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Their presence in Rashis on Parshat MiKetZ Volume 13, Number 19 Rashi is Simple - Volume 36 Number 19 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, Dec 18th 2009 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 Gn43-14d discussing Jacob's hopes to get back his children states And God Almighty give you mercy before the man, that he may send away your other brother, and Benjamin. If I be bereaved of my children, then I am bereaved. Rashi notes that the underlined words, your other brother references verse Gn42-36 discussing the imprisonment of Shimon. Hence the Rashi comment The verse statement Gn43-14 God will send your other brother and Benjamin references verse Gn42-36 which discusses the imprisonment of Shimon.
Advanced Rashi: Actually both Shimon and Joseph were other brothers that were missing. Furthermore, at least in one case Rashi saw an unconscious hint in a verse to the restoration of Joseph (Gn43-08a: Judah's statement We will live refers to the restoration of all including Joseph. In fact Rashi takes Gn43-14e, God will send your other brother as referring to Joseph also!) However the important point to emphasize is that Shimon was imprisoned Gn42-24 and Shimon was returned Gn43-23. Furthermore as indicated in Gn42-38 Jacob was too depressed to think about the restoration of Joseph. Hence Rashi emphasizes that other brother mainly refers to Shimon. In fact this suggests that Rashi's main point was Even though we have interpreted other verses as referring or hinting to the restoration of Joseph we must interpret this verse as referring solely to the restoration of Shimon (Since Jacob was depressed and this was the issue at hand.)
The most famous example of the special word method is the Hebrew word Kaph Yud which can mean because, that, when, perhaps, rather, if. Sometimes Rashi explicitly gives all meanings of a connective word as happens with Kaph Yud while at other times Rashi does not give all meanings at once. In such a case the Rashi student must gather all the meanings together from various places. One can classify the special word method as either a meaning sub-method or grammar sub-method.
Advanced Rashi: The word Please is a special type of connective word, it is an interjection. An interjection, unlike other words, does not have specific meaning but rather is used to indicate emotions of the speaker. The word please indicates that the speaker is in a supplicatory state. Its use in English is well known and its Biblical usage is almost identical.
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. One of the challenges of learning Hebrew grammar is understanding the meaning or meanings associated with the various conjugational modes. There are four approaches to interpreting the Hebrew hitpael grammatical mode. Rashi's approach to the hitpael is that it means interactive. Hence the hitpael form of the root Gimel-Lamed-Lamed, to roll, would mean to interactively roll [accusations] on us. Using this grammatical translation Rashi translates Gn43-18d as follows: And the men were afraid, because they were brought into Joseph’s house; and they said, We are brought in because of the money that was returned in our sacks at the first time; that he may seek to interactively roll accusations on us and fall upon us, and take us for slaves, and our asses. Here the connotation is to pick on someone, to find fault with them, and to interactively use everything they say against them.
The table below presents an aligned extract of verses or verselets in Gn43-02b, Gn24-22. Both verses/verselets discuss the completion of something as indicated by the Hebrew root, Caph-Lamed-Hey, Cillah. The alignment justifies the Rashi comment that: The Hebrew root, Caph-Lamed-Hey, Cillah can mean a) using something up or b) completing/finishing something. Hence the same root is translated in Gn43-02b as when they used up the food while in Gn24-22 it is translated as when the camels completed drinking.
Advanced Rashi: Rashi's point - of the two translations - can be emphasized further: The intent of Gn24-22 is not when the Camels used up all water in the well. Similarly the intent of Gn43-02 is not when they finished eating. As a matter of style Rashi, as a pedagogic method, will sometimes emphasize an exaggerated poor translation. The shock value of the poor translation facilitates remembering Rashi's point. We have also provided above a more modern descriptive approach.
The table below presents two contradictory verses/verselets. Both verses speak about grabbing things for a journey. The underlined words highlight the contradiction. One verselet says they grabbed LaQaX this gift and they grabbed LaQaX a double portion of money while the other verselet states They had Benjamin accompany LaQaX them. We see the contradiction---was Benjamin grabbed for the journey or did he accompany them. If he accompanied why is the same Hebrew root LaQaX used? Rashi simply resolves this using the 2 Meanings method: The Hebrew root LaQaX refers to a) physical grabbing of objects as well as to b) verbal requests for accompanying of people.
