*1 Over the next year or so we will be writing modules for
   the 2-4 dozen basic Rashi skill competencies needed for
   learning Rashi. These modules will then be gathered into
   a workbook which can be used at home or in schools In
   the meantime each of these modules is usable in actual
   schools or home-schooling situations.

*2 We present 3 levels of reading Rashi
   -- Knowing the Rashi technique used
   -- Knowing the basic conjectures surrounding the analysis
   -- Knowing advanced conjectures surrounding the analysis

   We argue that a good Rashi student should be satisfied
   to identify the TECHNIQUE and BASIC CONJECTURE METHOD

   This is an excellent example of how to approach Rashi

*1 As shown in list 1 above MISSING children of Jacob reflect
   a death(See footnote #3 in the previous list). It could
   be argued that MISSING FEMALES might not reflect death
   but rather the fact that family genealogy is based on men.

   However the presence of SERACH shows that females WERE
   mentioned and therefore we conclude that Dinah was dead
   but Serach was still alive.*10

*10 Gn46-10 mentions SHAUL the son of the CANAANITE.
    As we have shown http://www.RashiYomi.com/gn46-11a.htm
    it is reasonable to assume that SHAUL was the son of
    Dinah thru the rape of Schem. This fact is not
    repeated in Nu

*1 Ex06-21:22 states that
   ---------------------------------------------------
   Yitzhar had children --- KORACH NEFEG ZICHRI
   UZIEL had children ----- MISHAYL ELTZAFAN SITHRI
   ---------------------------------------------------

   But UZIEL is totally absent in  Nu
   By contrast Yitzhar is mentioned in Exodus but only
   1 of his children, Korach, is mentioned in Nu.

   Hence it is reasonable that that the other 2
   subfamilies died out.*10

*10 It is instructive to read the Rashi on Nu26-13a
    ------------------------------------------------
    The Jerusalem Talmud comments on the tribes
    that are present in Genesis but absent in Nu
    (because they died). The Jerusalem Talmud
    explains how they died.

    By carefully analyzing the log of journeys
    it appears that the Jews went backwards for
    a while. This suggests that their was a
    strong faction that wanted to return to Egypt.

    Apparently a civil war broke out between those
    that wanted to return and the Levites who
    remained loyal to God. During this civil war
    several tribal families died and hence are
    not mentioned in Nu.

    Similarly 4 Levite families are missing,
    apparently because they died in the war.

    The 4 levite families that died are
    those missing in the above list: Namely

    SHIMI UZIEL and part of the YITZHAR family
    I however do not know who the 4th is
    -----------------------------------------------

    The above is Rashis citation. I would like to
    explain the last sentence.

    Upon examining the above list we find the following
    4 missing families
    - Shimi (mentioned by Rashi)
    - Amram (not mentioned by Rashi)
    - Yitzhar lost NEFEg & ZICHRI (mentioned by Rashi)
    - Uziel (mentioned by Rashi)

    The above counting is obvious. I dont know why
    Rashi omitted mentioning that AMRAM was the 4th.

    As to the conjecture of a civil war, we have explained
    that the Rashi student should know that
    -- Rashi was comparing/aligning chapters on children
    -- Rashi was explaining MISSING children as having DIED

    This corresponds to the beginning and middle levels
    of understanding Rashi. The advanced level, that they
    died  BECAUSE  OF A CIVIL war is true and and is the
    simple meaning of the text but requires further analysis.
    We defer this analysis to future digests when we analyze the
    log of journeys.

*1 As indicated above the Gn verse does not identify
   ARD and NAAMAN as sons of BELAH but rather
   identifies BELAH ARD and NAAMAN as sons of Binyamin

   The explanation of this contradiction (--Gn46-21
   calls them CHILDREN of Binyamin while Nu26-40 calls
   them GRANDCHILDREN of Binyamin) seems to be resolved
   in Gn48-05:06 where Jacob gives CHILD status to
   his grandchildren thru Joseph--Menasheh & Ephraim
   So too ARD and NAAMAN even though they were grandchildren
   were assigned CHILD STATUS *10

*2 As explained above Joseph had a special status among the
   children in that Jacob explicitly in Gn48-05:06
   states that Josephs children (which are Jacobs granchildren)
   will have CHILD status.

   Hence the families mentioned in Nu do not have analogous
   verses in Genesis

*3 We have the unique situation that
   - Jacobs child was MACIR
   - Macirs child was GILAD
   - Gilads child was EEZER

   And yet all 3 (Macir, Gilad and EEZER) have child status

*10 We can still ask why the grandchildren are IDENTIFIED
    as grandchildren in BOTH Nu and Gn except for this
    case of Binyamin where they are identified as
    grandchildren in Nu but are called children in Gn

    This can be resolved with the rule of Rabbi Ishmael
    --------------------------------------------------
    If 1 verse from some class of verses has an oddity
    Then that oddity applies to the whole class (unless
    indicated otherwise).
    --------------------------------------------------

    So in this case the oddity that GRANDCHILDREN are
    called CHILDREN applies to all GRANDCHILDREN and
    the Bibilical authority for this comes the case of
    Menasheh and Ephraim in Gn48-05:06

*11 Rashi Nu26-24a brings cites Rav Moshe Hadarshan

    - Rav Moshe claims that the loss of 50% of the Benjamin
      tribe (and the further loss of almost the whole tribe
      in the Concubine war -- Ju19 thru Ju21) confirms  the
      prophecy of Rachel that Binyamin was a SON OF
      MOURNING (Gn35-18...an alternative interpretation
      is that Rachel MOURNED herself since she died with
      the birth of this child)

    - Rav Moshe suggests that GREAT GRANDCHILDREN were
      assigned family status if their mother was pregnant
      as they came into Egypt. But Rashi dismisses this as
      fanciful. We therefore suffice with a few refutations

      -- The list above give Great-Great-Grandchildren
      with family status (Macir-Gilad-EEzer)

      -- It is not clear why pregnancy should alter
      anyones status.

      -- Rashis ZIPCODE explanation based on plentitude
      of children seems more reasonable

      -- Finally there is a legend that one woman gave birth
      AS THEY ENTERED Egypt and this accounts for the
      discrepancy between the Biblical assertion that there
      were 70 people who went down but the actual count shows
      less than 70. If the explanation is that we count
      pregnancies than the total number would be way over
      71

      This is way too complicated to analyze here.For further
      details on this see http://www.rashiyomi.com/gn46-26a.htm