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      2. RASHI METHOD: WORD MEANING
      BRIEF EXPLANATION: The meaning of words can be explained either by
      • (2a) translating an idiom, a group of words whose collective meaning transcends the meaning of its individual component words,
      • (2b) explaining the nuances and commonality of synonyms-homographs,
      • (2c) describing the usages of connective words like also,because,if-then, when,
      • (2d) indicating how grammatical conjugation can change word meaning
      • (2e) changing word meaning using the figures of speech common to all languages such as irony and oxymorons.
      This examples applies to Rashis Lv14-40a
      URL Reference: (c) http://www.Rashiyomi.com/w33n14.htm
      Brief Summary: CHETH-LAMED-TZADE means REMOVAL against a resistance: REMOVAL of a) shoes, b) stones from a house, c) Captives from captivity...

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.

Today Rashi examines the Hebrew root Cheth-Lamed-Tzade. It is interesting how both Rashi and Radack approach the meaning of this root. They state: Language indicating removal. If you read the Rashi-Radack comment properly they are not saying it means removal but rather that it is language indicating removal. Neither Rashi nor Radack go further.

The Rashi/Radacak are explicitly incomplete. They indicate the general direction of meaning without explaining the exact meaning. I regard these Rashi comments, not as authoratative declarations of Biblical meaning, but rather as a sort of homework assignment, to review the usages of the root and find the exact nuances.

    Reviewing several verses using the word Cheth-Lamed-Tzade, or, reviewing the list of Biblical meanings, provided by the Radack who also lists sample verses, we find that cheth-lamed-tzade can mean
  • removal of shoes
  • removal of stones from a house
  • removal of captives from captivity
  • ----------------------------------
  • removal of breasts (from under the garments) for purposes of nursing
  • removal of a sword from its sheath.

    Performing the homework assignment given by Rashi we see that Cheth-Lamed-Tzade means
    • removal against a physical resistance (shoes, house stones, captives)
    • removal that is typically not socially acceptable (breasts, swords).
    The basic idea seems to be removal of something that is meant to stay in place.

Advanced Rashi: We advocate enriching the Rashi experience with short terse punchy translations capturing the Rashi comment. In this case I would translate cheth-lamed-tzade as meaning yank. Hence we would translate verse Lv14-40a as Then the priest shall command that they yank the house-stones in which the disease is, and they shall throw them into an unclean place outside the city; 


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