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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 Lv25-08a Lv25-08b
    URL Reference: (c) http://www.Rashiyomi.com/lv28-08a.htm
    Brief Summary: Jubilee = 1 year after 7 Land-Sabbaticals each with 6 preceding agriculture years

In my article Biblical Formatting I have indicated that the Biblical Author will use a theme-detail-theme style to indicate a paragraph the same way a modern author will use indentation and a line of white space to indicate a paragraph. The fact that several sentences form one paragraph generally indicates exegesis: The diverse sentences are perceived as indicating one central theme; they are not interpreted exclusively.

    With this in mind let us review verses Lv21-18:21 which is written in a theme-detail-theme style as shown below. The verse-paragraph discusses the obligation to declare a Jubilee year every 50 th year in order to free all slaves and in order to let land revert to their current owner.
    • General: And you shall count seven sabbath-years,
    • Detail: seven times seven years;
    • General: the seven sabbath-years shall be forty nine years.
    ... And you shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all the inhabitants of it; it shall be a jubilee to you; and you shall return every man to his possession, and you shall return every man to his fam

    We can already see, in the verses above, all the terms defining the number of years prior to Jubilee:
    • 7 Sabbatical-years
    • 7 times 7 years
    • 49 years
    Hence the deceptively simple Rashi comment: The Jubilee always occurs every 50 years.

    Advanced Rashi:To fully appreciate how the General-Detail-General method affects Rashi we interpret the verses both with and without the General-Detail-General method:
    • If the verses did not use the General-Detail-General method and simply said Count 7 sabbaticals and then have a Jubilee I would interpret the verse literally: You must observe 7 sabbaticals in order to have a Jubilee. If you sinned and didn't observe the 7 Sabbaticals you can't have a Jubilee. This makes sense: If people did not forgive the monetary debts forgiven every 7th year then society would not be economically and psychologically ready for freeing personal (slavery) and land debts.
    • By using the general-detail-general style the law is interpreted broadly: Yes in a typical century you will observe 7 sabbaticals and then have a Jubilee but even if you didn't observe the 7 sabbaticals you still must have the Jubilee in the 50th year.
    This - the difference between a literal and broad interpretation - is the essence of using the theme-detail-theme paragraph method. 


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