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Their presence in Rashis on Parshath BAMIDBAR Volume 16, Number 13 This weeks Weekly Rashi with Hebrew/English source tables Is accessible at http://www.Rashiyomi.com/rule1613.htm (c) RashiYomi Incorporated, Dr. Hendel, President, May 26th, 2011 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 Nu01-51c discussing that non-priests/levites inappropriately coming near Temple will die states And when the tabernacle is to set forward, the Levites shall take it down; and when the tabernacle is to be pitched, the Levites shall set it up; and the stranger who comes near shall be put to death Rashi clarifies the underlined words death by referencing verse(s) Nu16-35, Nu18-03 which states And there came out a fire from the Lord, and consumed the two hundred and fifty men who offered incense...And they shall keep your charge, and the charge of all the Tent; only they shall not come near the utensils of the sanctuary and the altar, that neither they, nor you also, die. Hence the Rashi comment: As the underlined words show, the statement in Nu01-51c that the stranger who comes near shall be put to death cross references the death penalty mentioned in Nu18-03 for improper coming near which is consistent with the death at the hands of God that befell the followers of Korach who improperly came near to God.
The FFF principle is a special case of the literary techniques of synechdoche-metonomy. These literary principles, universal to all languages, state that items can be named by related items, by parts of those items, or by good examples of those items. For example honey refers to anything sweet since honey is a good example of something sweet. Similarly hot refers to matters of love since the two are related. Todays Rashi can best be understood by applying these principles. Verse Nu04-09a discussing transporting the Candellabrah when the Temple was dismantled states And they shall take a cloth of blue, and cover the Candellabrah, and its flames, and its tongs, and is pans, and all its oil utensils, with which they minister to it; Rashi explains the underlined word flames metonomycally as ...referring to the containers in which the wicks and oil were placed. Here the containers are named by their function, to produce flames (Similar to naming the United nations by its function). We can therefore retranslate the verse using this metonomycal explanation: And they shall take a cloth of blue, and cover the Candellabrah, and its wick-containers, and its tongs, and is pans, and all its oil utensils, with which they minister to it;
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 to verse Nu04-13b we obtain the translation ...and they shall ash the altar.... meaning they shall remove ashes from the altar. Here, the Hebrew coined verb to ash is similar in meaning to the English to dust, that is to remove dust, the verb to dust being derived from the word dust.
The table below presents an aligned extract of verses or verselets in Nu04-13c, Ex27-03. Both verses/verselets discuss the altar utensils placed on top of the altar. The alignment justifies the Rashi assertion that 1st a cover was placed on the altar and then 4 of the 5 altar utensils were placed on the cover. There was a fifth altar utensil, the copper pans that was not placed on top of the cover which was on top of the altar. We conclude that the copper pan was placed under the cover with the altar. Apparently the copper plan covered live altar coals under it so that when the Jews journeyed they carried both the Temple itself and a starter for the Divine fire.
Advanced Rashi: We make two comments. First, the above Rashi has obvious sermonic overtones: The Temple was not just a building in which God appeared. Rather God's appearance was an intrinsic part of the Temple. Therefore the Jews had to carry both the Temple building proper as well as live coals sybmolizing the Divine fire of prophecy. Symbolically this indicates that when Jews journey from place to place they must carry their prophecies (religious observance) with them. In fact those familiar with the history of the Reform movement know that it started with the motto be orthodox at home and secular when in transition outside your home. Such an approach fails - we must always - both when settled and when journeying - respect the fire of God's prophecies by observing them. A second point to note is on Rashi's description of fire. Rashi refers to the fire from Heaven that looked like a lion that descended from heaven which was carried with the ark. But we have interpreted this to refer to a live coal! However we think it proper to interpret ...like a lion to mean ...like a crouching lion. A live coal with its yellowish glow resembles a crouching lion about to pounce. The coal although dormant can instantly start a fire! Symbolically this also has meaning for Jewish transitions from place to place: Although a Jew must observe when he transitions his learning should not be project oriented but rather review of daily basic laws (live coals).
