Ideas and Model Lessons in Learning Rashi-#22 Copyright RashiYomi Inc 11-17-2005 Adapted From Rashi-is-Simple http://www.RashiYomi.Com/
Written by Dr. Russell Jay Hendel;
A: REVIEW
This is the 22-nd in a 30 part series presenting methods useful for teaching Rashi. Parts 1 - 21 may be accessed on the Rashi website at http://www.Rashiyomi.com/wbook.htm 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 SENTENCE SUBMETHOD
Chapter 21, which discussed the conjugation of Hebrew roots, began a 5-part series on the grammar methods. In this chapter we begin presentation of the sentence submethod. The sentence submethod explains grammatical principles that apply to whole sentences. Examples are presented in the rest of this and the next few chapters. By contrast, the conjugation method of the last chapter, chapter 21, applies only to roots, not to the whole sentence. Similarly the grammatical rules dealing with gender and plurality apply to specific parts of the sentence, such as the subject, verb and nouns.

C: FIVE SENTENCE SUBMETHODS
In this and the next few chapters we discuss the following 5 examples of the Grammar/sentence submethod:
- multi-verse sentences
- the interrogative sentence
- apposition.
- sentence rearrangement
- sentence clause connections

D: MULTI-VERSE SENTENCES
Most Biblical verses are complete sentences. Sometimes however, two or more consecutive Biblical verses are required to make one complete sentence. We refer to such a Biblical sentence, consisting of several verses, as a multi-verse sentence.

E: EXAMPLE 1: Dt02-16a Dt02-17a
Biblical text:
Dt02-16:17. So it came to pass, when all the men of war had perished and died from among the people, Dt02-17 the Lord spoke to me, saying,
Rashi (Paraphrased):
Dt02-16:17 is a multi-verse biblical sentence. By combining the two verses into one sentence we create an emphasis: God spoke to Moses when the sinners who could not enter the land died. We infer from this emphasis that Moses' prophecies were not personal but rather for the sake of the community---God only spoke to Moses when there was a community entering the land for whom Moses had to receive prophecies.

F: CONNECTIVE WORDS AND DELETIONS
Rashi's point can be made clearer by skillfully using connective words and word/phrase deletions. We can rewrite the verse as follows
Original Verses: Dt02-16:17. So it came to pass, when all the men of war had perished and died from among the people, Dt02-17 the Lord spoke to me, saying,
Rewritten Verses: Dt02-16:17 ..... When all the men of war died Then the Lord spoke to me, saying,
In the above example we have
- added the connective word then and bold underlined the word when
- deleted (or omitted on a first reading) some repetitive phrases so as to make the sentence unification smoother.

G: EXAMPLE 2: Dt01-31a Dt01-32a
The Biblical Text: Dt01-29:33
Dt01-29 Then I, Moses, said to you, Dread not, nor be afraid of them, the Canaanite nations.
Dt01-30 The Lord your God who goes before you, he shall fight for you, according to all what he did for you in Egypt before your eyes;
Dt01-31 And in the wilderness, where you have seen how the Lord your God carried you, like a man carries his son, in all the way that you went, until you came to this place.
Dt01-32 Yet in this thing you did not believe the Lord your God,
Dt01-33 Who went in the way before you, to search out a place for you to pitch your tents in, in fire by night, to show you by which way you should go, and in a cloud by day.
Rashi:
Dt01-31a, The verse phrase and in the wilderness, continues the thought of verse Dt01-30, God's salvation from Egypt and the wilderness. Similarly the verse phrase in Dt01-32, yet in this thing, refers back to Dt01-30.

H: THREE STUDENT LEVELS
The above Rashi requires clarification. We clarify the meaning of Rashi by presenting exercises at three student levels: Have students at each level answer the following questions: Because of the difficulty of the advanced and intermediate level we recommend using the elementary level:
The advanced level (Very difficult)
- Rewrite verses Dt01-29:33 as one sentence
- in rewriting as one sentence what connective keywords help transform the multiple verses into one sentence
- in rewriting as one sentence can you add clarity by deleting out some words and phrases
- in rewriting as one sentence can you add clarity by aligning certain verses
The intermediate level (Also very difficult)
Task 1: Combine Dt01-29:31 into one smooth sentence
- What connective words would you insert to make this sentence unification smoother
- What sentence phrases or words could you delete to make this sentence unification clearer
- What two phrases would you align/indent to make this sentence unification smoother
Task 2: Combine Dt01-29 and Dt01-32 into one smooth sentence
- What connective words would you insert to make this sentence unification smoother
- What verse phrases could you delete to make this sentence unification clearer
The elementary level
Below we present a rewritten version of Dt01-29:33 as one multi-verse sentence according to Rashi. We have used
- bold, underline,italic to indicate connective words that we have inserted for clarity
- brackets with non-italic small fonts to indicate words that we deleted
- formatting to align phrases that go with each other.
(29)Even though [Then] I, Moses, said to you, do not be afraid of the Canaanite nations.
     (30) since The Lord your God who goes before you, [he] shall fight for you, as he did he did for you in Egypt [before your eyes];
     (31)And in the wilderness, [where you have seen how the Lord your God carried you, like a man carries his son, in all the way that you went, until      you came to this place.]
(32)Nevertheless in this thing you did not believe the Lord your God,
     (33) Who went in the way before you, to search out a place for you to pitch your tents in, in fire by night, to show you by which      way you should go, and in a cloud by day.
Answer the following questions
- The connective words even though and nevertheless connect which two verses?___Ans: Dt01-29:31 & Dt01-32:33__
- the connective word since connects which verses?___Ans: Dt01-29 & Dt01-30
- The alignment of the phrases with the words wilderness and Egypt enhances the unity of which verses?___Ans:Dt01-30,Dt01-31

I: COMMENTS ON EXERCISES
The answers to the exercises may be found in the instructions to the elementary student. Special attention should be paid to the clarifying power of
- using the connective words, even though, since, nevertheless
- aligning/indenting various sentence parts.
- deleting (or omitting on a first reading) certain phrases

J: TWO TYPES OF RASHI COMMENTS
Notice the difference between the Rashi comments in example 1 vs example 2
- In example 1, some of the connective words were already present---Rashi's goal was to explain the further inferences that could be made by perceiving the two verses as one
- By contrast, in example 2, the sole point of the Rashi comments was to indicate the fact that the verses form a multi-verse sentence.

K: THE RASHI WEBSITE AS A RESOURCE
The Rashi website can be used as a resource to provide examples for the grammar / sentence method.
The Home page for the Rashi website is located at http://www.Rashiyomi.com/
The Main Rashi Database is located at http://www.Rashiyomi.com/lists.htm
Scroll down in the left hand frame till you find GRAMMAR / multi-verse sentences
Click on the link
The right frame will now contain the links to examples of the GRAMMAR / multi-verse sentences
One can also scroll down to any of the following, click and see in the right frame examples
- GRAMMAR / apposition
- GRAMMAR / the interrogative sentence
- GRAMMAR / consecutive paragraphs (this also covers the rules of sentence-clause connectives)
- GRAMMAR /rearrangement