Rashi-Is-Simple Mailing List
(C) Dr Russell Jay Hendel, 1999
http://www.shamash.org/rashi
Volume 3 Number 19
Produced Sep, 24 1999
Topics Discussed in This Issue
------------------------------
v5-4-15 10 Mitzvth state:Remember Exodus & do my mitzvoths
#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*# (C) Dr Hendel, 1999 *#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*
***************************
*** READING TIPS ***
***************************
IF YOU ARE IN A HURRY WE RECOMMEND THE FOLLOWING SECTIONS:
* VERSE:
* RASHI TEXT:
* BRIEF BUT COMPLETE NARRATIVE EXPLANATION:
"HOW DO I FIND QUICKLY A SPECIFIC SECTION?"
ANSWER: Use your FIND menu
For example: FIND VERSE:
takes you to the beginning of the next section.
Similarly
FIND NARRATIVE EXPLANATION:
takes you to the brief explanation of Rashi.
"IS THERE AN EASY WAY TO GO TO EACH VERSE AND POSTING?"
Yes. Use your FIND menu.
"FIND #*#*#*#" takes you to the next posting
#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*# (C) Dr Hendel, 1999 *#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*
VERSE: v5-5-15
v5-5-15 And you will remember that you were a slave in
Egypt ...therefore God commanded you to observe Shabbath
v5-15-15 [When your slave goes free give him gifts...]
And you will remember that you were a slave in
Egypt ...therefore I commands you this thing today
v5-16-12 [Observe Shavuoth and rejoice before God...]
[..(rejoice) you your family...the orphan...]
And you will remember that you were a slave in
Egypt ...and you will observe & do these laws
v5-24-18 [Don't violate the rights of an ...orphan ]
And you will remember that you were a slave in
Egypt ...therefore I command you to do this thing
v4a15-41 [Wear Tzitzith and remember all Gods commandments]
I am the Lord...who took you out of Egypt
v3a25-38 [Don't loan on interest from your Jewish brethren]
I am the Lord ...who took you out of Egypt
v3-11-45 [Do not defile yourselves with TAMAY insects..]
Because I am the Lord..who elevated you from Egypt
and you will become Holy because I am holy]
v2-29-46 [Offer the daily morning offering in the temple..
and I will sanctify the temple and dwell in Israel]
And they will know that I am the Lord..who took them out
of Egypt for dwelling in their midst
v3d19-36 [Have proper measures/weights...]
I am the Lord ...who took you out of Egypt
v3a22-33 [Don't separate a child from a mother ..sheep
until the 8th day...]
[I am the Lord] Who took you out of Egypt to be
your God.
RASHI TEXT:
v5-5-15 God redeemed us from Egypt on condition that
we are his slaves and observe his commandments
v5-15-15 When I redeemed you from Egypt I gave you
from the booty of Egypt [Cf 2-11-3]. Therefore
you also should give your slaves gifts when
you set them free
v5-16-12 God redeemed us on condition we observe his laws
v5-24-18 God redeemed us on condition we observe his laws
EVEN if there is monetary loss in them
v4a15-41 I redeemed you from Egypt on condition you
observe my commandments
v3a25-38 Just as God could distinguish between the 1st born
and non first born in Egypt (and only killed the
1st born) so too God can distinguish between those
who lend on interest to a non-jew in order to lend
to Jews on interest(which is prohibited) and those
who lend to non-jews on interest (which is
permissable).
Another point is that God took us out of Egypt
on condition we observe his commandments EVEN if
they are burdensome (with losses).
v3-11-45 I redeemed you from Egypt on condition you
observe my commandments.
Another point is that in all other verses it speaks
about God TAKING us out of Egypt where as in 3-11-45
it speaks about God RAISING us out of Egypt. So
the students of Rabbi Ishmael said that if God had
taken us out of Egypt only to observe the laws of
separation of Toomah it would have been sufficient.
The word RAISE in this verse has a connotation of
ELEVATION of soul, a common Talmudic idiomatic usage
v2-29-46 [I took you out of Egypt]
on condition I dwell among you
v3d19-36 As the verse says I took you out of Egypt ON
CONDITION that I be your God and observe the
commandments. Another matter---just as God
distinguished in Egypt between the first born
and non first born so too can God discern
between those deceiving people in weights and
those making honest accidental errors.
v3a22-33 As the verse says, God took us out of Egypt IN
ORDER TO BE OUR GOD
BRIEF BUT COMPLETE NARRATIVE EXPLANATION:
These Rashis are a peach in seeing Rashis simplicity.
