to me; for I the Lord am holy, and have separated you from other people, that you should be mine.
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Rashi comments:
The Biblical statement Dt26-18:19 that God has made you
today a holy nation as he said references the explicit
statements in Ex19-06, Lv20-06 that God has chosen the
Jews to become a holy nation unto him.
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Advanced Rashi:
An unusual feature of this reference
method is that the idea of reference is explicit
since the verse uses a citation style and explicitly
says as he promised, as he said.
When Rashi uses, what we may losely call, the hononym method, Rashi
does not explain new meaning but rather shows an underlying unity in disparate
meanings. Rashi will frequently do this by showing an underlying unity in
the varied meanings of a Biblical root.
In my article
Peshat and Derash found on the world wide web at
http://www.Rashiyomi.com/rashi.pdf.
I advocate enriching the Rashi explanation
using a technique of parallel nifty translations in modern English. Today's examples
show this.
The Hebrew root Yud-Resh-Dalet means both
to fall and to conquer. The relation of these
two meanings should be clear. When you beat a person up
they typically fall to the ground. Similarly when you defeat
or destroy a city its buildings typically are felled to the gound.
We apply the above to verse Dt20-20.
If we translated Yud-Resh-Dalet as meaning fall then we would translate
the verse as follows:
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 has fallen.
Already the Davka translation of this verse which I frequently use
in this email list translates the Hebrew root Yud-Resh-Dalet as meaning
subdue.
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.
Conquered could be an alternate translation,
In a similar manner we would translate Dt28-52a as
And he shall besiege you in all your gates,
until your high and fortified walls, on which you rely throughout all your land,
are conquered.... Interestingly the Davka translation we use
translates using fallen. However Rashi's translation is more
precise. Obviously if you conquer a nation you want to use it, not destroy it,
and therefore the fortified walls would not all fall but rather be conquered.
Most people are aware that Hebrew verbs
come from three-letter roots. Each root is
conjugated in the 8 dimensions of
person, gender,plurality, tense, activity,
modality, direct-object, and prepositional connective. For example
the root Shin Mem Resh means to watch.
The conjugations Shin-Mem-Resh-Tauv-Yud
and Nun-Shin-Mem-Resh-Nun-Vav mean
I watched and we were watched respectively.
The rules for Hebrew grammar are carefully described
in many modern books and are well known. Rashi will sometimes comment when a verse is using a rare conjugation
of an odd grammatical form.
When presenting grammatical Rashis my favorite
reference is the appendix in volume 5 of the Ibn Shoshan
dictionary. This very short appendix lists most
conjugations.
We should emphasize that the great 19th century commentator,
Malbim, introduced the powerful grammatical observation that
the same root can change meaning solely based on the prepositional
connectives used with it. From time to time we present intriguing
examples illustrating this rule.
The Hebrew root Mem-Caph-Resh means, in the interactive
mode (Hitpael) to disguise. However when combined with the preposition Lamed meaning to
the combination means to fawn appearance.
Hence we translate Dt28-52 as follows
And the Lord shall bring you into Egypt...
and there you shall fawn slave appearance to your enemies
but no man shall buy you [because they will prefer
to murder you].
This verse is analyzed in 3,5 and 9.
- In rule 3 we explain that the root Mem-Caph-Resh means to fawn appearance.
- In rule 5 we further support this translation of the root Mem-Caph-Resh
by showing that this root couldn't mean to sell
or to attempt to sell because it states explicitly no one will by you.
- In rule 9 we explain why no one buys you: because your
enemies prefer to kill you.
The table below presents an aligned extract of verses or verselets
in
Dt27-12, Dt27-13.
Both verses/verselets
discuss
the ceremony of blessings and curses on Mount Gerizim and Ayval
The alignment justifies the Rashi comment that:
It was the Levites who said the curses and blessings.
(Dt27-14 explicitly states
And the Levites shall responsively speak, and say to all the men of Israel with a loud voice, cursed...
