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 Ex35-14a URL Reference: (c) http://www.Rashiyomi.com/rule1406.htm Brief Summary: The phrase THE CANDELLABRAH'S UTENSILS (Ex35-14a) REFERENCES Ex25-38, listing AND ITS **tongs** AND **sweeping pans/trays**...

Verse Ex35-14a discussing the Temple Candellabrah states and the Candellabrah of Light, and her utensils and lamps Rashi notes that the underlined words, utensils references verses Ex25-38 discussing the Candellabrah utensils. Hence the Rashi comment The Candellabrah utensils mentioned in verse Ex35-14a references verse Ex25-38 which refers to the tongs and sweeping pans/trays.

Text of Target Verse Ex35-14/b>	Text of Reference Verse Ex25-38
and the Candellabrah of Light, and her utensils and lamps.	and her [the Candellabrah's] tongs and sweeping pans/trays were of pure gold.
Rashi comments: The Candellabrah utensils mentioned in verse Ex35-14a references verse Ex25-38 which refers to the tongs and sweeping pans/trays.

The special word method deals with the few dozen special connective words that exist in all languages. Familiar examples are also, when, that, if, then, all, because, only, this,.... These words are typically
• adverbs such as all,also or connective words, either
• conjunctions such as if, then, because or
• articles or demonstrative or abstract pronouns such as the, this, that or
• propositional connectives such as in,on,to,from.
Rashi's job, when he comments on a special connective words, is to enumeratively list the nuances and usages of the word.

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.

Today we deal with the Hebrew special word Ayin-Lamed,AL which can have any of the following meanings.
• on for example, Gn03-14 you, snake, will crawl, on your belly
• with for example, Ex12-09e eat the Pascal lamb with Matzoh and bitter herbs
• in for example, Ex29-03 Place the Matzoh in the basket
• to for example, 1S01-10 Channah prayed to God
• near for example, Gn18-08 Abraham stood near his guests
• after for example, Lv03-05a Offer the Peace offering after the daily offering.

Applying this rule to the translation of Ex35-22a we obtain And the men came after/with the women; as many as were willing hearted, and brought bracelets, and ear rings, and rings, and bracelets, all jewels of gold; and every man who offered offered an offering of gold to the Lord. As is our practice we have embedded the Rashi translation in the verse.

Today Hebrew grammar is well understood and there are many books on it. Rashi, however, lived before the age of grammar books. A major Rashi method is therefore the teaching of basic grammar.

Many students belittle this aspect of Rashi. They erroneously think that because of modern methods we know more. However Rashi will frequently focus on rare grammatical points not covered in conventional textbooks.

There are many classical aspects to grammar whether in Hebrew or other languages. They include
• The rules for conjugating verbs. These rules govern how you differentiate person, plurality, tense, mode, gender, mood, and designation of the objects and indirect objects of the verb. For example how do you conjugate, in any language, I sang, we will sing, we wish to sing, she sang it.
• Rules of agreement. For example agreement of subject and verb, of noun and adjective; whether agreement in gender or plurality.
• Rules of Pronoun reference.
• Rules of word sequence. This is a beautiful topic which is not always covered in classical grammatical textbooks.

Today we illustrate grammatical rules governing deliberate misspellings. The technical term for this is metaplasmus. Metaplasmus is a general literary phenomena applicable in all cultures.There are some secular scholars who consider these types of spelling puns as something read into the text by the reader. However there are other scholares who consider these types of spelling puns as intended by the author to convey meanings and nuances to the reader. In other words these other scholars consider the deliberate misspellings as the simple intended meaning of the text.

The table below presents an aligned extract of verses or verselets in Ex26-33, Ex40-03. Both verses/verselets discuss the Temple Paroceth curtain. The alignment justifies the Rashi comment that: The Paroceth curtain has two functions. (#1)(Ex26-33) It functions as a divider between the Holy of Holies, containing the Ark, containing the Torah itself, and the Holies, containing the Temple utensils such as the Candellabrah, Table and Golden altar; (#2) (Ex40-33) It functions as a protective covering protecting the Ark containing the Torah. The Paroceth itself has pictures of the child-like Keruvim symbolizing that after mastering the adult activities of knowledge (Candellabrah), earning a living (Table), and devotion to God (Golden altar), one must develop a child-like curiosity to master and protect the Torah.

Verse	Text of Verse	Rashi comment
Ex26-33	Place the paroches under the clasps [which kept the drapes together]. Bring into the space within [behind] the paroches the Ark of the Testimony,and the paroches will divide for you between the Holy and the Holy of Holies	The Paroceth curtain has two functions. (#1)(Ex26-33) It functions as a divider between the Holy of Holies, containing the Ark, containing the Torah itself, and the Holies, containing the Temple utensils such as the Candellabrah, Table and Golden altar; (#2) (Ex40-33) It functions as a protective covering protecting the Ark containing the Torah. The Paroceth itself has pictures of the child-like Keruvim symbolizing that after mastering the adult activities of knowledge (Candellabrah), earning a living (Table), and devotion to God (Golden altar), one must develop a child-like curiosity to master and protect the Torah.
Ex40-03	Place the ark of Testimony there, so that the paroches protectively covers the ark.