There are 10 commandments where the Exodus from Egypt is mentioned
These 10 verses have wildly different ways of mentioning the Exodus
On all these verses Rashi says
>God took you out of Egypt on condition you observe
>the commandments
Again Rashi has wildly different phraseology in all of these.
However all becomes simple and clear when we examine {LIST1}
which shows the major differences in the verses and how Rashi
responded to them.
WE only give hilights here--the reader is encouraged to read this
list and in fact reproduce it to fully appreciate how Rashi
made interpretations. It would seem that the major theme is
that these 10 verses group into 3 categories--
>Don't mistreat slaves/orphans/widows
>Be holy--avoid Toomah
>Don't be deceiptful in business practices.
These 3 themes are the pillars of Egyptian culture and God
asked us to remember these 3 themes on those Mitzvoth dealing
with them.
--DON'T MISTREAT SLAVE/ORPHANS/WIDOWS
--------------------------------------
There are only 4 commandments where SLAVES/ORPHANS/WIDOWS are
mentioned. These in fact are also the only 4 commandments where
it explicitly says
>REMEMBER (you were a slave)
So Rashi is Simple. Rashi explicitly says
>Remember how you were a slave and mistreated and
>therefore don't mistreat others
The 4 commandments where slaves/orphans/widows are mentioned are
>Shabbath
>Legal treatment of orphans
>Giving slaves Gifts when freeing them
>Rejoicing on Shavuoth with slaves/orphans/widows..
Note the further nuance that by most commandments it says
>God TOOK YOU OUT of Egypt
while by the commandment to give slaves gifts it says
>God REDEEMED you out of Egypt
Since REDEMPTION (vs TAKING OUT) has monetary connotations
Rashi states
>REDEEM your slaves the way God REDEEMED the jews
>Just as God gave gifts to the Jews on Exodus(2-11-2)
>So should you give gifts to the Jews on Exodus
--AVOID TOOMAH--ASPIRE TO KEDUSHA
----------------------------------
There are only 4 commandments where HOLINESS is mentioned
>Avoiding prohibited insects
>the daily offering
>Tzitzith
>Don't offer a son for 7 days
In fact by most of the commandments it says
>Remember that GOD TOOK YOU OUT OF EGYPT
while by the prohibited insects it says
>God RAISED YOU out of Egypt.
So Rashi Is Simple...He Cites the School of Rabbi Ishmael
which pointed out that God not only physically took us out
of Egypt but God also RAISED OUR SOULS (removed Toomah and
gave us holiness) by taking us out of Egypt.
--AVOID DECEIPT IN BUSINESS
---------------------------
A pillar of Egyptian culture was the use of DECEIPT to
create heightened anxiety and destroy people's personality.
If we look at {LIST1} we see that 2 mitzvoth remain where
there is no mention of
>Holiness
>Treating people nicely
These two commandments are
>not lending on interest
>having proper weights
Both these commandments lend themselves to deceipt. It is not
like OUTRIGHT THEFT where everything is known. If your weights
are a little bit off then you are robbing DECEIPTFULLY. Similarly
if you loan on interest to non jews who loan on interest to Jews
then you are indirectly loaning on interest to jews and are being
deceiptful.
So Rashi on these two verses says
>I am God who distinguished between a 1st born and
>non first born. Similarly I can distinguish between
>honest and non honest business men.
(Note the mention of the first born is just a GOOD EXAMPLE.
The real point of the verses is combatting DECEIPT).
These are the basic points in the verses and rashi. Further
illuminating comments are made in the COMMENTS ON RASHIS
FORM SECTION and the LIST.
Finally we note that the Rambam in his great code
also takes cognizance of these verses with mention of
Egypt
>>Loans 4:7 (Prohibition of Interest)
>>Theft 7:12 (Commandment to have Proper weights)
Note how these two commandments belong to the DECEIPT theme
In other words Rambam considered the connection between
Egypt and
>treating the helpless
>holiness
an obvious connection not needing special mention.
But the connection between DECEIPT and the EXODUS did
need special mention.
Again notice, how {LIST1} illuminates this Rambam and
sheds light on why Rashi mentioned DECEIPT on these
two commandments.
