Ideas and Model Lessons in Learning Rashi-#10 Copyright RashiYomi Inc 2004 Adapted From Rashi-is-Simple http://www.RashiYomi.Com/
Written by Dr. Russell Jay Hendel;
A: REVIEW
This is the 10-th in a 30 part series on the Methods that are useful for teaching Rashi. Parts 1 - 9 may be accessed on the Rashi website at http://www.Rashiyomi.com/ in the workbook series. Part 1 contains useful information on our notation and methods - to best understand this chapter the reader should be familiar with our conventions.

B: THE MEANING METHODS
Part 5 began a 7 part subseries reviewing the 10 Rashi methods for explaining meaning. The background and examples provided by Part 5 will also be extremely useful for understanding this chapter. Today's chapter is devoted to the most controversial Rashi method: The 2-letter root method. Many academic scholars consider this method unfounded. I will therefore carefully explain it step by step.

C: A SIMPLE EXAMPLE #1: Gn41-43a
Prior to fully expounding the theory we give a very simple example: In Gn41-43a, Pharoh renamed Joseph, the new Vice-President of Egypt, with the name Avraych. Rashi loosely translates Avraych as good leader. A very succinct summary of the etymology, according to Rashi, is as follows
- The Hebrew word, Avraych, means Good Leader
- The first two Hebrew letters of this word, Av, means father
- The last two Hebrew letters of this word, Rach, means soft.
Quite simply then: The meaning of the entire word, Avraych, Good leader, is equal to the sum of its constituent two-letter pairs: Av-Rach, Soft Father. In other words a Good leader is a person who leads like a father but is simultaneously soft. The fundamental thesis of the 2-letter method is that the form of the word reflects its meaning. Just as the form of the 4 Hebrew letters is composed of two 2-letter pairs, so too is the meaning of the 4 Hebrew letters equal to the sum of the meanings of its two 2-letter components

D: CONTROVERSY
Rashi on Gn41-43a shows cites scholars who harshly criticize this approach: Ben Damarkus, strongly demurred to the above explanation (given in the last paragraph) of Rabbi Judah by asking him: How dare you twist the meaning of Hebrew words. Thus, Rashi, was well aware that the 2-letter root method was not accepted by everybody.

E: REVIEW OF GRAMMAR
To fully explain the 2-letter root method we first review the basic ideas of Hebrew grammar. To illustrate these ideas we use the Hebrew word: Shin-Mem-Resh-Tauv-Yud, Shamarti. This word means I watched. Using this word we explain the idea of 3 letter and 2 letter roots.

F: THREE LETTER ROOTS
It is well known and presented in almost all Hebrew Grammar books that Hebrew consists of 3 letter roots. Each root can be conjugated. The conjugations indicate such things as
- person (I, you, he)
- plurality (I-we; he-they)
- Time (I drank, I am drinking, I will drink)
- Gender (In Hebrew, male and female verb-forms are conjugated differently)
- Grammatical Mode (Active, Passive, Causative, Interactive etc.)

G: SHAMARTI
Returning to our example, the root Shin-Mem-Resh means to watch. The conjugation Sha-Mar-Ti means I watched.
The grammarians would describe Sha-Mar-Ti as
- a conjugation of
- the root Shin-Mem-Resh
- with a Tauv-Yud suffix.
This conjugation indicates 5 things: It indicates that the
- Grammatical Mode is the active mode (I watched vs. I was watched)
- Tense is the past tense (I watched vs. I will watch)
- person is first person (I watched vs. He watched)
- Plurality is singular (I watched vs. We watched)
- gender could be male or female

H: RASHI AND THREE LETTER ROOTS
Let me be very clear that Rashi agrees with everything we said in the preceding two paragraphs. That is Rashi did believe in three letter roots and he did believe in the three letter root conjugations. The academic scholars who have reviewed Rashi's two letter root theories erroneously thought that Rashi believed in two-letter roots in contrast to three letter roots. This is not so: Rather Rashi believed in two letter roots in addition to three letter roots.

I: THE TWO LETTER ROOT THEORY

The most succinct way to explain the two-letter root method is the following:
- although three letter roots are used for grammatical purposes of conjugation, to indicate tense, person, etc.
- nevertheless, two letter roots are used for semantic purposes to indicate meaning.

J: SHAMARTI - SHAYM REVACH!!!!
Returning to our example, Rashi would hold that
- the Hebrew word Shamarti, meaning I watched, is a grammatical conjugation of the three letter root, Shin-Mem-Resh
- but the three letter root Shin-Mem-Resh is a semantic conjugation of
- - - the two-letter root, Shin-Mem which means, having a name -- something known, and
- - - the one-letter root, Resh which means ReVach (space).
In other words, to not watch something is to place it or leave it out in empty nameless space. But to watch something means to place it in a named space (a space that is known and recognized to everybody).
In this example we see the fundamental thesis of the two-letter root method: The meaning of the three letters, Shin-Mem-Resh, to watch, is the sum of the meanings of the 2 and 1 letter components: Shin-Mem, named, and Resh, space. Hence, Watching is placing in a named place.

K: THE ACADEMIC ERROR
Using the preceding example we can succinctly describe the error of those academic scholars who criticized Rashi for his belief in the two letter theories: Rashi did not dispute the utility of three letter roots for purposes of grammatical conjugation. Rather, Rashi added an additional two-letter root theory which only applies to three letter roots, and whose purpose is to explain their meaning.

