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Their presence in Rashis on Parshat EyKeV Volume 14, Number 25 This weeks Weekly Rashi with Hebrew/English source tables Is accessible at http://www.Rashiyomi.com/rule1425.htm (c) RashiYomi Incorporated, Dr. Hendel, President, July 29th, 2010 Visit the Rashi website http://www.Rashiyomi.com 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. Although I frequently use my own English translations of biblical verses and Rashi comments, the Hebrew and English translations in the source tables are derived from online parshah files at chabad.org who in turn acknowledges the Judaica Press Complete Tanach, copyright by Judaica Press.
Verse(s) Dt11-22b discussing the obligation to walk in God's ways states For if you shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you, to do them, to love the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, and to hold fast to him. Rashi clarifies the underlined words to walk in all his ways by referencing verse(s) Ex33-18 - Ex34-06:07 discussing Moses' request to God to show Moses God's ways and God's 13 attributes of mercy, that is God's response to Moses, and which states And he (Moses) said, 'Please show me Your (God's) ways'.... And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the childrens children, to the third and to the fourth generation Hence the Rashi comment: The ways of God, in which we were commanded to walk, are the 13 personality traits of God shown to Moses in response to his request to know God's ways.
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 our article Peshat and Derash: A New Intuitive and Logical Approach, which can be found on the world-wide-web at http://www.Rashiyomi.com/rashi.pdf we have advocated punchy translations of Biblical verses as a means of presenting Rashi comments. The following translation of verse Gn47-25c:26 embeds the Rashi translation VeLiMadTem means habituate. Habituate your children in them [in Torah laws] till their [conversation] citations are in them [whether] while in your house or while on the road or while preparing for sleep or while getting up. Advanced Rashi: Just to recap lamad vs. shinun emphasizes habituation and integeration within the personality (rather than just mere expertise). Furthermore the verse emphasizes ...in order that their citations should be in them. Because of these two factors we feel that the proper translation is habituate them...to cite them in their daily conversations. Here is a punchy way of illustrating the verse. If I sit down to a meal and someone gives a Torah thought we have not fulfilled the idea of habituation ...conversation. But if during the meal whenever someone wants to make a point they use a Talmudic or Biblical idiom then the conversations are habitually Torah. This examples shows the Torah ideal of learning. It is a process which engulfs the entire daily activities - it is not something external that you bring in on specific occasions.
Verse Dt07-23a, discussing the aid God gives the Jews in conquering Israel, states Ad-noy, your G-d, will defeat them before you, and will confuse them with great confusion until they are destroyed. The Hebrew word Hey-Mem-Mem is punctuated Kamatz-Kamatz. Rashi consequently interprets the terminal suffix letter Mem as indicating an object confuse them. Had the word been punctuated Kamatz-Patach it would simply mean to confuse without any object. Rashi frequently taught grammar using what I have called the near miss method. Rashi examines several almost identical forms and identifies the grammatical differences between them.
The table below presents an aligned extract of verses or verselets in Dt11-21b, (Gn17-08 Gn26-03 Gn28-13. Both verses/verselets discuss the inheritance of Israel. The alignment justifies the Rashi comment that: All three Patriarchs were promised the land of Israel would be given to them and to their descendants. But in Dt11-21 God refers to the land promised to them. Hence the emphasis that not only will the Jewish people inherit Israel but the Patriarchs themselves will also so inherit (upon resurrection).
Advanced Rashi: Another approach to this Rashi is through the format rule. If you inspect all three promises to the Patriarchs you will see a repetition of the repeating keyword to. The repetition of to in to you and to your descendants creates a bullet like effect emphasizing that both the Patriarchs themselves as well as their descendants will inherit Israel. Note, traditional Rashi=ists would learn this Rashi from the emphasized phrase to you. But to you by itself could mean the plural you and refer to your nation. However, Rashi is preferably learned by the emphasis indicated by the bullets or by the aligned contrast which emphasizes both you and your descendants.
