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Their presence in Rashis on Parshath TaZRiA MeTZoRa Volume 18, Number 6 This weeks Weekly Rashi with Hebrew/English source tables will be accessible, on Friday, at http://www.Rashiyomi.com/rule1806.htm (c) RashiYomi Incorporated, Dr. Hendel, President, Apr 26 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 Lv13-43a discussing the appearance of certain head leprosies states Then the priest shall look upon it; and, behold, if the swelling of the sore is white reddish in his bald head, or in his bald forehead, as the appearance of skin leprosy Rashi clarifies the underlined word as the appearance of skin leprosy by referencing verse Lv13-02 which states When a man shall have in the skin of his flesh a swelling, a scab, or bright spot, and it is on the skin of his flesh like the disease of leprosy; then he shall be brought to Aaron the priest, or to one of his sons the priests; Hence the Rashi comment: The reference to appearance like skin leprosy in Lv13-43a refers to the skin leprosy symptoms mentioned in the chapter on skin leprosy beginning with Lv13-02.
When Rashi uses the synonym method he does not explain the meaning of a word but rather the distinction between two similar words both of whose meanings we already know.
We can invoke another literary rule, FFF, to explain how the word for washing comes to mean to immerse. The FFF rule states that words can be named by Form, Feel and Function. For example the Pentagon is named by its form while the United Nations is named by its function. Similarly hardship is named by its feeling. Applying the triple FFF principle we find that the word for washing can refer to the form of the washing, which is a simple immersion. Advanced Rashi: Rashi on this verse shows advanced methods. Rashi skillfully takes the Aramaic translation of the word Kuph-Beth-Samech and shows how in some verses the aramaic translation renders this word as immerse while in other verses the aramaic translation renders this word as clean. We however, have chosen a different route. We examined actual verses to show how the two nuances - cleaning and immersion - can blend with each other.
Note: I am re-reviewing last weeks Rashi which is similar in flavor to this weeks Rashi. This Rashi may be a bit technical for some students not familiar with Hebrew and I advise the such students to skip immediately to rule #4, Alignment. Most people are aware that Hebrew verbs come from three-letter roots. Each root is conjugated in the 7 dimensions of person, gender,plurality, tense, activity, modality, and direct-object. For example the root Shin Mem Resh means to watch. The conjugations Shin-Mem-Resh-Tauv-Yud and Nun-Shin-Mem-Resh-Nun-Vav mean I watched and we were watched respectively. The rules for Hebrew grammar are carefully described in many modern books and are well known. Rashi will sometimes comment when a verse is using a rare conjugation of an odd grammatical form. When presenting grammatical Rashis my favorite reference is the appendix in volume 5 of the Ibn Shoshan dictionary. This very short appendix lists most conjugations.
Based on the above Rashi translates Lv14-43b as follows (the underlined words follow the above grammatical points:) And if the disease comes again, and break out in the house, after he has yanked away the stones, after he has cornered the house, and after it was plastered; Advanced Rashi: My text of Rashi seems to say that HiQCoT is passive. But this does not make sense and is not consistent with any known form. It is not even consistent with the opinion brought down by the Radack that the root of HiQCoT is Kuph-Tzade-Ayin. Consequently I believe this to be a printing error. I believe Rashi only commented on HiToACH, XiLeC but that a later scribe inserted the word HiQCoT. The scribe errored because Rashi brought as an example HayASoth which resembles HiQCoT in that it begins with a hey. Such scribal transcription errors occur from time to time in Rashi. Rashi's main point was contrasting the active form of XiLeTZ - to yank - with the passive form of HiToACH - to be plastered.
The table below presents an aligned extract of verselets in Lv14-06 Both verselets discuss the lepor-sacrifice procedures done with the cedar, hyssop, worm-died-wool and live bird. The alignment justifies the Rashi assertions that There are two takings: The priest a) takes the bird and b) takes the cedar-hyssop-worm-died-wool; but there is one one dipping: The priest dips the entire bird-cedar-hyssop-worm-died-wool package together.
Advanced Rashi: But how do you do two takings and one dipping? Rashi explains further: You tie the cedar-hyssop-worm-died-wool (one bundle) and then take that bundle and the bird (Because of the two bundles there are two takings). You then dip them together.
Certain Biblical paragraphs are stated in a Theme-Development-Theme form. In other words a broad general idea is stated first followed by the development of this broad general theme in specific details. The paragraph-like unit is then closed with a repetition of the broad theme. The Theme-Detail-Theme form creates a unified paragraph. The detailed section of this paragraph is therefore seen as an extension of the general theme sentences. Today's example illustrates this as shown immediately below.
Rashi generalizes the detail clause head, beard, eyebrows as illustrative of the general clause, all his hair and states: hair that is dense and visible. We believe this comment evident and consistent with the Rabbi Ishmael style guidelines.
Advanced Rashi: If you look carefully at the verse above you will see that the word all is bolded. The word all always requires generalization. Hence the additional Rashi comment: The actual law requires shaving the arm and armpit hair. In other words all hair is shaven except the nose-hair which is neither visible nor dense. My contribution to this Rashi is to see the derivation as emanating from two Rashi methods: The theme-detail-theme method and the special word- all method. Alternate derivations of the final law - dense and visible are given by Rambam and Raavad (in the laws of Leprosy) who do not use the exegesis from the word all.