COMMENTS ON RASHI'S FORM:
We make 4 comments on Rashis form
--WORKBOOK methods.
------------------
There are several occasions where a theme of Rashi extends to
many verses even though he only mentions it in one. In particular
Rashi mentions
>You are Gods slaves
only by Shabbath even though the theme extends to all commandments
dealing with
>the slave, sojourner, orphan, widow.
There are only 4 such commandments and in all of them the explicit
use of the word REMEMBER occurs (As if to say--you were a slave
so remember how you were treated and treat your slaves/orphans
properly).
Similarly Rashi mentions
>HOLINESS
only by the laws prohibiting TOOMAH, though when we examine we
find 4 commandments mentioning HOLINESS.
--INACCURACIES IN RASHIS LANGUAGE
---------------------------------
We have several times emphasized that Rashi MUST be read using
LISTS. Rashi is exact in lists but can be sloppy in language.
In particular when Rashi says that in all verses it says
>GOD TOOK YOU OUT OF EGYPT
while by the prohibition of toomah it says
>GOD RAISED YOU OUT OF EGYPT
Rashi is being inaccurate. For indeed we find two commandments (20%)
where it says
>GOD REDEEMED YOU FROM EGYPT.
The real point however is that Rashi EXPECTED the student to have
the list before him. That LIST clearly shows that
>REDEEM RAISE REDEEM
are anomalous. Once the student sees this, ANY language Rashi uses
is appropriate since we know what he is talking about
--NEED OF LISTS TO UNDERSTAND RASHI'S PROBLEM/FOCUS
---------------------------------------------------
Notice how ONLY TWO RASHIS mention
>Do not be deceiptful because God can detect deceipt
>the way he detected the difference between 1st born
>and non first born in Egypt.
Unless you have the {LIST1} of all 10 verses with the Exodus
you cannot understand WHY Rashi did this.
The reason Rashi did this is because there are 3 themes in
mentioning Exodus
>Treat Slaves/Orphans nicely
>Avoid Toomah-aspire to Holiness
>Do not be deceiptful
This is clearly exposed in {LIST1} since 4 verses use the word
>REMEMBER and deal with slaves/orphans...
and 4 other verses deal with
>Holiness
The remaining 2 must therefore be some other theme. We couldn't
detect this UNLESS we had the LIST.
---REGARDING To interpretations in Rashi
----------------------------------------
Our position till now has been that the 2nd interpretation
is always correct and the 1st one wrong.
However in the Rashis on these 10 verses with 2 explanations
we must have a different approach. For these verses have
MULTIPLE PROBLEMS so that Rashi gave MULTIPLE INTERPRETATIONS.
Thus our position is modified so that
>if there are 2 problems in a verse Rashi might give
>2 explanations for the 2 problems
>if there is 1 problem in a verse and Rashi gives
>2 explanations then we still believe that it is
>the 2nd one that is correct and the 1st one
>is not correct
LISTS {For ADVANCED students and for those with more time}:
{LIST1} {The 10 mitzvoths where God mentions the exodus
from Egypt. The various columns hilight the important
differences between these verses in HOW the Exodus
is mentioned. Further minor differences are presented
in footnote *6. As an example of differences between
the verses notice how the explicit use of the word
REMEMBER occurs in 4 commandments and these are
exactly the 4 commandments dealing with ORPHANS,
WIDOWS, SOJOURNERS, SLAVES. This coincidence leads
to Rashis comments which are further elaborated on
in the footnotes}
*4 *4
*3 DOES DOES BESIDES RASHI
WHAT THE THE STATING "GOD
LANGUAGE MTZVH MTZVH TOOK US OUT OF
*2 IS USED TALK TALK EGYPT ON
MITZVOTH DOES TO SHOW ABOUT ABOUT CONDITION WE
WHERE IT SAY WE WERE SLAVE BEING OBSERVE MTZVT"
EXODUS IS REMEMBER TAKEN OUT ORPHAN HOLY DOES RASHI ADD
VERSE MENTIONED EXODUS OF EGYPT WIDOW *1 ANYTHING ELSE?
