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Date: Sun, 10 Jan 1999 20:53:29 -0500 (EST)
From: Russell Hendel <  rhendel@mcs.drexel.edu>
Subject: Re: Joseph recognized his brothers

Alot of discussion has been generated about the repeated verse <  ..and
Joseph recognized his brothers...>   (Gen 42:7 and Gen 42:8) (question posted
by Michael Turniansky <  turnip@bcpl.net>   in V1 #66).

I believe ALL discussions start with the premise that the Torah NEVER
wastes a word. (The explanations then use this principle to e.g. say that
one perception was physical and one was emotional etc)

Actually this "never wastes a word" principle requires clarification.

It turns out that there are at least two rashis (Ex 1:1 and explicitly in
Gen 46:2) that suggest that repeated name calling or mention of
relationships denotes a STYLE indicating affection. It is not necessary to
take each repeated word as indicating some additional attribute.

Let me be crystal clear about this Rashi: According to Rashi it would be
incorrect to look at Gen 46:2 "...and God said Jacob Jacob" and e.g. say
that >  >  the 1st Jacob was to address his physical self while the 2nd his
spiritual self<  <  . On the contrary, the simple interpretation is that the
repeated calling simply denotes AFFECTION. Rashi makes an identical point
on the repeated enumeration of the genealogies of the Jews.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: The above approach to Rashi on Ex 1:1 and Gen 46:2 was
presented in a new email group RASHI-IS-SIMPLE which intends to give the
logical derivation of all 8000 rashis on chumash. If you would like to
subscribe mail the moderator (me) or better still email
LISTPROC@SHAMASH.ORG with a message in the body of the email at the
beginning of a line "subscribe rashi-is-simple EMAILADDRESS FIRSTNAME
LASTNAME".

Russell Jay Hendel; Phd ASA
RHendel @ mcs drexel edu

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