The Formatting principle includes exegetical Rashi comments focusing on paragraph structure. That is, the parts of a paragraph when properly sequenced naturally suggest commentary. This type of commentary, emanating from structure, is different from commentary from word meaning, grammatical function or verse comparison. Todays example nicely illustrates this. We present below a paragraph Lv13-01:06 indented and bulletized to indicate its structure.
We have, for convenience lettered the various bullets. The letter Z indicates time Zero. The letters A,B respectively indicate the 1st and 2nd week (Week A and Week B). The paragraph indicates inspections of the leprous flesh at times 0,1,2 (Z,A,B). The Rashi comment is now crystal clear: The seven days mentioned in bullet Z2 is connected with the inspection mentioned in bullet A. In other words the priest shuts him up seven days in order to see if any leprous signs develop at the end of the seven days. Many other similar connective comments can be inferred from the above paragraph structure. We have in fact often, in this email newsletter, advocated generalizing a specific Rashi comment to other comments with similar interpretations. It is a very useful exercise for the serious student of Rashi if they take the laws of leprosy as outlined for example in the Mishneh Torah of the Rambam and trace each law to its corresponding place in the above bulleted paragraph structure. Advanced Rashi: We again emphasize that the driving force for this Rashi comment is not word meaning, grammar, extra words, or alignment. Rather the driving force for this Rashi comment is the paragraph structure which in and of itself communicates meaning and textual interpretation. This emphasis on structure as a source of interpretation is an important point often overlooked by Rashi scholars. The serious student of Rashi should carefully study this and similar examples until this new Rashi tool becomes part of their arsenal of interpretative tools.
We ask the following database query: How are the various types of ritual impurities caused? 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: Most types of ritual impurity are caused by world events such as death and sexual discharges. However leprous ritual impurity in addition to a world event - e.g. the white skin patches with white hair - also requires a declaration of a priest to create the ritually impure state. That is a white patch with white hair is in and of itself not ritually impure until a priest declares it ritually impure. This contrast - leprous vs other ritual impurities - is textually indicated by a phrase peculiar to leprosy, ....and the priest shall declare it impure... a phrase which occurs with no other ritual impurity, implying that priestly declaration is a prerequisite for creation of the ritually impure status. The list below presents the results of the database query.
Verse Lv15-25 discussing the ritual impurity of houses states And the priest shall command that they empty the house, before the priest goes in to see the plague, that all that is in the house be not made unclean; and afterward the priest shall go in to see the house. Notice how the meaning of the verse and the justifying reason are clear - the house utensils are cleared from the house prior to the priestly inspection since otherwise they would be declared ritually impure and unusable. The question remains why? What non-verse values and goals does the underlying law reflect. Rashi explains: The effect of this law is that household utensils are spared from being declared ritually impure which would render them unusable to the owner. We infer that the Torah values not only life but even the property of Jews; even petty monetary ownership of even sinful Jews. Because this Rashi introduces values - God's regard for petty monetary ownership - to explain a verse, we have classified it as using a non-verse method. Advanced Rashi: Rashi continues. ...But if certain utensils were declared impure then an immersion ceremony could purify them making them usable. It follows that the purpose of the law is to protect clay earthenware utensils that have no purification process. I could go further and add:The law also protects the owner against the inconvenience of having to wait a day or two to use his utensils (after a proper ritual immersion). Such Rashis sometimes turn people off as being too technical. The approach of this email list is that Rashi is not exhausting the meaning of the midrash but rather clarifying/illustrating it!!! Rashi never denied that the simple meaning of the text is that the Bible showed care for Jewish property rights. However Rashi clarifies that the application of this idea applies primarily to clay utensils whose purification would require destruction. By viewing the Rashi as illustrative and clarifying vs. as identifying and exhaustive of total meaning we obtain a richer Rashi experience.
Biblical chapter Lv13 discusses the ritual impurity of leprosy. The atonement procedure for this ritual impurity is discussed in Biblical Chapter Lv14. A full discussion of the rich and beautiful symbolism of leprosy would require applying the objective symbolic methods presented in my article on symbolism. In this weekly digest we simply sketch a few important ideas. The atonement procedure for the lepor is presented in Lv14 which begins Then shall the priest command to take for him who is to be cleansed two birds alive and clean, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop
Rashi states: Leprosy is a punishment for chattering like a bird which leads to slander, the core of personality sins. The atonement and remedy for slander is an awareness of the rich spectrum of human personality from the lower hyssop-like classes to the mighty cedar like upper classes. Awareness of the full spectrum of human personality prevents a person from slandering people since he understands each individual's behavior based on where they are. Advanced Rashi:Rashi does not literally state the symbolic interpretation presented above. Rather Rashi states If a person feels high and mighty like a cedar then let him lower himself till he feels like a hyssop. However I believe that our interpretation of Rashi is consistent with the above literal interpretation: We argued that Rashi is interpreting the symbolism generally: There is a full spectrum of human personality. Rashi literally gives a specific example of this very general idea: If you think you belong on the upper class, the cedar part of the human spectrum, then see those aspects of you that belong to the lower class, the hyssop part of the human spectrum. However Rashi would be fully comfortable to apply the cedar-hyssop spectrum in other ways also. In other words we see the Rashi text as an example of a more general symbolic interpretation.
Praise be Him who chose them and their learning.
Conclusion
This week's parshah contains examples of all Rashi method. Visit the RashiYomi website at http://www.Rashiyomi.com and http://www.Rashiyomi.com/rule.htm for further details and examples. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||