======== ========= ======== ========= ====== ===== ==============
v5-15-15 Slaves REMEMBER REDEEMED Yes God gave booty
v5-5-15 Shabbath REMEMBER Took out Yes Be Gods slave
v5-16-12 Shavuoth REMEMBER Yes
v5-24-18 Orphan REMEMBER REDEEMED Yes Even if loss
v3a22-33 Mother-son Took out YES
v3-11-45 No toomah RAISE out YES RAISE our souls
v4a15-41 Tzitzith Took out YES
v2-29-46 Sacrifices KNOW Took out YES
v3a25-38 Interest Took out Deceipt,loss*4,5
v3d19-36 Weights Took out Deceipt *4
FOOTNOTES
*1 That is HOLINESS is mentioned in the Biblical paragraph
dealing with that MTZVH. Sometimes the HOLINESS is mentioned
in connection with the exodus and sometimes it is mentioned
in a prior verse.
*2 Notice how the Mitzvoth where God explicitly said REMEMBER
the exodus are the same as those Mitzvoth which deal with
proper behavior towards slaves, sojourners, levites, orphans
and or widows.
Hence Rashi is Simple---the theme of BEING MY SLAVE is
mentioned by Rashi by those commandments dealing with
treating slaves/orphans/widows nicely. (Rashi actually
only mentions this by the Sabbath law...it extends to
the other 3 verses by using WORKBOOK methods).
*3 The usual language is God TOOK US OUT OF EGYPT. There
is deviant language in 4 Mitzvoth.
By the commandment to give presents to a slave it says God
REDEEMED us from Egypt. Reviewing the exodus we see that
God gave us gifts from Egyptian property 2-11-2:3.
So Rashi Is Simple. Just as God gave us presents in Egypt
when freeing us so too should we should give our slaves
presents when freeing them.
The word REDEEMED was used to emphasize the PROCESS of
freeing a slave.
Similarly by the laws prohibiting legal mistreatment of
orphans the word REDEEMED is used. Since REDEEMING a
slave (vs TAKING him out) has a connotation of
monetary payment for the FREEING Rashi emphasizes
that we should be just, even if we have a monetary loss.
By the laws prohibiting TOOMAH we have the unusal
phrase GOD RAISED US OUT OF EGYPT. Rashi citing
the school of Rabbi Ishmael points out that RAISE
has a NUANCE of RAISING our souls which would be
consistent with idea of separation from TOOMAH.
In all the above cases Rashi Is Simple and ties
the nuances of the unusual word to the particular
Mitzvah at hand.
Neither Rashi nor myself seem to know a reason
why a LANGUAGE of EXODUS is absent by the rejoicing
on Shavuoth.
*4 There are 10(11 including 5-24-22) commandments
where God mentions the Exodus. It is natural to
inquire WHAT THEMES in Mitzvoth prompt remembering
the exodus. Based on the verses Rashi singles out
3 themes. They are...
TREATING HELPLESS PEOPLE NICELY
-------------------------------
--Treating the slave,orphan,widow,stranger..nicely.
In fact 4 Mitzvoth have an explicit statement REMEMBER EGYPT
and these are the 4 Mitzvoth where the slave, orphan, widow
stranger are mentioned. Rashi using workbook methods only
mentions are plight of slave by Shabbath and leaves us
to generalize this to the others. Note that mistreatment
of lower classes was characteristic of Egyptian culture.
AVOIDING TOOMAH..ACHIEVING HOLINESS
-----------------------------------
--Holiness is mentioned in 4 commandments. Note how
engaging in TOOMAH was characteristic of Egyptian culture.
Rashi mentions this theme on one verse and using workbook
methods expects us to extend them to the others. The one
verse is the verse dealing with PROHIBITED INSECTS, an
example of TOOMAH. Rashi notes the unusual language
>God RAISED us from Egypt
vs the usual
>God TOOK US out of Egypt
Rashi then cites Rabbi Ishmael who introduced the idea of
THEMES for taking us out of Egypt. One such theme was the
HOLINESS THEME (The SLAVE/ORPHAN theme and the DECEIPT theme are
the other two themes). Rabbi Ishmael interpretst RAISED us
out of Egypt to mean RAISED OUR SOULS.
AVOIDING DECEIPT IN COMMERCIAL PRACTICES
----------------------------------------
Of the 10 commandments there are
>4 that deal with the slave, orphan, etc
>4 that deal with holiness
The remaining two deal with a new theme
>business pratices where theft by deceipt is easy
It is easy to deceive in weights. Similarly it is easy
to deceive in interest. So Rashi on these two commandments mentions
>I am God who can distinguish between the first born and
>non first born...similarly I can distinguish between
>business men who make honest mistakes vs business men
>who deliberately are deceiptful.
