|
Their presence in Rashis on Parshat Lech LeChaH Volume 15, Number 7 This weeks Weekly Rashi with Hebrew/English source tables Is accessible at http://www.Rashiyomi.com/rule1507.htm (c) RashiYomi Incorporated, Dr. Hendel, President, October 14 th, 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 Gn15-14b discussing the punishment of the nation that will enslave the Jews states and also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge; and afterward shall they come out with great substance. Rashi notes The underlined word, judge, is confirmed in verse Ex04-23 where God threatens to kill the Egyptian first-born if they don't release the Jews from slavery.
When Rashi uses, what we may losely call, the hononym method, Rashi does not explain new meaning but rather shows an underlying unity in disparate meanings. Rashi will frequently do this by showing an underlying unity in the varied meanings of a Biblical root.
Advanced Rashi: Rashi literally says God blessed Ishmael with 12 princes. But princes are like high clouds that eventually evaporate. Besides the fact that this look quite disparaging it seems to contradict the simple meaning of the text which was a blessing not a curse! Rabbi Hirsch explains the Rashi in a laudable manner: There is a cycle of water flow from seas to clouds and back to the sea. The cloud on high only receives water for the purpose of giving it back to the land and sea. So to the prince! The prince receives power on high but only to evaporate this power and return it to the people who gave it to him. Note that the Hebrew idioms above are echoed in English. For example in English also we speak about lifting one's heart upwards.
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.
Applying this rule we see that the verb form to tent would mean creating tents or doing the normal activity of tents, pitching them. Hence the following Rashi-verse combination: Gn13-12a Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelt in the cities of the Plain, but tented as far as Sodom. Rashi: He dwelt in the Plain Cities, but he tented, that is pitched many tents for his numerous livestock and staff and these tents reached to Sedom.
The table below presents an aligned extract of verselets in Gn17-15a. All verselets discuss the name of Abraham's wife. The alignment justifies the Rashi assertion that Abraham's wife's name was Sarai meaning my princess. But God renamed her Sarah meaning princess. The implication is that she no longer is a princess for her husband but rather a princess for all people. Here, God blesses her like Abraham, that she is a princess of nations.
The table below presents two contradictory verses / verse phrases. Both verses / verse phrases talk about the naming of Ishmael. The underlined words highlight the contradiction. One verse / verse phrase says Hagar was told to name him Ishmael while the other verse / verse phrase says that Abraham named him Ishmael. Which is it? Did Hagar or Abraham name him? Rashi simply resolves this using the 2 Aspects method: Hagar received the order to name him Ishmael. Abraham was aware of the order and so named him.
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 and consequently the law or narrative statement only applies to the enumerated details but not to other cases. The rule of thumb is that if you state a single statement then that statement should be perceived as an example which should be Generalized. On the other hand if you want to emphasize that what you are saying only applies to the examples listed then you would use a theme detail format thereby indicating that from all instances of the general theme only the details you listed apply. Today's example illustrates this as shown below.
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. Today's verse illustrates this principle.
Advanced Rashi: Rashi actually uses two Rashi methods on this verse. Besides the bullet method Rashi uses the contradiction method: The verse tells Abraham to leave his birthplace. But in the previous Biblical chapter we are told he already had left his birthplace. We therefore interpret the verse to mean besides leaving your birthplace distance yourself farther and leave your father's influence. We have additionally added to this use of the contradiction method the use of the bullet method: God told Abraham to leave a three-some of items.
We ask the following database query: Are Biblical items named by future events which have not happened yet? 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: Items are frequently named in the Bible by how they will be called rather then what they are called now--e.g. the Kosher animals in Noah's ark. The list below presents the results of the database query and shows examples.
We should clarify the nature of the above list. The Bible, in Abraham's time, calls Amalyk's field after Amalyk who was not yet born. Similarly God's mountain (Mount Sinai) is named by the future reception of the Torah there.
Verse Gn12-08b discussing where Abraham camped on his journeys states And he removed from thence unto the mountain on the east of Beth-el, and pitched his tent, having Beth-el on the west, and Ai on the east; and he builded there an altar unto HaShem, and called upon the name of HaShem. Rashi clarifies using the diagram below. As we go from west to east we have BethEl, Abraham's Campplace, Ai. It follows that Abraham's campplace was east of Bethel which was in the west.
------------------------------------------------------ BethEl Abraham's Campground Ai WEST EAST ------------------------------------------------------ Rashi: Abraham's campground was east of BethEl which was in the west. Advanced Rashi: Actually BethEl and Ai are not on the same latitute. But the above picture suffices to illustrate the intent of the verse and Rashi's point.
Conclusion
This week's parshah contains examples of all Rashi methods. Visit the RashiYomi website at http://www.Rashiyomi.com for further details and examples. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||