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 Lv26-12a URL Reference: (c) http://www.Rashiyomi.com/w33n19; Brief Summary: I (GOD) will walk with you (Lv26-12) refers to conversational relationship with God as Moses had (Nu12-07:08)

Verse Lv26-12a discussing God's intimate relationship with us when we are observant states And I [God] will walk among you, and will be your God, and you shall be my people Rashi clarifies the underlined words walk among you by referencing verse(s) Nu12-07:08 which states Not so with my servant Moses, for he is trusted in all my house. With him I speak mouth to mouth, .... Hence the Rashi comment: As the underlined words show, God's promise that He will walk among us if we observe His commandments is similar to God's conversational relationship to Moses, speaking mouth to mouth. This contrasts with the King-servant relationship with God which is characterized as God speaking by fire (Dt08-23).

Text of Target verse Lv26-12a	Text of Reference Verse Nu12-07:08
And I [God] will walk among you, and will be your God, and you shall be my people	Not so with my servant Moses, for he is trusted in all my house. With him I speak mouth to mouth, ....
Rashi comments: As the underlined words show, God's promise that He will walk among us if we observe His commandments is similar to God's conversational relationship to Moses, speaking mouth to mouth. This corresponds to the King-servant relationship with God which is characterized as God speaking by Fire (Dt08-23)

Advanced Rashi: Of course, the underlined phrases - walk with you, and speak mouth to mouth - are not the same. Some readers may therefore see our approach (which is not explicit in Rashi) as slightly stretched. However we have to really ask what it means for God to walk with us in paradise. A reasonable interpretation is that we have a conversational vs. a fire relationship with God. I believe therefore that the approach we have taken gives positive insight.

Rashi presented 10 distinct meaning methods. Today we examine meaning based on grammatical transformation.

Although most conjugation rules refer to the conjugation of verbs, there are also conjugation rules for transfroming nouns into verbs. We list several common methods for transforming nouns into verbs:
• create the noun: e.g. to flower
• remove the noun: e.g. to dust
• use the noun: e.g. to hammer
• the verb(activity) done to this noun: e.g. Dt21-04b: neck the calf in other words kill it with a blow to the neck

Using this principle of meaning based on grammatical transformation we have the following elegant sequence:
• From the verb Resh-Tzade-Hey, meaning to want, to desire we obtain
• the adjective RaTzuy meaning desirable, pleasing
• Then in term from the adjective desirable, pleasing we obtain
• the verb to make desirable, to please..
When Hebrew assigns two meanings to the same root it will frequently use different grammatical modes to accomplish this assignment. In this case the active mode of the root Resh-Tzade-Hey means to desire while the Intensive mode of the root Resh-Tzade-Hey means to please.

Applying this meaning, Resh-Tzade-Hey to please to verses Lv26-34a, Lv26-41c we obtain the following translations: Then [after they are exiled for not observing the land-sabbaticals] the land shall please her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye are in your enemies' land; even then shall the land rest, and repay her sabbaths. and I also will walk contrary unto them, and bring them into the land of their enemies; if then perchance their uncircumcised heart be humbled, and then they please themselves from their sins, [then...]

Advanced Rashi: The phrases land please her Sabbaths and they will please themselves from their sins doesn't sound 100% right. There is a general problem in translating between languages. There is no verb in English which means to make desirable. Hebrew because of the richness of its modes can reuse the verb desire to mean make desirable. The English to please is the closest we come in English to a verb meaning to make desirable. Such searching for good translations is characteristic of advanced biblical study. If a more accurate translation was desired we could translate they will make themselves desirable from their sins and the land will make itself desirable with land-sabbaticals.

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 deal with the beautiful biblical topic of pronoun reference. English quite simply requires a pronoun to refer to the last mentioned noun. By contrast biblical Hebrew allows pronouns to refer to any reasonable antecedent. Verse Lv27-20 discussing the redemption of property dedicated by a private owner to the Temple illustrates this subtle principle.
• But if
  • he [the original owner] doesn't redeem the field [that he dedicated to the Temple]
  • and if he [the Temple manager] has sold the field to another person
• then the field can no longer be redeemed.
Rashi clarifies the references of the elliptic subjects, he. Rashi explains that the first he refers to the original owner while the last he refers to the Temple manager. Thus in one verse the word he remarkably has two different referents each one being the most reasonable. Indeed, the person selling the field must be the Temple since the original owner already dedicated his property to the Temple while by contrast the person not redeeming must be the original owner.

