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Their presence in Rashis on Parshat Noach Volume 15, Number 6 This weeks Weekly Rashi with Hebrew/English source tables Is accessible at http://www.Rashiyomi.com/rule1506.htm (c) RashiYomi Incorporated, Dr. Hendel, President, October 7th, 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) 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 daysÆ 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.
Rashi's point here is that a terminal nun connotes intensity. For example Resh-Yud-Beth means to dispute while Resh-Yud-Beth-Nun means to fist-fight, (cf. Ex21-18.) So Cheth-resh-hey from the Biblical root Cheth-Resh to burn would connote being burned up, while Cheth-Resh-Nun would connote being intensely burned up for example the English blown up. (Sometimes it is hard to find an exact translation). 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 Gn11-32b embeds the Rashi translation Cheth-Resh-Nun means blowing up. And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years; and Terah died in Cheth-Resh-Nun ([God] Blew up). Advanced Rashi: Rashi's literal statement is God blowing up [for example during the flood] was the norm in the world until Abraham (Terach's son) came to the world. After Abraham we find less anger in the world (so to speak, the blowing up by God became an ordinary being burned up. That is before Abraham God blew up at the flood and the Tower of Babel while after Abraham we don't find God blowing up at the world with flood-like destructive events.
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 underlined phrases seem to suggest that men and women are separate. We will discuss this more fully in Rule #4, Alignment below. Rashi could find support for this abstention in verse Gn11-10 which states that Shem, Noah's eldest son, did not have his first child till two years after the flood.
Advanced Rashi: We haven't actually proven that there was abstention. The fact that Shem did not have his first child till after the flood is consistent with abstention but does not prove it. A more thorough discussion will take place below in Rule #4, Alignment.
The table below presents an aligned extract of verses in Gn06-18b, Gn07-07, Gn08-16. All verses discuss the entry/departure of Noah and his family from the ark. The alignment justifies the Rashi assertion that While in the ark there was abstention: Men (Noah-sons) and Women (Noah's wife and his daughter-in-laws) were separate. After leaving the ark normal relations resumed - families (Noah and his wife or Noah's sons and Noah's daughter-in-laws, were together). Rashi infers this from the different sequencing of Noah, his sons, his wife, and his daughter-in-law.
Advanced Rashi: The above explanation by alignment is the traditional explanation of this Rashi. However an advanced Rashi technique uses multiple methods to prove a point. In this case we can find further support for Rashi from verse Gn11-10 which states These are the generations of Shem; Shem was a hundred years old, and fathered Arphaxad two years after the flood; We see that Shem, Noah's eldest son, did not have any children till two years after the flood, supporting the idea that there was abstention in the ark. This example nicely illustrates the value of using multiple methods in explaining a single Rashi. Sermonic Points: The reason for the abstention is that it shows a symbolic affirmation of empathy with the suffering of the world. It is not right to enjoy oneself with one's spouse while the world is suffering. It is interesting that this symbolic affirmation is found in Jewish law which prohibits relations during fasts for tragedies that befall the Jewish community. Thus we see here how Noah contributed to Jewish law.
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 and covered the nakedness of their father; as illustrative of the general clause, faces were backward and states: Their goal was not to humiliate their father. Even at the moment of covering their face was backward and they did not see him naked. We believe this comment evident and consistent with the Rabbi Ishmael style guidelines. Advanced Rashi: This verse actually has a General-Detail-General-General form since the verse states went backwards - covered his nakedness - faced backwards - did not see his nakedness. In other words the verse explicitly identifies the theme of the general clause - they avoided seeing his nakedness. Notice that Rashi is not being pedantic but rather Rashi should be perceived as emphasizing one special implication of they did not see their father's nakedness. Rashi emphasizes even at the critical moment of covering him, when viewing the situation would be helpful, they did not peek. However what we have added to Rashi's explanation is that the driving force behind the Rashi is not some technical detail - what happened at the moment of covering - but rather a general statement that they always faced backwards out of respect for their father.
The climax principle asserts that a sequence of similar phrases should be interpreted climactically even if the words and grammatical constructs used do not directly suggest this. That is the fact of the sequence justifies reading into the Biblical text a climactic interpretation even if no other textual source justifies it. For this reason we consider the climax method a distinct and separate method.
Advanced Rashi: Notice how we have interspersed a Rambam comment in the Rashi comments. In fact there are five phrases and Rashi omits commentary on one of them which the Rambam supplies. Such complementation of Rabbinic authorities is exemplary of advanced Rashi. We again emphasize that the Rashi inferences are not inferred from the underlined words. Rather the fact of five similar phrases - this fact, in and of itself, creates a climax situation which is resolved by reading into the verse a reasonable climactic interpretation. In academic circles what we have called climax is subsumed under the poetic principle of parallelism. Parallelism simply refers to the tendency of Biblical verses to repeat themselves as for example Hear Israel, (a) God is our Lord, (b) God is one. The two consecutive repeated halves are called parallel. Parallelism is characteristic of Biblical poetry. Different scholars treat parallelism differently. Some scholars are of the opinion that the parallel components indiate a climactic development. Such a climactic approach enriches for example our reading of the Psalms and other poetic parts of the Bible.
We ask the following database query: When God attacks sinners how does he call them? 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 inference: God calls sinners by their city name. Or else, God calls them crowd, worthless, people. However the Residents of the Tower of Babel are called Sons of Adam to indicate that a) they rebelled against God like Adam and b) they lost their unified world the same way Adam lost Paradise. The list below presents the results of the database query.
Verse Gn06-16b states A light shalt thou make to the ark, and to a cubit shalt thou finish it upward; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it. Rashi explains the underlined phrase and to a cubit shalt thou finish it upward as meaning that The ark was built with a sloping tent-like roof with the top part, not a point, but a 2' x 2' square A diagram is presented below. We classify this Rashi as diagrammatic explanation. ' 1 cubit ---------- ' / \ ' / \ Sloping roof ' / \ ' / \
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 the Rashi methods. Visit the RashiYomi website at http://www.Rashiyomi.com for further details and examples. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||