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 Gn43-14d URL Reference: (c) http://www.Rashiyomi.com/rule1319.htm Brief Summary: God will send your OTHER BROTHER and BENJAMIN (Gn43-14) REFERS to SHIMON who was taken prisoner (Gn42-36)

Verse Gn43-14d discussing Jacob's hopes to get back his children states And God Almighty give you mercy before the man, that he may send away your other brother, and Benjamin. If I be bereaved of my children, then I am bereaved. Rashi notes that the underlined words, your other brother references verse Gn42-36 discussing the imprisonment of Shimon. Hence the Rashi comment The verse statement Gn43-14 God will send your other brother and Benjamin references verse Gn42-36 which discusses the imprisonment of Shimon.

Text of Target Verse Gn43-14d	Text of Reference Verse Gn42-36
And God Almighty give you mercy before the man, that he may send away your other brother, and Benjamin. If I be bereaved of my children, then I am bereaved.	And Jacob their father said to them, Me have you bereaved of my children; Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and you will take Benjamin away; all these things are against me.
Rashi comments: The verse statement Gn43-14 God will send your other brother and Benjamin references verse Gn42-36 which discusses the imprisonment of Shimon.

Advanced Rashi: Actually both Shimon and Joseph were other brothers that were missing. Furthermore, at least in one case Rashi saw an unconscious hint in a verse to the restoration of Joseph (Gn43-08a: Judah's statement We will live refers to the restoration of all including Joseph. In fact Rashi takes Gn43-14e, God will send your other brother as referring to Joseph also!)

However the important point to emphasize is that Shimon was imprisoned Gn42-24 and Shimon was returned Gn43-23. Furthermore as indicated in Gn42-38 Jacob was too depressed to think about the restoration of Joseph. Hence Rashi emphasizes that other brother mainly refers to Shimon.

In fact this suggests that Rashi's main point was Even though we have interpreted other verses as referring or hinting to the restoration of Joseph we must interpret this verse as referring solely to the restoration of Shimon (Since Jacob was depressed and this was the issue at hand.)

Students of Rashi must bear in mind that Rashi could sometimes use universal principles applicable in all languages. This particularly applies to the meaning methods.

The synechdoche principle basically says that any language can use a good example to name an entire category. For example, in English,
• the word honey can mean anything sweet.
• Similarly bread can refer to any food.
• Man can refer to any person (male of female)
• day can refer to the entire 24 hour period
• heart can refer to the entire person as in e.g., (Ps 43)My heart yearns for you, God which really means My entire person yearns for you God
• The loss of a person can refer to the destruction of that person (Dt28-22i)

The metonomy principle basically says that a word can be named by something related to it. Metonomy is closely related to synechdoche. Some typical examples of metonomy would be
• hot refers to temper or pashion
• going to bed refers to intimacy
• by sweat will you obtain bread metonomycally refers to by hard word will you obtain food
• He is a man of the cloth refers to the clergy
• the pen is mightier than the sword means that publication can have greater impact than military means

Verse Gn41-19b discussing Pharoh's dream of the 7 full and emaciated cows states And, behold, seven other cows came up after them, poor and very ill-favoured and emptied, such as I never saw in all the land of Egypt for badness. Rashi explains: The Bible uses the word empty to indicate emaciation. Indeed an empty package has no support and is indented in appearance similar in look to an emaciated person. The emaciated person is not actually empty. Hence empty is a metonomy; emptyness is related, but not actually equal, to, the emaciated appearance.

Rashi lived before the era of Grammatical textbooks. Hence one of his functions was to teach the rules of grammar similar to modern textbooks. One aspect of grammar deals with the proper use of prefixes. Prefixes in Hebrew can indicate prepositional connectives, declarative articles or questions.

A prefix hey in Biblical Hebrew can indicate either a declarative article or an interrogative sentence. The punctuation of the hey depends both on its function as well as on the letters in the word it modifies.

There are about a half dozen Rashis on Hey. For example the very first question in the Bible occurs when God asks Adam if he ate the forbidden fruit. The Hey in that verse is punctuated with a chataf patach which Rashi explains is the default punctuation for interrogative heys (Gn03-11a). From time to time on several other verses Rashi comments on hey which has quite a number of subrules governing it.

Biblical verse Gn42-16a states Send one of you, and let him fetch your brother, and you shall be kept in prison, that your words may be proved: Is there any truth with you? and if not by the life of Pharaoh surely you are spies. The underlined phrase is interpreted by Rashi as a question (as indicated). However it is also possible to translated it declaratively: That your words will be examined - [to ascertain if] the truth is with you There is an interesting exegetical point here: Joseph by using an inquiry form - Is there any truth with you? - is accusing them of being liars - they are assumed guilty till proven otherwise. Joseph took a tough line to the brothers. He could have equally assumed them truthful until proven otherwise. That would be indicated in the Biblical text by a declarative hey. Hence the punctuation of the hey reflects the hard line tactics Joseph used which is also explicitly mentioned in the Biblical text Gn42-07.

The first letter of the sentence the truth is with you? is a Hebrew aleph. A hey when used declaratively with a following Hebrew aleph is punctuated with a kamatz (Cf. Gn42-18, Gn42-27). However when a hey is used interrogatively with a following aleph it is punctuated with a patach as in Gn42-16a and in Nu32-06.

The table below presents an aligned extract of verses or verselets in Gn42-03a Both verses/verselets discuss the Jews journeying to Egypt for food. The alignment justifies the Rashi comment that: The Jews were not just Jacob's sons. They were also Joseph's brother. They no longer wished Joseph dead. They wanted him back.

