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 Nu15-25a URL Reference: (c) http://www.Rashiyomi.com/w33n23; Brief Summary: The SACRIFICE and SIN-OFFERING mentioned in Nu15-25a refer to the OX-UP and GOAT-SIN offering in Nu15-24.

Verse Nu15-25a discussing the communal sin offering for negligent idolatrous worship states And the priest shall make an atonement for all the congregation of the people of Israel, and it shall be forgiven them; for it is ignorance; and they have brought their offering, a sacrifice made by fire to the Lord, and their sin offering before the Lord, for their ignorance; Rashi clarifies the underlined words offering...sin offering by referencing verse(s) Nu15-24, also discussing the communal sin offering for negligent idolatrous worship which states Then it shall be, if anything is committed by ignorance without the knowledge of the congregation, that all the congregation shall offer one young bull for an up offering, for a sweet savor to the Lord, with its meal offering, and its drink offering, according to the prescribed ordinance, and one kid of the goats for a sin offering. Hence the Rashi comment: The offering and sin offering mentioned in Nu15-25 refer to the ox up offering and goat sin offering mentioned in Nu15-24.

Text of Target verse Nu15-25	Text of Reference Verse Nu15-24
And the priest shall make an atonement for all the congregation of the people of Israel, and it shall be forgiven them; for it is ignorance; and they have brought their offering, a sacrifice made by fire to the Lord, and their sin offering before the Lord, for their ignorance;	Then it shall be, if anything is committed by ignorance without the knowledge of the congregation, that all the congregation shall offer one young bull for an up offering, for a sweet savor to the Lord, with its meal offering, and its drink offering, according to the prescribed ordinance, and one kid of the goats for a sin offering.
Rashi comments: The offering and sin offering mentioned in Nu15-25 refer to the ox up offering and goat sin offering mentioned in Nu15-24.

Advanced Rashi: Note especially that Nu15-24 refers to the up offering while Nu15-25 simply refers to the offering. Frequently when using the reference method subtle nuances like the above emerge.

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.

There are a variety of words in Hebrew which mean mighty. The Hebrew Biblical root Ayin-Nun-Kuph means to bear a heavy weight. Hence the Ayin-Nun-Kuph-Yud-Mem, the Anakim, refer to husky muscular truck-driver like people. You can usually recognize these people by their big bulging muscles. These people can effortlessly carry big loads.

Hence Rashi would translate Nu13-33 as And we saw there the pushers the sons of the big-muscles who came from the pushers and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so were we in their sight. In this translation we have translated Nun-Pay-Lamed-Yud-Mem, from the Hebrew Nun-Pay-Lamed, to fall, as pushers, that is people who push other people down (so they fall).

Advanced Rashi: But Rashi does not literally say what we have said above. Instead Rashi says that Anakim means people who bear great heat/anger thru their height.

The approach of this email list is to see Rashis as supplementing common-sense explanations with further details. The common-sense explanation to the word Anakim is muscular people who bear heavy weights. To this common-sense explanation Rashi adds Such people also cause freight/anger simply by their stature and appearance. In other words whereas we looked at the physical meaning of the word - to bear heavy weights - Rashi supplemented this and reviewed the emotional impact of the word - They bear anger/freight/hostility simply by their height and appearance. Such a reading of Rashi - as a comment that supplements the natural comment we would make by ourselves - adds richness to Rashi. Rashi of course embellishes his comment by punning on the word to bear. Rashi could equally have said these people cause freight by their very appearance. Instead Rashi says They bear freight/anger/hostility by their very appearance.

This approach - regarding Rashi as supplementing obvious comments and explanations - is a fundamental approach in this email newsletter. This approach provides deeper, richer and more natural insights into Rashi.

These Rashi comments involve 5 Rashi rules. The reader can read each rule separately, or, read in the following sequence: Rule #3, Rule #4, Rule #5, Rule #7, Rule #8. By viewing the Rashi's from many perspectives we obtain a more wholistic view.

Two familiar functions of grammar in all languages are pronoun reference and plurality.

