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Their presence in Rashis on Parshath VaYaySheV Volume 17, Number 14 This weeks Weekly Rashi with Hebrew/English source tables will be accessible, on Sunday, at http://www.Rashiyomi.com/rule1714.htm (c) RashiYomi Incorporated, Dr. Hendel, President, Dec 16, 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 Gn37-35a discussing who consoled Jacob during his bereavement states And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted; and he said, For I will go down to Sheol to my son, mourning. Thus his father wept for him. Rashi notes that the underlined words, daughters references verses Gn38-02 discussing Judah's marriage to a Canaanite woman. Hence the Rashi comment (Gn37-25) His daughters arose to console him during his bereavement, references verse Gn38-02, Judah married the daughter of a Canaanite woman. So the word daughters in Gn37-25 refers to Jacob's daughter-in-laws. And indeed it is common in all languages to refer to daughter-in-laws as daughters.
Advanced Rashi: Rashi also brings a second opinion. Based on an assortment of verses one can prove that Shimon married his sister Dinah. One can then generalize and argue that each of the 12 tribes married a sister. So the word daughters refers to actual daughters of Jacob which however are not mentioned in the Bible. According to this second interpretation cited by Rashi, each of the 12 children of Jacob married a sister (just as Shimon married Dinah). According to this second opinion Judah never married a Canaanite. Hence this second opinion interprets Gn38-02 as meaning that Judah married the daughter of a merchant since the word Canaanite (when not a proper noun) refers to a merchant. This second opinion is also cited by Rashi Gn38-02a. At root of the two interpretations is a discussion of how the Jewish people were formed. One opinion holds they came from Canaanites who repented. While another opinion is that they couldn't have come from Canaanites (Because they were irreversibly corrupted). Instead God had to create a miracle and each brother married a sister.
Verse Gn39-14a discussing how Potifar ranks out Joseph for allegedly making advances on her states That she called to the men of her house, and spoke to them, saying, See, he has brought in a Hebrew to us to mock us; he came in to me to lie with me, and I cried with a loud voice; This is the first time in the Bible that Jews are called Hebrews from the Hebrew Eyver.
Notice how the side in the name Eyver who fathered the split of the world mirrors Abraham's further split of the world by also standing on the side of monotheism. Such multiple meanings and echoing nuances are common in etymologies.
Verse Gn37-31 states And they took coat of Joseph, and killed a kid of the goats, and dipped the coat in the blood; Rashi comments: The phrase coat of Joseph uses the construct ( coat of) and hence is punctuated in Hebrew, Kuh-To-Neth while the second underlined phrase coat occurs absolutely without a construct and is punctuated Koo-To-Neth. In other words while English uses the word of to distinguish between the construct and non-construct, Hebrew uses two different punctuations for the construct vs. non-construct. Advanced Rashi: The reader may wonder why Rashi explains this. After all, schoolchildren routinely learn the difference between construct and non-construct. However grammar was just beginning in Rashi's time and one of his major functions was to communicate grammatical rules to his readers who had no other way of finding them out.
The table below presents an aligned extract of verses or verselets in Gn40-13a Gn40-13b Both verses/verselets discuss the restoration of the Maitre-de of wine from prison. The alignment justifies the Rashi comment that: The Maitre-de of wine would have two things returned: a) He would be reinstated as Pharoh's staff (out of prison) and b) he would be reinstated to his former position of leadership - Maitre-de of wine.
Advanced Rashi: The nuances of Rashi's comment should be clear: Pharoh will not only pardon the maitre-de's prison sentence and restore him to his staff; Pharoh will also restore him to his former position (total forgiveness)
The table below presents two contradictory verses. Both verses speak about the sale of Joseph. The underlined words highlight the contradiction. One verse says let us sell Joseph to the Ishmaelites....they sold him to the Ishmaelites while the other verse states And Midianite merchants passed by and they sold Joseph to them. We see the contradiction---was Joseph sold to the Ishmaelites or Midianites. Rashi simply resolves this using the 2 Stages method: (a) The brothers intended to sell Joseph to the Ishmaelites. (b) But then Midianite merchants passed by and they pulled Joseph out of the pit [and sold him to the Midianites.] And then (c) the Midianites sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites.