Advanced Rashi: Traditional Rashi-ists would explain this contradiction by incorrectly appealing to word nuances or to alignment. For example aligning the two verses listed above we see a hinted contrast of come to be posted vs. to do work in the temple. This contrast of nuances hints at a distinction of actual work vs training to be posted. We however have explained this Rashi using the contradiction method. What is important is the fact of contradiction. True there might be supportive nuances emanating from alignment but the fact of contradiction justifies a resolution. We try the three methods of resolution - 2 stages, 2 aspects, broad-literal meaning - and find that the 2 stages approach neatly suggests training-performance. This approach of seeking a natural resolution by appeal to real-world phenomena is characteristic of the contradiction method. In fact the contradiction method, although sometimes it uses verses, very often relies on intuitive logic to naturally resolve a textual contradiction by appeal to real world phenomena such as the training-performance sequence.
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 only applies to the enumerated details but not to other cases. Today's example illustrates this as shown below.
Advanced Rashi: Actually the word minister is a bit more general. Besides singing Psalms during the Temple service the Levites assist in a variety of other ways. For example, the Levites assisted with ritual slaughter of the sacrifices. In this posting we have only touched on the basic idea that the assistance the Levites give the Priests is restricted. We have not fully explored how it is restricted. A more thorough analysis would require reviewing many Biblical texts where the Levite methods of assisting the Priests are listed.
When a modern author wishes to deemphasize a concept they will strike it out. When the Biblical author wishes to deemphasize a concept He places dots over it. The dots in the Biblical version, or the strikeout in the modern version, indicate deemphasis.
We ask the following database query: How did the pairs of neighboring tribes in the wilderness encampings influence each other? 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: Good neighbors influence eath other positively. Moses' neighbors were Judah, Zevulun and Yissachar and all three tribes were known for their scholarship as stated in P060-09, Ju05-14, 1C12-32. We see here the influence of good neighbors since Moses the great scholar influenced his neighbors and they too became great scholars. We also see that proximity to Moses bestowed blessing and population increase on these three tribes since during the wilderness migrations these three tribes had an overall increasee in census even though the nation as a whole did not. (The textual source proving the proximity of Moses to these three tribes is indicated in the sequence of tribes at national migrations (Nu10-14,15,16,17 - which indicates a migration sequence of Judah 1st, Yissachar 2nd, Zevulun 3rd, certain Levite tribes) The list below presents the results of the database query and shows examples
Advanced Rashi: In the above table we only touched the basic idea in this query. We could also follow Rav Hirsch and analyze census increase / decreases on all sides. For example we can show how the tribes involved in the Korach rebellion also influenced each other, however negatively. We however suffice with the database query above which justifies the Rashi commment that Good neighbors have positive influence. Acknowledgement is given to my father, Abraham Hendel, of blessed memory, who assisted me the first time I created this spreadsheet. Although the spreadsheet details are explicit in both Rashi and Rav Hirsch my father suggested a tablular display that communicates clearly the underlying message.
Background: Originally the firstborn served at the sacrifices. When the Jews sinned by the Golden calf God took this privilege away from them and gave it to the Levites. The process of transfer of responsibility from the firstborn to the Levites was called a redemption process. The redemption process is described in the table below. Because this aspect of the Bible involves computations and spreadsheets we classify this Rashi as non-verse/spreadsheets.
There was the further problem of who to collect the $1,365 from. After all each particular firstborn could claim he corresponded to an actual Levite and didn't have to pay. Therefore the redemption was done by lottery which picked 273 firstborn each of whom paid $5 shekel.
Advanced Rashi: Rashi also mentions the 20 silver price by which Joseph was sold. We will discuss this aspect of Rashi in a later year.
Conclusion
This week's parshah does not contain examples of the Symbolism Rashi method(s). Visit the RashiYomi website at http://www.Rashiyomi.com for further details and examples. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||