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Their presence in Rashis on Parshath MishPaTiM Volume 17, Number 23 This weeks Weekly Rashi with Hebrew/English source tables will be accessible, on Sunday, at http://www.Rashiyomi.com/rule1723.htm (c) RashiYomi Incorporated, Dr. Hendel, President, Feb 14 2012 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 Ex23-19a discussing the command to bring first fruits to the Temple states The choicest first-fruits of thy land thou shalt bring into the house of HaShem thy G-d. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in its mother's milk. Rashi clarifies the underlined words first fruits by referencing verse Dt26-01:02 which states And it shall be, when you come in to the land which the Lord your God gives you for an inheritance, and possess it, and live in it; That you shall take from the first of all the fruit of the earth, which you shall bring of your land that the Lord your God gives you, and shall put it in a basket, and shall go to the place which the Lord your God shall choose to place his name there. Hence the Rashi comment: (a) 'When you come take the first fruit' implies that when you go down to your field and see the first date or olive that you tie a string around it and declare 'This is first fruit.' (b) Other laws are inferred from Dt26-02: It says that you should take from the first fruit emphasizing that not all first fruits are given but only special ones such as the first fruit of the 7 species for which Israel was known. Other details to these laws are also stated in Dt26.
Todays example combines word meaning, formatting, and grammar rules. The special word method deals with the few dozen special words that exist in all languages. Familiar examples are also, when, that, because, only, this,.... Rashi's job, when he comments on a special connective words, is to list the varied nuances and usages of the word. The most famous example is the Hebrew word Kaph Yud which can mean because, that, when, perhaps, rather, if. Sometimes Rashi explicitly gives all meanings of a connective word as happens with Kaph Yud while at other times Rashi does not give all meanings at once. In such a case the student must gather all the meanings together from various places.
Advanced Rashi: In this case we have incorporated the Rashi comment into the translation of the verse. This incorporation technique is very useful when discussing Rashis on translations. We have only commmented on the meaning of the Hebrew word Ki. However there are two other Rashi comments on this verse. One explains the use of the pronomial phrase with his help; this will be explained in rule #3 below, grammar. The other explains the use of repetition; help him unload unload which will be explained in rule #7 below format.
Todays example combines word meaning, formatting, and grammar rules. Two familiar functions of grammar in all languages are pronoun reference and plurality. Hebrew is more flexible than English in pronoun reference. However Hebrew frequently follows the rule in all languages that a pronoun refers to the last mentioned person.
In verse Ex23-05 the English phrase with him is indicated by an entire word (vs. a suffix) thus indicating emphasis. I have captured the essence of this emphasis by translating you must, with his help unload. Rashi (following the Mechiltah brought down in the Talmud) states Does the command to help unload a donkey imply that the owner of the donkey can maliciously sit down in the shade and order me to unload by myself since I am commanded to? No! For this reason it states you must with his help unload. Again we emphasize that the driving force of this exegesis is the use of an entire word to indicate a pronoun indicating extra emphasis.
Advanced Rashi: This Rashi is a particularly good example of the alignment method. Notice in the four verses the difference in the underlined passages: kills, dies, strikes, blemish... Also notice the difference in the punishment clauses: put to death, so shall be done to him, put to death, put to death. A common improper formulation of Talmudic exegesis is The Talmudic Rabbis focused on the exact meaning and nuance of each word, particularly extra words. We have not used this rule. We believe the proper approach is that The Talmudic Rabbis focused on blatant differences in aligned similar verses. These blatant differences in otherwise similar verses indicate intended differences in legal consequence. Such a view is more palatable and leads to a more reasonable understanding of Talmudic exegesis.
The table below presents two contradictory verses / verselets. Both verses speak about female slaves. The underlined words highlight the contradiction. One verse says the woman goes out after 6 years while the other verse states the woman belongs to her master We see the contradiction---which is it? Do women remain slaves or do they go free at six? Rashi simply resolves this contradiction using the 2 aspects method: Jewish female slaves go free at 6 years; however, non-Jewish female slaves remain with their master.
Advanced Rashi: The literal language of Rashi shows more clearly the underlying logic: When the verse says If his master give him a wife it could refer to either a non-Jewish or Jewish woman. Since however the verse continues He goes free but the woman remains with the master and another verse explicitly states that ....Jewish female slaves...go free in the seventh year I therefore conclude that the verse must be speaking about a non-Jewish wife that the master gives him. In other words Rashi does not emphasize contradiction but rather describes the derivation as selection between competing alternatives. This alternative viewpoint helps us understand the contradiction Rashi rule.