Advanced Rashi: Rashi explains the point in the multiple sales. This teaches that Joseph was sold many times. I would add It also shows Joseph's helplessness. Even if they sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites, they couldn't assure he would remain with them. Joseph, once he became a slave, was an object with a value. Anyone passing by with a better money offer could buy him out. Finally we could add It shows the greatness of the miracle. No one person or act caused Joseph to end up in Egypt. Rather he ended up in Egypt after multiple sales as an act of God.
Certain Biblical paragraphs are stated in a detail-Theme form. In other words a detailed specific passage is stated first followed by a thematic restatement of a broad general nature. Today's example illustrates this as shown below.
It is important to emphasize what Rashi is and is not doing. Rashi is not inferring from the verbal phrase behaving like a kid that Joseph excessively groomed, tattletailed and exaggerated normal sexual fears and wonders. Rather, Rashi is inferring from the detail-general style - 17 years old - behaved like a kid that Joseph did typical behaviors of an immature 17 year old. Having established this general fact Rashi then enumerates three primary typical immature behaviors: excessive grooming, tattletailing, exaggeration of sexual fears and wonders. In other words the driving force for the Rashi comment is not meaning but the paragraph style which indicates a general statement of immature behavior. Rashi then used his knowledge of psychology to provide three broad areas of immaturity. Advanced Rashi: Rashi goes further: Rashi points out that Joseph was punished for each of these immature acts. For example since Joseph was obsessed with grooming he eventually was approached by his master's wife which got him into trouble when he refused. However Rashi's primary purpose on this verse was to present the fact of immaturity and sketch immaturity patterns. A secondary purpose of Rashi was to indicate God's method of justice. We will therefore discuss God's justice elsewhere.
Both the Biblical and modern author use the paragraph as a vehicle for indicating commonality of theme. Hence if two ideas are in a paragraph they may be assumed to have a similar context. The reader will no doubt recognize this formatting rule as none other than the most intuitive of the Rabbi Ishmael style rules which orthodox Jews recite every day as part of their daily prayer: the rule of inference from context. Today's example illustrates this.
In other words: Joseph, on Judah's advice, was sold by his brothers down to Egypt where he was successful. The brother's blaimed Judah for giving this advice and he was forced to separate from his brothers. Grammatically Rashi characterizes this sequence of three paragraphs as a parenthetical interrupt. That is, paragraph #3 is a continuation of paragraph #1. Paragraph #2 interrupts the paragraph #1-#3 sequence. Paragraph #2 interrupts this sequence to emphasize that paragraph #1 indicates the cause of paragraph #2. In our situation this means that Judah's separation from his brothers was due to blaim for advice to sell Joseph.
With regard to the last example, Chronicles is giving a political history and hence someone like David is more important (politically) than say Abraham and Moses (Who were more important prophetically).
We all know that the three baskets in the chief baker dream corresponded to three days to execution. In the table below we interpret other aspects of the baker's dream. For example the holed baskets symbolize an exposed body (after beheading). This aspect of the symbolic interpretation of the baker's dream is often overlooked! We could summarize the table as follows: I saw [that in] three days my basket [body] is holed [exposed / vulnerable]. And even though the] topmost [goal] basket [of my being was providing ] all types of royal food, professional baker standards, to Pharoh, [nevertheless] the birds were eating them [my flesh] from the basket [my body] on [upon] my head [after my beheading].
Advanced Rashi: The above table uses the so called linear translation method. This method was introduced (or popularized) by Rabbi Dr. Benjamin Sharfman in his Linear Translation of the Bible and Rashi. Rabbi Sharfman's linear translation is still very popular among those who are beginners in learning Rashi. Rabbi Sharfman was in fact Rabbi of my synaggoue when I was young and I spent many enjoyable Shabbath afternoons listening to his very lucid explanations of Rashi.
Conclusion
This week's parshah contains examples of all Rashi methods. Visit the RashiYomi website at http://www.Rashiyomi.com and http://www.Rashiyomi.com/rule.htm for further details and examples. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||