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 Ex38-28a URL Reference: (c) http://www.Rashiyomi.com/w17n3.htm Brief Summary: The heads of the courtyard pillars were overlaid (Ex38-28) with silver (Ex38-17).

Verse Ex38-28a discussing the courtyard pillars states And of the thousand seven hundred and seventy five shekels he made hooks for the pillars, and overlaid their heads, and bound them. Rashi clarifies the underlined word overlaid by referencing verse Ex38-19 which states And their pillars were four, and their sockets of bronze four; their hooks of silver, and the overlaying of their capitals and their joints of silver. Hence the Rashi comment: The overlaying mentioned in Ex38-29 is an overlaying with silver as indicated explicitly in Ex38-19.

Text of Target verse Ex38-28a	Text of Reference Verse Ex38-19
And their pillars were four, and their sockets of bronze four; their hooks of silver, and the overlaying of their capitals and their joints of silver.	And the men came after the women; all who were willing hearted, and brought bracelets, and ear rings, and rings, and bracelets, all jewels of gold; and every man who offered offered an offering of gold to the Lord.
Rashi comments: The overlaying mentioned in Ex38-29 is an overlaying with silver as indicated in Ex38-19.

The FFF submethod states that words can be named by Form, Feel, and Function.
• Some examples of naming words by Form include (a) the leg of a chair, (b) the handle of a pot, (c) the branch of a family tree, (d) surfing the net or (e) brainstorming Some of these examples illustrate naming objects by form while other examples illustrate naming activities by form.
• A good punchy example distinguishing naming by form vs. function is pentagon-UN. The pentagon is named after the shape and form of the building while the United Nations is named after the function and purpose of the building. Although both these buildings have as a purpose world peace they are named differently.
• Examples of naming by feel/substance are glasses, hardship, ironing-board, plaster etc.

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 Ex40-22b discussing the erection of the Temple states And he put the table in the tent of meeting, upon the Temple thigh northward, without the veil. Rashi explains: The Temple thigh refers to the Temple side. Here Rashi uses the FFF principle, Rashi names position by the positional form of a body organ.

Examples of naming by body positional form abound in many languages: For example, in English we have, the handle of the pot, the eye of the hurricane, the heart of the west, the leg of the table, the head of the mountain and many more. By placing Rashi in the context of these examples we enrich our Rashi experience.

Today, students of the Bible learn grammar from Biblical Hebrew grammar textbooks. These textbooks organize material by topics. Grammatical topics include a) verb mood and conjugation, b) plurality agreement, c) pronoun reference, d) subject-verb-object sequencing, e) sentence structure and type, f) the possessive and g) connective words, and many other topics.

However in Rashi's time gramamr was just beginning. There were no official grammatical textbooks and tables. One of Rashi's functions was to teach grammar. Rashi did not write a grammar textbook but instead left grammatical explanations appended to each verse.

In today's example Rashi explains rules about gender. Some background is useful. In Hebrew unlike English every word has a gender. Consequently possessive suffixes must reflect proper gender agreement. A punchy way of capturing Hebrew gender in English is to use in translations the anthropomorphic terms his and her. Using this convention we would translate Ex35-17 as follows: [The wise will make...] the hangings of the court, his pillars thereof, and her sockets, and the screen for the gate of the court; The Rashi comment is now readily understandable: The word court can be both masculine and feminine. Hence the switch in the verse: his pillars, vs. her sockets.

Advanced Rashi: Rashi in his commentary simply introduces the idea of bi-gender words. He does not explain why there is such a stark switch. However we can easily suggest that sockets are receptacles and hence feminine while pillars are masculine symbols.

The table below presents an aligned extract of verses or verselets in Ex40-29a, Ex40-31. Both verses/verselets discuss the procedures when the Temple was erected / conscecrated. The alignment justifies the Rashi comment that: Note the contrast in subjects: he (Moses) offered vs Moses, Aaron, and his sons washed. It was Moses not Aaron who offered the daily offering during the conscecration of the Temple. Indeed, just as Moses offered sacrifices during the 7 days of consecration (Lv08-15,Lv08-19,21, etc) so too he offered on the 8th day since Aaron and his sons had not yet completed all the induction sacrifices (Lv08-01:04) and was not yet a priest. Since there were no priests, Moses did the offering.

