Rabbi Ishmael Example Method:#32 of 36 ########################################################### # 10 YEAR Ayelet DAILY-RASHI-YOMI CYCLE # # Sep 9, 2000 # # Rashis 258-258 Of 7800 (3.3%) # # # # Reprinted with permission from Rashi-is-Simple, # # (c) 1999-Present, Dr. Hendel # # http://www.RashiYomi.Com/ # # # #Permission to reprint with this header but not for profit# # # # WARNING: READ with COURIER 10 (Fixed width) FONTS # ########################################################### BACKGROUND EXAMPLE ------------------ Dt25-04a Dont muzzle an OX while threshing: RASHI: Dont muzzle ANY ANIMAL Lv01-02c Offer ANIMALS--Offer OX and SHEEP animals RASHI: You can **ONLY** offer OX & SHEEP animals Dt18-03b These are the laws for those who offer sacrifices Whether from Oxen or Sheep RASHI: So these laws only apply to OXEN and SHEEP not to beasts and birds Why the difference? Why in one verse do we generalize OXEN to any animal, while in the other verse we restrict the law to ONLY oxen OVERVIEW -------- This module (which we have called CLIMAX) deals with the rules governing the interpretation of Biblical examples. If the Torah for example said "Eat apple pies" how should this be interpretd? --Should we say "Eat apple pies" means **ONLY** eat apple pies --Should we say "Eat apple pies" means eat ANYTHING TASTY --Should we say "Eat apple pies" means eat FRUIT pies In other words, how do we interpret the Biblical EXAMPLE apple pie. Here are the rules governing interpretation of Biblical EXAMPLES---the EXAMPLES summarizing the past month will follow. -GRAND SUMMARY PART 3- -IN METHOD 3 WE KEEP THE LITERAL INTERPRETATION- METHOD 2b: GENERAL-SPECIFIC--ONLY use the SPECIFIC -------------------------------------------------- EXAMPLES -------- Eat PIES--APPLE PIES CONCLUSION: **ONLY** eat apple pies (21) Lv01-02c Offer animals-oxen CONCLUSION: Only oxen can be offered RULE: Sometimes the Bible will state something twice: 1st) It will state a GENERAL category (eg Offer animals,eat pies) 2nd)It then states a SPECIFIC example(eg Offer Oxen,eat apple pies The rule is that the law ONLY applies to the specific example and this example should NOT be generalized. *1 In the sequel we will use the terms GENERAL and SPECIFIC to refer to the 2 parts of the sentence. (22) Dt18-03b These are the laws for those who offer SACRIFICES (GENERAL) ..whether OXEN or SHEEP (DETAILS) So the above laws ONLY apply to OXEN and SHEEP not to BEASTS or BIRDS (23) Lv07-12 (Mnacoth 78a) (From talmud not Rashi) A person who brings a thanksgiving offering should bring the CHALAH (minchah) offering also-GENERAL ---either the MATZOH WAFER OFFERING-------------DETAIL ---or the RICH OIL CHALAH OFFERING TALMUD: Only these two types of Minchah offerings (Matzoh and Rich-oil-challah) can be brought. (24) Lv07-26a (See Krituth 21a) The verses state Lv07-26:27 Dont eat any blood-----------GENERAL STATEMENT of birds, animals------------PARTICULAR If you eat blood you'll be cut off (as punishment) RASHI: So the law is that only blood of birds and animals is prohibited (but not eg blood of fish, grasshopers etc which is not prohibited with a cutoff punishment)*2 (25) Lv11-21b (ALso see Chullin 66a) Lv11-21:23 reads as follows Do not eat insect-like creatures----GENERAL Do not eat insect-1, insect-2 ...---DETAILS Any insect with 4 legs should not be eaten*3 RASHI:Rashi explicitly says 'you cannot eat these insect creatures if it has the names 'insect-4..'. So Rashi identifies the law with the specific examples given. So Rashi is interpreting this as GENERAL-DETAIL*3 (26) Dt21-22b (Sanhedrin 45b) The verse states When a person commits a capital crime---GENERAL then you should hang him on a tree(ie besides executing him you should hang him) ... for he has DESPISED GOD------------------DETAIL RASHI: ALL executed people are also hung after the execution. Even though the DETAILED stage says "those that DESPISED GOD" should be hung, (implying that ONLY the blasphemer and idolater who despise God should be hung) nevertheless we do not apply the GENERAL-DETAIL template since the DETAIL phrase is separated from the GENERAL phrase; And a GENERAL-DETAIL set that is separated in not judged as a GENERAL-DETAIL style.*4 NOTES ----- *1 There are certain subrules to this rule which we will not go into here (but will go into in footnotes to this whole topic). As a simple example of something we will not go into, the Talmud views a GENERAL and SPECIFIC statement that are NOT next to each other as different than 1 sentence with GENERAL and SPECIFIC (See San 45 and Dt21-22b for an example) *2 There is a suggestion in the Talmud that this has a GENERAL-DETAIL-GENERAL form. Some argue that the following sentence "If you eat blood you will die" is a GENERAL STATEMENT. But the opposing side contends that the 1st and last GENERAL statement do not resemble each other. The opposing side contends that "Punishment, if you eat blood" is different than "Prohibition, to eat blood" This is the so called GENERAL-SPECIFIC-GENERAL case where the 1st and last general are not the same. I it will be discussed in the footnotes (Krithuth 21a) *3 Again there is controversy here in the talmud whether this is GENERAL-PARTICULAR or GENERAL-PARTICULAR-GENERAL. To ease translation I have simply called the insects insect-1 insect-2 etc (and not given their names). Please see any good translation for names.This also is an example of whether we use a GENERAL-PARTICULAR style or GENERAL-LIMITATION style. See the summary footnotes on this issue. *4 The Rambam codifies the law according to the GENERAL-DETAIL paradigm (Only blasphemers and idolaters are hung). There is controversy in the Talmud on the GENERAL-DETAIL paradigm when the two phrases are separated. I have filled in the words in Rashi to show that he brought this to make a point that the concensus in Law is that GENERAL-DETAIL with separation should not be judged as GENERAL DETAIL. #*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*# (C) Dr Hendel, 2000 *#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#