Verse	Text of Verse	Rashi comment
Gn42-03	And Joseph’s ten brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt	The Jews were not just Jacob's sons. They were also Joseph's brother. They no longer wished Joseph dead. They wanted him back.
Gn42-05	And the sons of Israel came to buy grain among those who came; for the famine was in the land of Canaan.

The table below presents presents two contradictory verses. Both verses speak about the famine in the time of Joseph. The underlined words highlight the contradiction. One verse says and the seven years of famine began to come, according as Joseph had said; and there was famine in all lands; but in all the land of Egypt there was bread while the other verse states And all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread; and Pharaoh said unto all the Egyptians: 'Go unto Joseph; what he saith to you, do.' Which is it? Did Egypt have food or was there a famine there? Rashi simply resolves this using the 2 Stages method: Initially when the famine started outside of Egypt, all of Egypt had food, since Joseph had advised them to store food. But the food rotted and Egypt too was then in famine

Summary	Verse / Source	Text of verse / Source
Egypt had food	Gn41-54	and the seven years of famine began to come, according as Joseph had said; and there was famine in all lands; but in all the land of Egypt there was bread.
Egypt had a famine	Gn41-55	And all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread; and Pharaoh said unto all the Egyptians: 'Go unto Joseph; what he saith to you, do.'
Resolution:	2 Stages	Initially when the famine started outside of Egypt, all of Egypt had food, since Joseph had advised them to store food. But the food rotted and Egypt too was then in famine

Certain Biblical paragraphs are stated in a example form. In other words an example of a law is stated rather than the full general rule. The reader's task is to generalize the example. The idea that all Biblical laws should be perceived as examples (unless otherwise indicated) is explicitly stated by Rashi (Pesachim 6.). This is a rule of style since the rule requires that a text be perceived as an example rather than interpreted literally. The Rabbi Ishmael style rules govern the interpretation of style.

Verse Gn43-29:30a discussing Joseph's emotional reaction upon seeing him after 17 years of separation states And he lifted up his eyes, and saw his brother Benjamin, his mother’s son, and said, Is this your younger brother, of whom you spoke to me? And he said, God be gracious to you, my son. And Joseph made haste; for his insides yearned upon his brother; and he sought where to weep; and he entered into his chamber, and wept there. The Rabbi Ishmael example rule requires generalization of this passage. In this case we simply generalize from ...his eyes and saw to ..he saw and spoke; he lifted up his eyes and saw and spoke about family to his brother Benjamin and Joseph made haste..and he sought to weep

Advanced Rashi: As indicated Rashi is simply generalizing the verse. Rashi is indicating that besides seeing his brother other things aroused his emotions. We have indicated above that Joseph and Benjamin spoke. The Talmud fills in what probably happened. Joseph asked Benjamin about his family and the reasons for their names. Benjamin then explained that each of the ten children were named after his missing brother. One child was named swallow because Joseph was swallowed; another child was named Eldest because missing Joseph was eldest. Another child was named MyBro because Joseph was Benjamin's brother. The Talmud reasonably conjectures that this also aroused Joseph's emotions.

We ask the following database query: What mode - active vs. passive - is used to indicate birth. 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:
• The active - so and so begat so and so - is the normal style to indicate genealogy
• The passive - so and so was born to so and so - is used to indicate emphasis on the time or leadership qualities of the person born. The list below presents the results of the database query and shows examples.

Verse	Style	Verse text	Emphasis
Gn41-50a	Passive	And unto Joseph was born two sons	before the years of famine came [Rashi: Implying that children should not be born in times of famine (abstention).]
Gn10-21	Passive	And to Shem also,was born children	the father of all the Eberites, [Emphasizes that Shem and Ever were the major bearers of the monotheistic tradition.]
Gn10-25	Passive	And to Eber was born two sons	the name of one was Split because during his lifetime the world split up [at the Tower of Babel.]

Verses Gn44-12a discussing the frameup of Benjamin with a theft states And he searched, beginning at the eldest, and ending at the youngest; and the goblet was found in Benjamin's sack. Rashi fills-in with real-world background. Ben was framed with robbery. To avoid suspicion the investigator went from oldest to youngest so discovery looked accidental.

Clearly the sole purpose of Rashi here, is to clarify the underlined detail beginning at the eldest as being consistent with a frameup.

We are all familiar with the basic idea of Pharoh's dreams. Pharoh dreamt of 7 thin cows devouring 7 plump cows. Joseph symbolically interpreted this to mean that 7 years of starvation would come and make people forget the 7 years of plenty which had preceded them. In the table below we provide a linear symbolic translation of Pharoh's dream and its interpretation.

Verse text	Symbolic interpretation	Source
Pharoh stood on the Nile	Pharoh reviewed the Egyptian economy	Gn41-01b
And from the river	from the economy	Gn41-01b
there arose 7 cows	there arose 7 years	Numerical symbolism
good looking and plump	good years with plenty to eat	Gn41-02a
grazing in the meadow	with brotherhood and no economic jealousy	Gn41-02b
But then 7 other cows came after them	7 other years followed them
bad looking and thin	bad years with little to eat	Analogy with Gn41-02a
and they stood by the cows on the river bank	Two sets of years affected the economy but	Gn41-04a
the bad looking cows consumed the good looking cows	the bad years made people forget the good years	Gn41-04a

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.