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Their presence in Rashis on Parshat Noach Volume 11, Number 16 Rashi is Simple - Volume 34 Number 16 Used in the weekly Rashi-is-Simple and the Daily Rashi. Visit the RashiYomi website: http://www.Rashiyomi.com/ (c) RashiYomi Incorporated, Dr. Hendel, President, Oct 30th, 2008 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) Gn10-12a discussing Ninveh states And Resen between Nineveh and Calah; she is a great city. Rashi clarifies the underlined words she is a great city. by referencing verse(s) Yn03-03 which states And Jonah arose, and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. And Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey in extent. Hence the Rashi comment: It is Ninveh (not Resen) which is the great city.
Advanced Rashi: We can also regard this Rashi as grammatical. In Hebrew, unlike English, pronouns, refer to the most logical antecedent not necessarily to the last antecedent. Hence in the cited verse she is a big city refers to Ninveh which is known as a big city.
When Rashi uses the synonym method he does not explain the meaning of a word but rather the distinction between two similar words both of whose meanings we already know.
In either case a MaBuL, flood is named as a natural disaster, something that mixes up items and uproots them and brings them elsewhere.
Rashi lived before the era of Grammatical textbooks. Hence one of his functions was to teach the rules of grammatical conjugation similar to modern textbooks. A fundamental principle in all languages is agreement. Subjects and verbs must agree in gender and plurality. Sometimes langauge achieve special effects by violating subject-verb agreement. For example, using a feminine gender with a masculine subject could hint at helplessness. Today we use the rule that a plural subject using a single verb indicates that the first mentioned subject instigated the action and the others followed along. Verse Gn09-23a discussing how two of Noach's children covered his nakedness while drunk states And Shem and Japheth [he] took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father's nakedness. Rashi commenting on the plural subject and single verb states: Shem was the more religious one and instigated the action of covering up their naked father. Yefet was interested in beauty and didn't particularly care if Noach was naked but followed along when Shem asked him to help out.
The table below presents an aligned extract of verses or verselets in Gn10-21c, Gn10-02, Gn10-06 Both verses/verselets discuss the genealogies of Noah's children: The alignment justifies the Rashi comment that: After Cham degraded his father, Shem and Yefeth hung out with each other and avoided Cham.
Advanced Rashi: The Rashi comment is focused on the fact that, as the underlined phrase
shows, Shem is called Yefet's brother (but not Cham's brother). Rashi bases his interpretation of this
omission - that Shem and Cham hung out together but not with Cham - by referencing the degradation of
Noach presented in Gn09-20:29.
The table below presents two contradictory verses / verse phrases. Both verses / verse phrases talk about the patriarchal ancestor of the Philistines. The underlined words highlight the contradiction. One verse / verse phrase says Pasrusim is the ancestor while the other verse / verse phrase says the contemporary Casluchim is the ancestor. Which is it? Is the true patriarchal ancestor Pasrusim or Casluchim? Rashi simply resolves this using the Broad-literal method: Pasrusim and Casluchim played wife exchanges. Hence (out of doubt) Philistines are said to descend from both!
Advanced Rashi: What do we call this Rashi resolution the broad-literal method. Because a person can only have one paternal ancestor. However in cases of doubt we broadly call both possible parents the proper ancestor. Hence, here, since the two ancestors exchanged wives, we use a broad interpretation to indicate that both were ancestors.
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.
Rashi generalizes the detail clause man, cattle, creeping things, birds as illustrative of the general clause, land, earth and states: Fish did not die. We believe this comment evident and consistent with the Rabbi Ishmael style guidelines. We note in passing that the word upright thing in the first general clause could imply land-based plant life which was also destroyed.
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. Verse Gn07-09b discussing the number of animals coming to Noah's ark states There went in two two to Noah into the ark, the male and female, as God had commanded Noah. The repeated underlined word phrase two two indicates an unspecified emphasis. Rashi translates this unspecified emphasis as at least two. That is Rashi translates the verse as follows: There went in at least two to Noah into the ark, the male and female, as God had commanded Noah. In other words At least two came from every species. Certain species however may have had more than two.
Today we ask the database query: What does the number 40 symbolize? The query uncovers 5 examples. An examination of these examples justifies the Rashi assertion that 40 symbolizes an EMBRYONIC period during which development to new horizons can take place. The table below presents results of the query along with illustrations of Rashi's comment.
Advanced Rashi: Rashi literally says: 40 days of flood corresponding to the 40 days in which the foetus is formed. They sinned by burdening God to create foetii to adulterous unions and were punished with 40 days of flood. My opinion is that the major driving force behind the Rashi is the database query which shows that in general 40 corresponds to an embryonic development to a new horizon. I therefore regard Rashi as adding another nuance to the 40 days applicable to this particular case, the flood. Rashi points out that the embryo takes 40 days to develop. Rashi further shows the Divine Justice in the irony that the 40 days during which embryos from adulterous unions were being produced corresponded to the 40 days of punishment. We however regard this Rashi comment as secondary and the above database analysis as primary. Very frequently Rashi will rely on the teacher to present primary meaning and will suffice with indicating an unexpected seconday nuance. I beleive this is the proper way to take this Rashi.
Rashi will sometimes comment on a verse by giving us background from real world production processes. We call such Rashi comments, NonVerse. They are similar to exegetical comments presented by archaeologists.
Today we ask the database query: What does the number 40 symbolize? The query uncovers 5 examples. An examination of these examples justifies the Rashi assertion that 40 symbolizes an EMBRYONIC period during which development to new horizons can take place. The table below presents results of the query along with illustrations of Rashi's comment.
Advanced Rashi: Rashi literally says: 40 days of flood corresponding to the 40 days in which the foetus is formed. They sinned by burdening God to create foetii to adulterous unions and were punished with 40 days of flood. My opinion is that the major driving force behind the Rashi is the database query which shows that in general 40 corresponds to an embryonic development to a new horizon. I therefore regard Rashi as adding another nuance to the 40 days applicable to this particular case, the flood. Rashi points out that the embryo takes 40 days to develop. Rashi further shows the Divine Justice in the irony that the 40 days during which embryos from adulterous unions were being produced corresponded to the 40 days of punishment. We however regard this Rashi comment as secondary and the above database analysis as primary. Very frequently Rashi will rely on the teacher to present primary meaning and will suffice with indicating an unexpected seconday nuance. I beleive this is the proper way to take this Rashi.
Conclusion
This week's parshah contains examples of all Rashi methods. This concludes this weeks edition. Visit the RashiYomi website at http://www.Rashiyomi.com for further details and examples. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||