The table below presents presents two contradictory verses. Both verses speak about the relative importance of Jews among the nations. The underlined words highlight the contradiction. One verse says the Jews are small while the other verse implies that the Jews are big. Which is it? Are the Jews a small or big nation?
By using the table structure with underlines we are able to participate and empathize with Rashi in construction of the Rashi comment.
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 observe Mezuzah, learn, don't intermarry as illustrative of the general clause, do God's commandments and you will reap reward, and states: There is reward even for minor commandments such as Mezuzah; how much more so for major commandments. We believe this comment evident and consistent with the Rabbi Ishmael style guidelines. Advanced Rashi: Rashi notes that many items in the detail section in the above passage deal with symbolic, emotional, and informational items, love, teaching, Tefillin, Mezuzoth, favors. People tend to belittle such laws as non-important since they are means to an end. The important law is not to forsake one's own religion. Consequently Rashi paraphrased interprets the detail section as prototypical The Torah promises Gods providence in exchange for the Jews following all commandments of separation from the Canaanite nations. This includes both major items such as the obligation to conquer them and the prohibition of worshipping idols as well as minor items such as the symbolic, emotional and intellectual commandments affirming our values against those of the Canaanites. This includes the commandments such as love, symbols (Tefillin, Mezuzah), education, lack of favors to the Canaanites etc. The traditional interpretation of this Rashi comment, as found in modern and midieval Rashi commentators, focuses on the strange Hebrew word used for consequence, Ayin-Kuph-Beth which normally means heel. In English also the phrase such and such came in the heels of such and such can connote causality. Rashi seems however to make a pun on the word heel: The Bible speaks about minor commandments which people step on with their heels. This literal Rashi phrase suggested to many people that Rashi's focus in this verse was the unusual Hebrew word Ayin Kuph Beth. We however believe that the explanation we presented above, focusing on the overall structure of the Biblical paragraph is deeper, sounder and more mature. True, Rashi expressed this sound idea by creating a pun on the Hebrew word Ayin Kuph Beth--heel-consequence-despise. However it would appear that the primary reason for the Rashi comment is the paragraph structure cited.
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 bullets by using repeating keywords. That is, if a modern author wanted to get a point across using bullets - a list of similar but contrastive items - then the Biblical Author would use repeating keywords.
Advanced Rashi: There are obvious sermonic points to the above Rashi. We are told that God's protection is unconditional, because of the promise to the Patriarchs, and cannot be removed if we sin. This is important during times of persecution - the awareness of God's protection gives persecuted Jews strength and helps prevent them from defecting from their religion. Furthermore, we are told that God's protection emanates from Love. That is the protection is not just because 'He has to' but rather is something God is interested in. Again: This gives encouragement that God will give full attention to the Jews and maintain them in all circumstances.
Today we ask the database query: When God decrees a punishment how much lag time does God give in order to give people time to repent? The query uncovers three major examples. An examination of these examples justifies the Rashi assertion that (a) The generation of the flood and Ninveh did not have leaders to learn moral behavior from; hence they were given extra time to repent (b) The Jews had great leaders to learn from and hence their punishment is immediate (Since no further time is needed to learn and repent) The table below presents results of the query along with illustrations of Rashi's comment.
Advanced Rashi: I have brought Ninveh as a supplementary example to Rashi. I would argue that Jonah's job was both to rebuke them that they would be destroyed as well as teach them proper behavior. Since Jonah was a temporary prophet-scholar (unlike Moses who was a permanant prophet-scholar) 40 days were given. By contrast the generation of the flood had no prophet to teach them - it is well known that Noah did not preach to his generation and the prophetic orders from God to him were personal not communal.
Since Rashi's innovation requires bringing in real-world knowledge of vegetable gardens we classify this Rashi as Non Verse. One should note that we also used the grammer method since the sentences have a contrastive structure. Rashi weaves the real-world knowledge about vegetable gardens into the textual meaning by generalizing the details and examples so that they illustrate the intended contrast.
Conclusion
This week's parshah contains no examples of the symbolism Rashi method. Visit the RashiYomi website at http://www.Rashiyomi.com for further details and examples. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||