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    6. RASHI METHOD: STYLE
    Rashi examines how rules of style influences inferences between general and detail statements in paragraphs.
    • Example: Every solo example stated by the Bible must be broadly generalized;
    • Theme-Detail: A general principle followed by an example is interpreted restrictively---the general theme statement only applies in the case of the example;
    • Theme-Detail-Theme: A Theme-Detail-Theme unit is interpreted as a paragraph. Consequently the details of the paragraph are generalized so that they are seen as illustrative of the theme.
    This examples applies to Rashis Lv14-09a
    URL Reference: (c) http://www.Rashiyomi.com/lv14-09a.htm
    Brief Summary: Shave BEARD and EYEBROW hair-hair that is DENSE and VISIBLE.

    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.

We have explained in our article Biblical Formatting that the theme-detail-theme style indicates a paragraph structure. Consequently the details are seen as the development of the theme. The Talmudic sages stated this development idea as follows: The details in a theme-detail-theme structure should be partially generalized to resemble the theme.

    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 isnot 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 quite complex. My contribution is to see the derivation as emanating from two Rashi methods: The theme-detail-theme method and the special word- all method.

Sermonic Points: The natural question is, Why? Why should we care to shave off this hair or that hair? A beautiful, deep and profound answer is given by Rav Hirsch who gathers several example of shaving procedures. (For example the shaving procedure for the Levites mentioned in Nu08.)

Rav Hirsch explains that shaving symbolically affirms the presence of the female personality since women do not have visible dense hair (Except on their heads). The lepor is guilty of slander. A classical source of slander is between husband and wife when then man does not understand the special needs of the woman. To remove this source of slander the man must enter a female stage in which he becomes empathic with female feeling. This atones for the slander since now the man understands the way the woman feels. For this reason the symbolic feminization of the man by shaving hear is part of the lepor purification procedure.


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