The table below presents two contradictory verses/verselets. Both verses/verselets speak about the requirement to wash hands and legs from the Temple Lavere. The underlined words highlight the contradiction. One verse/verselet says Aaron and his sons washed while the other verse/verselet says Moses, Aaron and his sons washed. We see the contradiction: Which is it? Was the washing a requirement only of Priests; or did Moses also participate. Rashi simply resolves this using the 2 aspects method: a) During the Priest induction ceremony, Moses performed sacrificial rituals; hence he had to wash from the Temple Lavere. The Priest induction ceremony is described in Lv08-16:21. We find there that indeed, Moses functioned as a Priest (because there were not yet other Priests); he offered sacrifices, sprinkled blood etc. Hence as just indicated he was required to wash from the Temple Lavere. b) After the Priests were inducted, Moses remained a Levite and was never required to wash from the Lavere again.

Summary	Verse / Source	Text of verse / Source
Only Priests were required to wash from the Temple Laverecalf	Ex30-19	Aharon and his sons will wash from it their hands and their feet.
Moses (once) washed from the Temple Lavere	Ex40-31	Moshe, Aharon and his sons washed their hands and feet from it
Resolution:	2 Aspects	a) During the Priest induction ceremony, Moses performed sacrificial rituals; hence he had to wash from the Temple Lavere. The Priest induction ceremony is described in Lv08-16:21. We find there that indeed, Moses functioned as a Priest (because there were not yet other Priests); he offered sacrifices, sprinkled blood etc. Hence as just indicated he was required to wash from the Temple Lavere. b) After the Priests were inducted, Moses remained a Levite and was never required to wash from the Lavere again.

Certain Biblical paragraphs are stated in a Theme-Development form. In other words a broad general idea is stated first followed by the development of this broad general theme in specific details. The Theme-Detail form creates a unified paragraph. Today's example illustrates this as shown below.

Verse Ex39-32a discussing the completion of the Temple states General: Thus was finished all the work of the tabernacle of the tent of meeting; [since]... Detail: ... the children of Israel did according to all that HaShem commanded Moses, so did they.

In the above translation we have interpolated the word since which captures the essence of Rashi's remark on a causal connection between the two verse halves. This causal relationship exhibits the general-development form: The general idea of completion is developed using the causal idea of obedience.

Advanced Rashi: There is a subtle point here: The Temple, even though it is God's house, was not built by God (compare the Midrash that God will build the 3rd Temple). Man had to participate for the Temple to be built in a timely manner.

We ask the following database query: How many temple utensils are described in the bible and how are they sequenced? The reader is encouraged to perform the query using a standard Biblical Konnkordance or search engine. This database query yields the list below. The list justifies the following Rashi-Midrashic inference: Different sequencing is used for the Temple objects. Each sequencing reflected a different ordering principle.
• The order to build reflects a sequence based on spiritual importance - for example the most important thing is acceptance of God's law symbolized by the ark.
• The actual construction reflects criteria of building importance - thus the building structures are made first, followed by critical utensils, followed by outside utensils.
• The actual building erection reflects criteria of homeowner importance - thus the building is made first, followed by the most important utensils (the ark) and their protection, followed by other utensils, followed by items outside the building/house.
The list below presents the results of the database query.

Verse Ex38-24:26 discussing the aggregate amount of silver gathered for the temple states And the silver of those who were counted of the congregation was a 100 Kikar, and a 1775 shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary; A bekah for every man, that is, 1/2 a shekel, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, for every one who went to be counted, from twenty years old and upward, for 603,550 men.

This most beautiful Rashi uses the principles of solving linear equations to derive the number of shekels per kikar. The three basic principles of solving linear equations are
• The Simplication Principle: First eliminate parenthesis by performing all necessary computations till all you have left in the equation are numbers and variables.
• The addition Principle: One can subtract or add equal amounts from each side of the equation;
• The Multiplication Principle: One can divide or multiply equal amounts from each side of the equation.

Rashi: Using these two principles we can use the above verses to calculate as follows:

Rule	How applied	Equation
Original Equation	Citation	1/2 603,550 Shekel = 100 KiKar + 1775 Shekel
Simplication	Multiply 1/2 x 603,550	301,775 Shekel = 100 KiKar + 1775 Shekel
Addition Principle	Subtract 1,775	300,000 Shekel = 100 KiKar
Multiplication Principle	Divide by 100	3,000 Shekel = 1 Kikar

Advanced Rashi: Rashi can't really be fully understood without the rules of elementary algebra. This example hi-lights the need for including non-verse methods such as the spreadsheet method in our list of rules.

We note that Rashi supplies additional historical information such as the fact that each Kikar contains 120 Maneh with each Maneh containing 25 shekel. However the maneh is not a Biblical unit of currency. However interesting Rashi's additional comment is we confine ourselves in this email newsletter to Torah-itic commentary.