To appreciate the Rashi comment note the shifting plural and singular in verses Nu14-22:25 And if you have erred, and not observed
• all these [plural] commandments [plural], which the Lord ...
• Then it shall be, if it [singular] is committed by ignorance ...
• that all the congregation shall offer ... and they shall bring their offering, a sacrifice made by fire to the Lord, and their sin offering before the Lord, for their inadvertent sin [singular];

We see contradictory indications - the sin is simultaneously plural and singular. We have laid the grammatical foundation for this contradiction here in the grammar rule. We will resolve the contradiction below in rule #5. In rule #4 we will further support the contradiction by comparing to other sin offerings.

Rashi's basic approach is that we are talking about a sin offering for one commandment that is akin to all commandments: that is, the sin of idolatry.

The table below presents an aligned extract of verses or verselets in Nu15-41b. Both verses/verselets discuss God as he runs the world. The alignment justifies the Rashi comment that: (A) I am the God who took you out of Egypt and can redeem you from future problems. (B) I am the God who punishes you and other nations when they misbehave.

Verse	Text of Verse	Rashi comment
Nu15-41c	I am the Lord your God who took you out of Egypt to be your God I am the Lord your God [who leaves you in Egypt-like tyrannies when you don't observe the commandments.]	(A) I am the God who took you out of Egypt and can redeem you from future problems. (B) I am the God who punishes you and other nations when they misbehave.
Nu15-41c	I am the Lord your God who took you out of Egypt to be your God I am the Lord your God [who leaves you in Egypt-like tyrannies when you don't observe the commandments.]

Advanced Rashi: We can clearly see the aligned underlined phrases, I am the Lord your God. The first aligned passage explicitly states ...who took you out of Egypt. But what justifies our interpreting the second aligned passage ...who leaves you in Egypt-like tyrannies when you don't observe the commandments. This is not stated in the text!

To properly understand this we must understand the universal literary phenomenon of ellipsis, statements implied but not explicitly stated. Rashi used ellipsis. For example, Ex22-22 states don't abuse any widow or orphan If you dare abuse them.... Rashi explains The phrase If you dare abuse them is an ellipsis. It doesn't say what will happen if you abuse them but it is implicitly understood: If you dare abuse them you will be heavily punished. Gangsters frequently used such elliptical threats since they induce fear.

I think a similar approach of ellipsis applies to the verse we are studying in Nu15-41: It is implicit that the second I am the Lord your God is a threat and threats are better communicated elliptically. The justification for interpreting the ellipsis in this manner is the contrast implied by the two aligned phrases.

I am indebted to Dr. Aviva Zornberg's new book, The Murmuring Deep: Reflections of the Biblical Unconscious, for inspiring the understanding of this Rashi. I was at the launching of this book at Pardes in June a few weeks ago. There professor David Shulman used Indian philosophy to describe Aviva's book as studying silence. The book describes several types of silences and the communications implicit in them. Aviva picked up this theme in her own talk on her book. Using Kabbalistic terminology she distinguished between voice and words Frequently the Biblical text will give voice without words and it is important to understand the implied content. You can google the book title to find reviews or purchase it. I believe the ellipsis I am the Lord your God is an elliptical silence indicating punishment, a wordless voice which effectively communicates.

The table below presents presents two contradictory verses/verselets. Both verses/verselets talk about God's attributes on dealing with sinners. The underlined words highlight the contradiction. One verse/verselet says God cleans sins while the other verse says God doesn't clean sins. Which is it? Does God clean sins or not? Rashi simply resolves this using the two aspects method: God cleans sins when people repent. But if people don't repent and the children continue their parents behavior God doesn't clean sins but visits the sins on both parents and children.

Summary	Verse / Source	Text of verse / Source
God cleans sin	Nu14-10	God, [you are] long suffering and very merciful, you lift sin and iniquity; [although] you clean [sin] you [sometimes] don't clean [sin] [namely when you can] visit the sins of parents on their children [because the children uphold their parents sin]
God doesn't clean sins	Nu14-10	God, [you are] long suffering and very merciful, you lift sin and iniquity; [although] you clean [sin] you [sometimes] don't clean [sin] [namely when you can] visit the sins of parents on their children [because the children uphold their parents sin]
Resolution:	2 Aspects	God cleans sins when people repent. But if people don't repent and the children continue their parents behavior God doesn't clean sins but visits the sins on both parents and children.