Verse	Text of Verse	Rashi comment
Ex40-29	And he[Moses] put the altar of burnt offering by the door of the tabernacle of the Tent of the Meeting, and he offered upon it the burnt offering and the meal offering; as the Lord commanded Moses.	Note the contrast in subjects: he (Moses) offered vs Moses, Aaron, and his sons washed. It was Moses not Aaron who offered the daily offering during the conscecration of the Temple. Indeed, just as Moses offered sacrifices during the 7 days of consecration (Lv08-15,Lv08-19,21, etc) so too he offered on the 8th day since Aaron and his sons had not yet completed all the induction sacrifices (Lv08-01:04) and was not yet a priest. Since there were no priests, Moses did the offering.
Ex40-31	And Moses and Aaron and his sons washed their hands and their feet there;

Advanced Rashi: We can strengthen the Rashi derivation. All of Ex40 uses Moses-he to indicate the subject of the sentence until Ex40-31 when the subject switches to Mosees, Aaron and his sons. This contrast indicates a switch in subject from he = Moses to Moses, Aaron and his children. The alignment table above simply contrasts two of the many verses in the chapter.

The table below presents presents two contradictory verses. Both verses talk about the temple construction. The underlined words highlight the contradiction. One verse says ...the wise men constructed the temple while the other verse says ... Bezalel constructed.... Which is it? Did Bezalel construct the Temple or did the staff of wise people construct it? Rashi simply resolves this using the 2 aspects method: Bezalel was the manager of Temple construction The crafstmen were the staff of Temple construction. Managers obtain credit for the entire project since by overseeing the project they enable others to do its work.

Summary	Verse / Source	Text of verse / Source
The wise staff constructed the Temple	Ex36-01:02	Then, Bezalel and Aholiab, and every wise hearted man, in whom the Lord put wisdom and understanding to know how to work all kinds of work for the service of the sanctuary, did according to all that the Lord had commanded. And Moses called Bezalel and Aholiab, and every wise hearted man, in whose heart the Lord had put wisdom, every one whose heart stirred him up to come to the work to do it;
Bezalel made the ark	Ex37-01	And Bezalel made the ark of shittim wood; two cubits and a half was its length, and a cubit and a half its breadth, and a cubit and a half its height;
Resolution:	2 Aspects:	Bezalel was the manager of Temple construction The crafstmen were the staff of Temple construction. Managers obtain credit for the entire project since by overseeing the project they enable others to do its work.

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. Today's example illustrates this as shown below.

Verse Ex39-32a discussing the completion of the Temple states General: Thus was finished all the work of the tabernacle of the tent of meeting; [since]... Detail: ... the children of Israel did according to all that HaShem commanded Moses, so did they.

In the above translation we have interpolated the word since which captures the essence of Rashi's remark on a causal connection between the two verse halves. This causal relationship exhibits the general-development form: The general idea of completion is developed using the causal idea of obedience.

Advanced Rashi: There is a subtle point here: The Temple, even though it is God's house, was not built by God (compare the Midrash that God will build the 3rd Temple). Man had to participate for the Temple to be built in a timely manner.

We ask the following database query: How many temple utensils are described in the bible and how are they sequenced? 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-Midrashic inference: Different sequencing is used for the Temple objects. Each sequencing reflected a different ordering principle.
• The order to build reflects a sequence based on spiritual importance - for example the most important thing is acceptance of God's law symbolized by the ark.
• The actual construction reflects criteria of building importance - thus the building structures are made first, followed by critical utensils, followed by outside utensils.
• The actual building erection reflects criteria of homeowner importance - thus the building is made first, followed by the most important utensils (the ark) and their protection, followed by other utensils, followed by items outside the building/house.
The list below presents the results of the database query.

In the above table we have indicated the alternate sequencing using letters and numbers. For example the roof tent is mentioned first in Ex36 - Ex 38 and the building structure is mentioned first in the Ex40.