)
The tribes did not say them but stood on their respective mountains
However by answering Amen the tribes affirmed and participated
in the blessings and curses. Hence the double verse language:
The tribes stand on the curse and bless to the people.
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Verse
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Text of Verse
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Rashi comment
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Dt27-12
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These shall stand upon Mount Gerizim to bless the people, when you are come over the Jordan; Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Joseph, and Benjamin
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It was the Levites who said the curses and blessings.
(Dt27-14 explicitly states
And the Levites shall responsively speak, and say to all the men of Israel with a loud voice, cursed...
)
The tribes did not say them but stood on their respective mountains
However by answering Amen the tribes affirmed and participated
in the blessings and curses. Hence the double verse language:
stand on the curse and bless to the people.
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Dt27-14
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And these shall stand upon Mount Ebal on the curse; Reuben, Gad, and Asher, and Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali.
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The table below presents
two contradictory verses.
Both verses talk about
the mistreatment of Jews in the exile.
The underlined words highlight the contradiction.
One verse says
you will sell yourself
while the other verse says
there will be no buyers.
Which is it?
Did they sell themselves or note.
Rashi simply resolves this using the
broad-literal
method:
The root Mem-Caph-Resh can mean
(a) to sell (b) to disguise (c) to fawn
appearance. [We know that when the root
is conjugated in the interactive (hitpael)
mode it means to disguise. Furthermore when
the root is conjugated in the interactive mode
(hitpael) and uses the preposition Lamed
meaning to it means to fawn appearance.
So we know that in this verse the proper translation
is to fawn appearance.] We further know that the
root Mem-Caph-Resh cannot mean sell here
since the end of the verse says there are no buyers.
[Also, the verse couldn't mean you will desire/attempt
to sell yourselves but there are no buyers because
the so called jussive/cohortative mode (connoting
intent and desire) would require, in
Hebrew, a terminal hey, added to the conjugated root.]
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Summary
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Verse / Source
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Text of verse / Source
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The Jews sold themselves as slaves
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Dt28-68
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And the Lord shall bring you into Egypt ... and there you shall be sold to your enemies for male and female slaves,
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There were no buyers
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Dt28-68
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. but no man shall buy you.
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Resolution:
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Broad-Literal
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The root Mem-Caph-Resh can mean
(a) to sell (b) to disguise (c) to fawn
appearance. [We know that when the root
is conjugated in the interactive (hitpael)
mode it means to disguise. Furthermore when
the root is conjugated in the interactive mode
(hitpael) and uses the preposition Lamed
meaning to it means to fawn appearance.
So we know that in this verse the proper translation
is to fawn appearance.] We further know that the
root Mem-Caph-Resh cannot mean sell here
since the end of the verse says there are no buyers.
[Also, the verse couldn't mean you will desire/attempt
to sell yourselves but there are no buyers because
the so called jussive/cohortative mode (connoting
intent and desire) would require, in
Hebrew, a terminal hey, added to
the conjugated verb.]
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So the improper translation of the verse is as follows:
And the Lord shall bring you into Egypt again with ships,
...
and there you shall be sold to your enemies
for male and female slaves, but noone will buy you.
The proper translation of the verse is as follows:
And the Lord shall bring you into Egypt again with ships,
...
and there you shall fawn slave appearance to your enemies
but no man will buy you [because they will prefer to kill you.]
In providing this translation we have applied rules 2,3,5. and 9 Note the
poetic acuity, linguistic freshness, and punchiness of the Rashi translation
over the traditional English translations which is both grammatically inaccurate
and wordy.
This verse is analyzed in 3,5 and 9.
- In rule 3 we explain that the root Mem-Caph-Resh means to fawn appearance.
- In rule 5 we further support this translation of the root Mem-Caph-Resh
by showing that this root couldn't mean to sell
or to attempt to sell because it states explicitly no one will by you.
- In rule 9 we explain why no one buys you: because your
enemies prefer to kill you.
Certain Biblical paragraphs are stated in a Theme-Development-Theme form.
In other words a broad general idea is stated first followed by the development
of this broad general theme in specific details. The paragraph-like unit is then
closed with a repetition of the broad theme.
The Theme-Detail-Theme form creates a unified paragraph.
The detailed section of this paragraph is therefore seen as
an extension of the general theme sentences.
Today's example illustrates
this as shown immediately below.
Verses Dt29-03:06
discussing
the lack of full appreciation of God's many gifts
is written in a theme-detail-theme form as shown below:
- General: Yet the Lord has not given you a heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, until this day.
- Detail: And I have led you forty years in the wilderness;
- Detail: your clothes are not worn old upon you, and
- Detail:your shoe is not worn old upon your foot.
- Detail:You have not eaten bread,
- Detail:neither have you drunk wine or strong drink; that you might know that I am the Lord your God.
- General: And when you came to this place, Sihon the king of Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, came out against us to battle, and we defeated them;
The Rabbi Ishmael guidelines interpret the theme-development-theme format
as describing a unified paragraph with the development clauses developing the
theme sentence. The overall paragraph therefore states It is only now
that you are attacked by Sihon that you fully appreciate the 40 years of
favors - provision of clothing, shoes, and food - that God has bestowed upon you.
Until now you took these favors for granted; but now,
after the military attack and salvation by God, you understand them in the
context of your vulnerability.
Both the Biblical and modern author use the
paragraph as a vehicle for indicating
commonality of theme. Hence if two ideas are in
a paragraph they may be assumed to have a similar
context.
The reader will no doubt recognize this formatting rule
as none other than the most intuitive of the Rabbi Ishmael style
rules which orthodox Jews recite every day as part of their daily
prayer: the rule of inference from context. Today's
example illustrates this.
There are three broad methods of paragraph unity:
- cause-effect
- contrast
- unifying theme with multiple effects
Verses Dt29-01:08 have the following contrastive paragraph structure:
- Now that you see your vulnerability, you
fully appreciate that God is good to you;
- General: Yet the Lord has not given you a heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, until this day.
- Detail: And I have led you forty years in the wilderness;
- Detail: your clothes are not worn old upon you, and
- Detail:your shoe is not worn old upon your foot.
- Detail:You have not eaten bread,
- Detail:neither have you drunk wine or strong drink; that you might know that I am the Lord your God.
- General: And when you came to this place, Sihon the king of Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, came out against us to battle, and we defeated them;
And we took their land, and gave it for an inheritance to the Reubenites, and to the Gadites, and to half the tribe of Manasseh.
- Contrastively,now that you have received all this good, you shouldn't think
you have everything, but rather, all the more so, especially observe God's law.
- Keep therefore the words of this covenant, and do them, that you may prosper in all that you do.
Advanced Rashi: Rashi makes two separate comments,
corresponding to the components of the above paragraph analysis.
- Rashi first makes the overall contrastive comment: Now that you
have all these gifts from God do not rebel but watch his words.
- Although you were receiving gifts from God for 40 years you did not
fully appreciate it in the context of your vulnerability untill Sihon attacked you.
Rashi's first comment corresponds to the contrast of the outer
bullets - you have received good, so be careful to observe.
Rashi's second comment corresponds to the Theme-Development-Theme
structure of the first paragraph component (Which was fully analyzed
in rule #6, Style above.)
Today we ask the database query:
Are there special circumstances which especially justify
warning the Jewish people against possible apostasy and
desertion of God.
The query uncovers
half a dozen major
examples.
An examination of these
examples justifies the Rashi assertion that
A recurring theme in Deuteronomy is the
association of material saiety with warnings
against desertion of God. Moments of saiety
make one particularly vulnerable to feelings of
haughtiness and self sufficiency which necessitate
these warnings.
The table below presents results of the query
along with illustrations of Rashi's comment.
| Verse
| Verse Content Saiety
| Verse
| Verse Content Warning
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| Dt06-11
| And houses full of all good things, which you did not fill, and wells dug, which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees, which you did not plant; when you shall have eaten and be satiated;
| Dt06-12
| beware lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery.