Advanced Rashi: Note especially how this Rashi can give rise to a flowing translation of the verse. In the above table our suggested flowing translation is indicated by the bracketed words. I believe that the form X not X as in cleans doesn't clean should be interpreted as a Biblical idiomatic style requiring the above-indicated bracketed expressions.

The Formatting rule includes the methods of writing consecutive paragraph or sentences. Just as a paragraph is a collection of sentences unified by a topic sentence and developed by supporting sentences, so too, a chapter very often has a theme that is developed by a skillfully sequenced set of paragraphs. Rashi new of 3 methods of writing consecutive paragraphs
• Cause-effect: The second paragraph is the effect of the first paragraph. The first paragraph is the cause of the second paragraph.
• Contrast: The two paragraphs illustrate contrasting sides of a theme.
• Unified theme: The two or more paragraphs illustrate a common theme. For example a common theme may be illustrated by a sequence of example-paragraphs; each paragraph exemplifies and illustrates one example of the basic theme.
The above three principles indicate methods for paragraph development into chapters as well as methods for sentence development into paragraphs.

We formerly classified methods of paragraph and chapter development under the grammar rule. However we think it more proper to devote the grammar rule to the relation between meaning and form, for example how verb conjugational forms indicates meaning. As indicated in the opening boxed in table to this section, the formatting rule governs use of sequence to indicate climax and paragraph sequencing.

Rashi on Nu15-02a explains the sequenceing of three paragraphs:
• Nu14-11:25. The spies slandered God; the Jewish people tested God 10 times. They must be punished
• Nu14-26:45. The spies and Jewish people will die out while their children will come to the land.
• Nu15-01:16. When you come to the land and offer sacrifices.

Rashi's comment on this is obvious: The people were just told that they tested God 10 times and therefore they would not come into the land but their children would. The doubts on this are clear. Perhaps their children would also sin. Perhaps the sight of war would temp their children to rebel. God therefore emphasized in the next paragraph When you come to the land.... Here Rashi uses the contrast method of paragraph development: You will not come but your children will come to Israel and that is a promise.

We ask the following database queries: (1) How does the Bible describe sins as attacking God? (2) Can any commandments be said to be personally delivered by God (instead of Moses)? The reader is encouraged to perform the queries using a standard Biblical Konnkordance or search engine. These database queries yield the list below. The list justifies the following Rashi inference: (1) Of all commandments only idolatry/blasphemy is categorized as despising Gods word. (2) Of all commandments only the prohibition of idolatry/blasphemy can be categorized as given personally by God. The 2 lists below presents the results of the database query and show examples

As can be seen the normal rankout for violation of a serious commandment is descecrating God's name. The rankout despising God's word is only used by Idolatry / Blasphemy.

In the Decalogue table the inferences are based on whether God is referred to in the first vs 3rd person. I and my indicate a direct communication from God while as God commanded or he indicate something spoken by Moses in the name of God. We infer from this that God personally delivered the commmandment prohibiting idolatry while the other commandments were given by Moses in the name of God.

Advanced Rashi: This example is a peach of a Rashi aptly illustrating the database method. Without the database method Rashi appears to be picky on words: The verse says For he despised God's word. And indeed we find that only the commandment prohibiting idolatry was personally spoken by God vs. Moses Such an approach to Rashi based on minutae is neither appealing nor convincing.

However the database method exposes a certain broadness to the Rashi. The phrase despising God's word is rare. The usual term to indicate violation of a serious commandment is descecrating God's name. This database observation allows us to focus on the uniqueness in the phrase despising God's word. Similarly the database study of the Decalogue clearly shows a difference between the 1st two commandments which were said in first person and the other commandments which were said in third person. Thus the database queries expose certain minutae as reflective of broader categories: There is emphasis on God's word since that phrase is never used and there is even more emphasis on God vs. Moses. This broader emphasis provided by the database queries allows us to fullly appreciate the Rashi comments as emanating from clearly intended nuances vs. picky minutae.

Verse Nu13-17 describing Moses instructions to the spies states: And Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said unto them: 'Get you up here into the South, and go up to the Mount; Verse Nu13-21 describing the actual journey of the spies states they went up, and spied out the land from the TZin desert unto Rehob, at the entrance to Hamath.

Rashi comments: