Certain Biblical paragraphs are stated in a Theme-Development-Theme form. In other words a broad general idea is stated first followed by the development of this broad general theme in specific details. The paragraph-like unit is then closed with a repetition of the broad theme. The Theme-Detail-Theme form creates a unified paragraph. The detailed section of this paragraph is therefore seen as an extension of the general theme sentences. Today's example illustrates this as shown immediately below.

Biblical verse Lv14-09 discussing the purification procedure of the lepor is written in a Theme-Detailed-Theme style. This verse states But it shall be on the seventh day,
• Theme: that he shall shave all his hair off
• Detail:
  • his head and
  • his beard
  • and his eyebrows,
• Theme: all his hair he shall shave off; and he shall wash his clothes, also he shall wash his flesh in water, and he shall be clean.

Hence the Rashi comment: Beard, head, eyebrows have hair that is dense and visible. So only dense, visible here is shaven. This excludes
• arm-hair, which is visible but not dense,
• armpit-hair, which is not visible but dense
• nose-hair, which is not visible and not dense.

Advanced Rashi: If you look carefully at the verse above you will see that the word all is bolded. The word all always requires generalization. Hence the additional Rashi comment: The actual law requires shaving the arm and armpit hair. In other words all hair is shaven except the nose-hair which is neither visible nor dense.

This derivation is as follows:
• (1st) We apply the style rule which excludes nose-hear with neither of the two attributes of visible and dense;
• (2nd) If nothing further was indicated in the verse we would also exclude arm-hair and armpit-hair which have only one of the two attributes, visibility and denseness;
• (3rd) Then we apply the generalization rule which says that the word all includes more cases. So we include arm and armpit hair which have only one of the attributes but retain the exclusion of the nose-hair which has neither of the two attributes.

Thus my contribution is to see the derivation as emanating from two Rashi methods: The theme-detail-theme method and the special word- all method.

Advanced Rashi: There is a symbolic meaning to the shaving of hair given by Rabbbi Samson Raphael Hirsch: Based on several required shaving procedures Rav Hirsch points out that a shaven person looks female. Recall that the lepor is a slanderer. One way of curing the lepor is to urge a feminine trait of responsiveness - let them learn to listen to the person they are dealing with instead of trying to manage them. Such a listening attitude is one step in curing slander.