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| Dt08-12:13
| Beware lest when you have eaten and are satiated, and have built goodly houses, and lived there;
And when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied;
| Dt08-14
| And your heart be lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery;
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| Dt11-15
| And I will send grass in your fields for your cattle, that you may eat and be satiated.
| Dt11-16
| Beware for yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and you turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them
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| Dt31-20
| For when I shall have brought them into the land which I swore to their fathers, that flows with milk and honey; and they shall have eaten and satiated....
| Dt31-20
| then will they turn to other gods, and serve them, and provoke me, and break my covenant.
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| Dt29-01:07
| And Moses called to all Israel, and said to them, You have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt ...
And I have led you forty years in the wilderness; your clothes are not worn old upon you, and your shoe is not worn old upon your foot...
...
And when you came to this place, Sihon the king of Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, came out against us to battle, and we defeated them;
...
| Dt29-08
| Keep therefore the words of this covenant, and do them, that you may prosper in all that you do.
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Advanced Rashi:
Several comments are worth mentioning.
- This database query originates in the Midrash Rabbah.
Rashi as is his custom did not cite the entire study.
He rather in various places points to an association of
saiety and warning. However the serious student enriches his
Rashi experience by researching and reviewing all relevant examples
of the query.
- The last example Dt29-01:08 does not explicitly associate
saiety and warning against apostasy but rather associates military victory with
an exhortation to observe.
Thus this last example is not as forceful as the other
examples. This is typical of any Database query. There is a core
set of examples which form the basis for the inference. However once
the inference is reached it can be applied to other verses. In this case
once we had a core of several examples showing the relationship between saity and
warning we are justified in seeing any verses connoting material saity and
exhortation of performance as illustrative of this general principle.
Verse Dt28-68 discussing the helpless plight of the Jews in
exiled lands states
And the Lord shall bring you into Egypt again ...
and there you shall fawn slave appearance to to your enemies
but no man shall buy you [because they will prefer
to murder you].
The Rashi comment on the verse text no man shall buy you
is Because they will prefer to kill you. This Rashi comment
is not textual but logical; Rashi is explaining how it happens
that no one wants to buy you; because they wish to kill you instead.
Because Rashi's comment supplements the verse meaning with real world
facts we classify this Rashi comment as exemplifying the non verse method.
This verse is analyzed in 3,5 and 9.
- In rule 3 we explain that the root Mem-Caph-Resh means to fawn appearance.
- In rule 5 we further support this translation of the root Mem-Caph-Resh
by showing that this root couldn't mean to sell
or to attempt to sell because it states explicitly no one will by you.
- In rule 9 we explain why no one buys you: because your
enemies prefer to kill you.
Military activity is often vigorously described
using animal metaphors. Here we use the symbolism
principle that items can symbolize their function.
Examples are plentiful
- Nu24-09 states
He couched, he lay down as a
lion, and as a great
lion. Who shall stir him up? Blessed is he who blesses you, and cursed is he who curses you.
- Jr05-06 states
Therefore a lion from the forest shall slay them,
and a wolf of the deserts shall destroy them,
a leopard shall watch over their cities;
every one who goes out there shall be torn in pieces; because their transgressions are many, and their apostasies are great.
- Jr46-12 states
Her sound is like that of a serpent on the move;
for they shall march with force, and come against
her with axes, like wood cutters.
- Dt01-44a states
And the Amorites,
who lived in that mountain,
came out against you,
and chased you,
as bees do,
and destroyed you in Seir, even unto Hormah.
- Dt28-49a states
The Lord shall bring a nation against you from far,
from the end of the earth, which will swoop down like the griffen vulture; a nation whose tongue you shall not understand;
The interpreter's task is to identify the unique military
characteristics of each animal. Rashi commenting on the last
verse Dt28-49a states
The military characteristics of the griffin vulture are that
it attacks suddently and swoops down on its prey quickly.
This week's parshah does not contain examples of the database method.
This concludes this weeks edition.
Visit the RashiYomi website at
http://www.Rashiyomi.com
for further details and examples.
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