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 Ex22-21a discussing the prohibition and punishment of abusing widows and orphans states don't abuse a widow or orphan If you dare abuse him..... and I will also blow up, kill you by sword, and make your wives widows and your children orphans. The Rabbi Ishmael example rule requires generalization of this passage. In this case we simply generalize from widow or orphan to any person don't abuse a person If you dare abuse him..... and I will also blow up, kill you by sword, and make your wives widows and your children orphans. Advanced Rashi: This verse is an interesting refutation of the idea that the Bible must be interpreted by being picky on each word. If that were so one could argue God only punishes a country with terrorism that leaves widows and orphans when the people abuse widows and orphans because that is all the verse says. But there is no such punishment when you abuse a non-widow or non-orphan. The Rabbi Ishmael style rules in general and the generalization approach to Biblical interpretation in particular, state otherwise. Rashi explains The Bible only mentioned the abuse of orphans and widows since such abuse is common since widows and orphans are typically helpless. However, the law and punishment applies to any person. In other words abuse of people when tolerated by a society is punished by a terrorism which leaves widows and children.
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. Bullets whether indicated through modern notation or through the Biblical method of repeating keywords always indicate contrastive emphasis - that is, each bullet is presumed to be a distinct item contrasted to the other items on the list. Very often the bullets are also used to indicate that the entire list is exhaustive of some spectrum. At times the bullet structure is not indicated through repeating keywords but rather through an explicit biblical enumerative statement. Today's verses illustrate this.
Advanced Rashi: Much more could be said about this Rashi but the above will suffice for now. We point out that the institution of minor female slavery is poorly understood. It was only allowed in conditions of absolute poverty. Such poverty typically gave rise to death and/or prostitution. The Torah allowed instead a private deal whereby the girl was promised marriage and board with a private owner. If however upon reaching puberty neither the owner nor the son liked the girl and would not marry her, and if her father was not in the meantime able to make the money needed to pay back the owner, then puberty set her free automatically. Note especially that the owner did not really own her. So for example if she was sold at age 6 for $60,0000 and her father made back the money he could redeeem her for $40,000 two years later - in other words, the father's redemption rights took precedence over the owners ownership - that is, the owner did not really own her but took her in because of her poverty and the potential marriage to his sons. Also note that countries like America have not really eliminated slavery but rather have eliminated the poverty which causes slavery.
We all know that Shavuoth happens on the 6th of Sivan and that the Torah was either received on Shavuoth itself or on the 7th of Sivan. (Rav Hirsch explains that if the Torah was received on Shavuoth then Shavuoth celebrates the receipt of the Torah. However if the Torah was received on the 7th of Sivan then Shavuoth celebrates our preparation and being ready for receipt of the Torah - that is, the preparation to receive the Torah would be considered the primary thing to celebrate). The Table below presents the verses that support the calculation that the Torah was received on the 6th or 7th of Sivan.
Advanced Rashi: Rashi points out that Ex24, the sacrifices prior to the receipt of the Torah happened on the 5th of Sivan while the Decalogue itself is stated in a prior chapter Ex20. Rashi concludes that Textual Biblical sequence does not necessarily indicate temporal sequence. It is important to supplement this Rashi comment with the grammatical observation that in Biblical Hebrew, the past, as indicated by a future conjugation preceded by a vav, indicates the simple past, while the past, as indicated by the past conjugation, indicates the past perfect (Which in English is indicated with the participle had.) Hence Ex24-01, stated in a chapter that occurs after the chapter with the description of the revealed law, states, And God had told Moses to come up for revelation... The use of the past perfect, had told gives grammatical support to the temporal precedence of Ex24 to the revelation mentioned in Ex20, Ex21, Ex22, Ex23. This simple but convincing grammatical proof for the dictum Textual Biblical sequence does not indicate temporal sequence seems to be an innovation of mine not mentioned by other Biblical commentators.
Advanced Rashi: I have added to Rashi's literal statements additional explanations of works as symbolizing miracles, feet as symbolizing God's trek through history, and the sapphire, the story gem as symbolizing the stories of the exodus. Such supplementing of Rashi symbolic comments is justified since the text uses 4 keywords - feet, sapphire, work, brick - but Rashi only explains one of them, brick. Hence the teacher is obligated to complement Rashi by explaining the others.
Conclusion
This week's issue contains no examples of the database Rashi method. Visit the RashiYomi website at http://www.Rashiyomi.com for further details and examples. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||