L: TWO AND ONE LETTER ROOTS
There are many points in the above explanation that require clarification: For example, on the one hand we stated that all Hebrew roots consist of three letters while on the other hand we stated that Shin-Mem is a two letter root and Resh is a one letter root.
The actual root of Shin-Mem is Shin-Vav-Mem; since the Vav is a weak letter we call the root a two-letter root. Similarly the root Resh-Vav-Cheth has two weak letters and therefore we can call Resh a one letter root.

M: FURTHER DETAILS
There are many other details and rules governing the two-letter root theory. Our purpose in this chapter is to learn Rashi. For this purpose we have expounded enough of the two letter root theory. Although Rashi on Gn41-43a cites scholars who dispute the two letter root theory, nevertheless we know he believed in it from the numerous examples where he used it. We shall now examine these Biblical examples showing clearly that
- (a) Rashi believed in the 2-letter theory and that
- (b) it is a respectable theory.

N: EXAMPLE 2: Ex25-08a
The Biblical text: And the Jews will make me a Temple (Hebrew, Mikdash)
The Rashi Text: Mikdash, meaning temple, is a place of holiness.
Rashi here uses the 2-letter root method: The first letter of Mikdash, Mem, indicates place, while the last three letters of Mikdash, Kuph-Daleth-Shin, means holiness.

O: THE THREE STUDENT LEVELS
Let us examine this Rashi at three student levels:
The Intermediate Level - Instructions to Student
- Using a Biblical Concordance or search engine, find Rashis where Mem means place or source.
- Break up each 4 letter word commented on by Rashi as a sum of Mem and the remaining three letters
- Do these etymologies make sense? Do they ring properly?
The Elementary Level - Instructions to Student
- Examine the following Rashis: Ex25-08a, Ex16-23b, Lv01-16a, Ex12-16a
- Break up each 4 letter word commented on by Rashi as a sum of Mem and the remaining three letters
- Do these etymologies make sense? Do they ring properly?
The (very) Advanced Level - Instructions to Student
- Perform the three instructions given at the intermediate student level
- find other 4 letter Hebrew words where Mem means place

P: SOLUTIONS TO THE EXERCISES
- Ex25-08a The Mikdash, Temple, is the Place, (Mem),of Holiness, (Kuph-Daleth-Shin)
- Lv01-16a The MuRaH, the bird crop, is the place, (Mem), of dung, (ReIi).
- Ex16-23b The Mishmereth, storage place, is a place, (Mem), that is watched, (Shamar).
- Ex12-16a The Mikrah Kodesh, holiday, is a place in time, (Mem), that is called, (Karah), for holiness, (Kodesh).
Some further examples not found in Rashi are
- Migdal, tower, is a big, (Gadal ), Place, (Mem)
- MeDiNah, the country, is the place, (Mem), where the law, (Din), holds.
- Maor, the stars, are places, (Mem), of light, (Or)
- Melech, the King, is the place, (Mem), where the (communal) path (Lech) is mapped out. (This etymology is due to Rav Hirsch)

Q: OTHER RASHI COMMENTARIES
Rabbi Epstein in his English translation of Rashi in his commentary on Ex25-08a, exploits this 2-letter root method. Thus other Rashi commentators did use the 2-letter root method.

R: THE RASHI WEBSITE AS A RESOURCE
Navigate to the Rashi lists page at http://www.Rashiyomi.com/lists.htm. In the left pane scroll down and click, WORD MEANINGS / 2-4 letter roots. The right plane now displays several lists of Rashis illustrating the 2 letter root method. For example, example 2, above, came from LIST910e --- you can review this list by clicking on it. LIST910h compactly presents the 4 letter roots that Rashi interpreted as sums of two-letter roots (See example 3 in the next paragraphs).

S: EXAMPLE 3: HOMEWORK EXERCISE:
Advanced Level-Instructions to student
- Find all 4 letter Hebrew words that Rashi breaks up as sums of two 2-letter words
- Summarize the etymologies in the same manner as we have summarized them above
- Do the etymologies ring properly? Do they make sense?
Intermediate Level-Instructions to Students
- Review the Rashis at Gn41-43b, Gn41-45a, Gn49-12a, Nu13-16a, Gn02-14a
- Identify the 4 letter root that Rashi was commenting on.
- Summarize the etymologies in the same manner as we have summarized them above.
- Do the etymologies ring properly? Do they make sense?
Elementary Student Level--Instructions to Students
- Review the following 4 letter words: Aleph-Beth-Resh-Caph, Pay-Ayin-Nun-Cheth,
Cheth-Caph-Lamed-Lamed, Yud-Hey-Shin-Ayin, Cheth-Daleth-Kuph-Lamed
- For each word look up in a dictionary the meaning of
- - - the 4 letter word and
- - - its two 2-letter components words
- Summarize the etymologies in the same manner as we have summarized them above.
- Do the etymologies ring properly? Do they make sense?

T: SOLUTIONS TO EXERCISES
- Avraych, Good leader, means, simultaneously a father, (av), but soft, (rach).
- Panayach, riddle-solver, means, uncovers, (Poah), the hidden, (nach).
- Cheth-Caph-Lamed-Lamed, drunk, means, swirling, (lul), from the palate, (chaych).
- Yud-Hey-Shin-Ayin, God-will-Save, means God, (Yah), will save, (Shoa).
- Cheth-Daleth-Kuph-Lamed, the rapids river, means sharp, (Chad), and light, (Kal).