The two commandments involved are
>not taking interest from Jews (which can be
subterfuged by taking interest from non jews who
loan to jews
>being honest in weights.
Notice that without the LIST of ten commandments we would
not know why Rashi singled out these two commandments. But
because of the {LIST1} Rashi is Simple...there are 3 themes
>Treating the helpless nicely
>Achieving Kedusha
>Avoiding Deceipt.
These are the 3 pillars of Egyptian culture and therefore God
fights these ideas by recalling the Exodus in specific mitzvoth.
It is for this reason that Rashi mentions the Deceipt idea by
these two mitzvoth.
*5 Rashi mentions that
>we should observe Gods laws EVEN UNDER CONDITIONS OF LOSS
by two mitzvoths
>the prohibition of lending with interest
>the obligation to not mistreat the orphan and not
>take deposits after loans from widows.
These are the only 2 laws dealing with LOANS on the list.
The reason for mentioning LOSS alltogether came from the unusual
language
>God REDEEMED us from Egypt (vs TOOK US OUT)
Since REDEEMED has a nuance of Monetary payment it follows that
that the verse has a nuance that we should observe commandments
even if money is involved.
*6 We have covered most of the differences in these 10 verses
and Rashis. For the sake of completeness we mention 4 more
differences
---THEREFORE ("Therefore God commanded you to do this Mitzvah")
is only mentioned in 3 mitzvoth
>Shabbath,
>Give slaves gifts, and
>Dont legally mistreat orphans.
These 3 commandments also have the word REMEMBER (REMEMBER EXoDUS)
Also, these are the only 3 mitzvoth where it says
>remember the exodus to do THIS MITZVAH vs
>remember the exodus to OBSERVE ALL MY LAWS
Since REMEMBER is only said by Mitzvoth connected with the
>slave, orphan, levi, widow etc
it would seem that THEREFORE is mentioned by them also.
In other words
>Remember how you were a SLAVE AND THEREFORE dont
>treat other helpless people (Slaves, orphans..)
This theory would also explain why
>the commandment to rejoice on Shavuoth
has
>the word REMEMBER
but not
>the word THEREFORE.
Because it is only the MISTREATMENT of slaves that requires
a THEREFORE (You were a slave and therefore don't treat others
like slaves). By Shavuoth however we are simply asked to be
>happy before God--you, your family, sojourner,orphan...
So since mistreatment is not mentioned we have no THEREFORE
while since the ORPHANS and HELPLESS are mentioned we have a
REMEMBER.
----The other 2 differences are as follows. The prohibition
of interest has
>God took you out of Egypt to GIVE YOU THE LAND OF ISRAEL
The prohibition of having false weights mentions the Exodus in
the SAME VERSE with the law (in the other 9 examples the Exodus
was mentioned in a separate verse).
Since these are isolated items (with obvious Midrashic potential)
Rashi did not comment on them because Rashi only commented on
items that could be backed by lists.
CROSS REFERENCES:
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
RULE CLASSIFICATION {See the web site for comparable examples}:
DOUBLE PARSHAHS
DOUBLE PARSHAHS
DOUBLE PARSHAHS
DOUBLE PARSHAHS
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DOUBLE PARSHAHS
SQL {Database query comments for those who know Database theory}:
SELECT Verse FROM Bible WHERE
Verse.Content = 'Do commandments because of Exodus'
Notice how the query is SEMANTIC in nature and not SYNTACTIC.
#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*# (C) Dr Hendel, 1999 *#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*
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NOTATIONAL CONVENTIONS
----------------------
e.g. v5b2-1 means as follows:
The "v" means verse
The "5" means Deuteronomy--the 5th book
The "2" means The 2nd chapter
The "1" means The 1st verse
The "b" means The second rashi on that
verse ("we rounded mount
Seir)
Similarly v5-2-1 would mean Dt 2:1 and probably refer to all
Rashis. (These conventions start with issue 14---beforehand
the notation is similar and will be updated retroactively
in the future)
Asterisks (*,#) in a list usually refer to footnotes that follow it
Parenthesis with the word List and a number--[LIST3] refers to
LISTS in the LIST section of each posting.
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RASHI-IS-SIMPLE
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#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*# (C) Dr Hendel, 1999 *#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*