Advanced Rashi: It is interesting that althought the Hebrew root LaQaX is repeated in the verse, the same occurrence of LaQaX is used to refer both to the double portion of money and Benjamin. This is an unusual grammatical construction: A single verb with a double object with the verb changing meaning - grabbing vs. taking/accompaniment - depending on the object. Rashi literally emphasizes that people are verbally requested however I have also emphasized the concept of accompaniment.
Certain Biblical paragraphs are stated in a example form. In other words an example of a law is stated rather than the full general rule. The reader's task is to generalize the example. The idea that all Biblical laws should be perceived as examples (unless otherwise indicated) is explicitly stated by Rashi (Pesachim 6.). This is a rule of style since the rule requires that a text be perceived as an example rather than interpreted literally. The Rabbi Ishmael style rules govern the interpretation of style. Verse Gn43-30a discussing Joseph's reaction after seeing his brother Benjamin after 17 years states And Joseph hurried - because his feelings churned towards his brother and he wanted to cry - and he went towards a room and cried there. The Rabbi Ishmael example rule requires generalization of this passage. In this case we simply generalize from feelings churned towards his brother to examples of these feelings such as reciprocal feelings and conversations from Benjamin to Joseph, for example, Benjamin could have explained how each of his 10 children were named after his missing brother. Advanced Rashi: Rashi literally says that Benjamin explained the names of each of his 10 children and how they related to Joseph's absence. For example one child was named head since Joseph was the head/oldest brother; another child was named swallow because they claimed that Joseph was swallowed by a wild animal. It is important to emphasize Rashi's approach. Rashi follows Biblical style and sees the churning of emotions and the crying as examples of a more general phenomena. It is perfectly consistent with Biblical style to fill in details and explain supplementary sources for these emotions not explicitly given by the Biblical text. I have to emphasize that the reader is expected to see these details as if they are actually in the text. This is analagous to Ex21-35 when an owned ox gores a friends ox.... Clearly this law applies whether an ox or any other animal damages and applies whether the ox gores the ox of a friend or distant person. It is a matter of Biblical style that the Bible talks this way - it speaks in examples and expects the reader to generalize.
The Format rule governs all forms that convey meaning. An important part of the format rule are the forms governing unspecificed emphasis. Unspecified emphasis, is indicated in English, by bold, italics and underline; it is indicated in Hebrew by word repetition.
Advanced Rashi: In the preceding list we have given two forms indicating the fortiori argument. The forms are indicated by the underlined words: Behold...so how and was it not. Rashi cites the Midrash Rabbah which states This, Gn44-08, is one of the 10 fortioris mentioned in the Bible. But it is easy to find alot more than 10 fortioris in the Bible. I would therefore interpret this Midrash Rabbah to mean This, Gn44-08, with the behold-so how form, is one of the 10 fortiori forms mentioned in the Bible. In other words the Midrash Rabbah is not claiming there are 10 fortioris in the Bible but rather they are claiming there are 10 forms indicating fortiori in the Bible. We will not list these 10 forms now but as we go through the Biblical cycle we will have a chance to add more. We have indicated two forms in the above list. In the above list we have reverseed the verse sequence in the citation from 2C32-11:12. The reversal simply makes the exposition smoother.
Verse Gn44-13a discussing the return of the brothers to Egypt after their donkeys were unloaded and searched states And they rent their clothes, and each man laded his donkey, and returned to the city. Rashi explains the real-world connotations of the underlined words: The emphasis that each man ladeled his donkey emphasizes that each of the brothers was strong and physically independent since they were capable of ladeling a donkey by themselves.
We are all familiar with the basic idea of Pharoh's dreams. Pharoh dreamt of 7 thin cows devouring 7 plump cows. Joseph symbolically interpreted this to mean that 7 years of starvation would come and make people forget the 7 years of plenty which had preceded them. In the table below we provide a linear symbolic translation of Pharoh's dream and its interpretation.
Advanced Rashi: The above table uses the so called linear translation method. This method was introduced (or popularized) by Rabbi Dr. Benjamin Sharfman in his Linear Translation of the Bible and Rashi. Rabbi Sharfman's linear translation is still very popular among those who are beginners in learning Rashi. Rabbi Sharfman was in fact Rabbi of my synaggoue when I was young and I spent many enjoyable Shabbath afternoons listening to his very lucid explanations of Rashi.
Conclusion
This week's special issue contains no examples of the grammar, alignment, style, format Rashi methods. Visit the RashiYomi website at http://www.Rashiyomi.com for further details and examples. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||