Advanced Rashi: Did you notice that the verse does not simply say If the original owner does not redeem the field and the temple manager does sell it then the field can no longer be redeemed. Rather the verse use a rare form of logic, the export-import law. The export-import law asserts that the following two sentence forms have the same meaning: If A and B then C and If A then if B then C. By using the repeating keyword if the Biblical Author creates distinctness in the two hypotheses a distinctness which is reflected in the different references of he - the he in one sentence refers to the original owner while the he in the second sentence refers to the Temple manager.

The table below presents an aligned extract of verses or verselets in Lv27-31a Both verses/verselets discuss that plant tithe is holy (that is, it can't be eaten like ordinary food but must be eaten in holiness in Jerusalem) The alignment justifies the Rashi assertion that The fifth rule only applies to your tithe that is to tithe of the owner. In other words if the owner redeems his tithe he must pay its value and 25% more while if a non-owner redeems a friends tithe he only pays value without any addition. By contrast the tithe-holiness rule applies to tithe whether of the owner or any other person. In other words tithe is holy (forbidden to be eaten except in a holy state in Jerusalem) whether it is the tithe of the owner or a friend.

Verse	Text of Verse	Rashi comment
Lv27-31a	And if a man will at all redeem any of his tithes, he shall add to it a fifth part.	The fifth rule only applies to your tithe that is to tithe of the owner. In other words if the owner redeems his tithe he must pay its value and 25% more while if a non-owner redeems a friends tithe he only pays value without any addition.
Lv27-30	And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land, or of the fruit of the tree, is the LordÆs; it is holy to the Lord	By contrast the tithe-holiness rule applies to tithe whether of the owner or any other person. In other words tithe is holy (forbidden to be eaten except in a holy state in Jerusalem) whether it is the tithe of the owner or a friend.

The table below presents two contradictory sets of verses. Both verse sets talk about the punishments God brings on the Jewish people when they sin. The underlined words highlight the contradiction. One verse says I, God, will teach them a lesson, with great rage, I will bring the sword avenging the convenant, while the other verse says I will never despise you! Which is it? Will God despise us or not? Rashi simply resolves this using the 2 cases method: (1) God will bring rage on us until we repent (2) God will never despise us until we are destroyed since he will forgive us when we repent.

Summary	Verse / Source	Text of verse / Source
The rage of the convenant-avenging sword	Lv26-25,28	I will walk with you in fury....I will bring on you the sword avenging the convenant
I will only punish them till they repent - I will not despise them	Nu26-41,44	And I have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts are humbled, and they accept of the punishment of their iniquity; Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land. Despite all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, nor will I loathe them until destruction nor will I break my covenant with them; for I am the Lord their God.
Resolution:	2 Aspects:	(1) God will bring rage on us until we repent (2) God will never despise us until we are destroyed since he will forgive us when we repent.

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 indication justifies it. For this reason we consider the climax method a distinct and separate method.

Verse Lv26-16 discussing a punishment of several diseases for disobedience to God states I also will do this to you; I will appoint over you in a rush, consumption, and fever, that shall destroy sight[of hope] , and cause sorrow of heart; .... The table below compactly shows the climactic progression in the four underlined phrases in the verse.

Advanced Rashi: Notice how Rashi almost arbitrarily interprets destructive of eyes as meaning loss of personal hope while emotional anguish Rashi interprets as meaning loss of communal hope. There is nothing in the language or grammar which justifies this however the Rashi interpretation is justified by the fact of Biblical sequence which justifies a climactic interpretation. The skillful fitting of a well chosen climactic interpretation on a poetic verse gives a nifty demonstration of the climax method.

9. RASHI METHOD: NonVerse BRIEF EXPLANATION: The common denominator of the 3 submethods of the NonVerse method is that inferences are made from non textual material. The 3 submethods are as follows: Spreadsheet: Rashi makes inferences of a numerical nature that can be summarized in a traditional spreadsheet Geometric: Rashi clarifies a Biblical text using descriptions of geometric diagrams Fill-ins: Rashi supplies either real-world background material or indicates real-world inferences from a verse. The emphasis here is on the real-world, non-textual nature of the material. This examples applies to Rashis Lv26-08b URL Reference: (c) http://www.Rashiyomi.com/rule1217.htm Brief Summary: 5 will pursue 100; 100 will puruse 10000. RASHI the growth rate is not linear but exponential.

Verse Lv26-08b discussing the military success that Jews will have if they follow God's law states
• 5 of you will pursue 100 and
• 100 [will puruse] 10000
and your enemies will fall before you under the sword. Rashi notes the anomaly that
• 5 pursuing 100 is a ratio of 100 to 5
• 100 purusing 10000 is a ratio of 100 to 1
Rashi explains The conquest rate is not linear but rather exponential. The more righteous learned people you have the greater the conquest rate will be.