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(C) Dr Russell Jay Hendel, 2000
Volume 5 Number 4
Produced Feb, 02 2000
WARNING: USE FIX WIDTH FONTS (eg WESTERN COURIER (NEW) 10)
Verses/Topics Discussed in This Issue with quicky explanations
--------------------------------------------------------------
v2q3-11
Laining question on position of Accents in ANOCI.
v2d18-1
Biblical Hebrew indicates BULLETS by repeating some
connecting Keyword twice. Thus (1-18-10) reads "Bless be
God THAT took you out of Egypt THAT took you out of the
opression" Similarly for 1-18-1. The bulleted structure
enhances perception of meaning.
#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*# (C) Dr Hendel, 1999 *#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*
RASHI IS SIMPLE
GOALS: To grammatically defend all 8000 Rashis on Chumash.
METHOD:Every Rashi will be defended with a LIST of comparable cases
INTENDED AUDIENCE: Laymen, Academicians, Rabbis, Yeshiva students
COMMENTS,QUESTIONS: EMail to address below; (minor edits may occur)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:Always given unless 'anonymous' is explicitly asked
(UN)SUBSCRIBE: Email to above with keyword "(UN)subscribe"
JOURNAL REFERECE: Pshat & Drash, TRADITION, Win 1980, R Hendel
NOTATION: eg v2b1-8 refers to Ex(Book 2) Chap 1 Verse 8 Rashi b(#2)
SPECIALS:...on Rambam,Ramban,Symbolism,Pedagogy,Daily Questions
EMAIL: RJHendel@Juno.Com,rashi-is-simple@shamash.org,
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VERSE: v2q3-11
======
QUESTION
========
During a Friday night "shmooze" with a fellow Baltimorian
Baal Koray, Dr Yosi Scheller, a series of questions were
asked focusing on laining minutae.
Dr Scheller asked why the Hebrew word
>ANOCHI
is accented on a middle syllable when the rule requires
that, unless it is a terminal word of a sentence, it should
be accented on the last syllable.
In attempting to answer this question we discovered the
beautiful grammatical Rashi on v2a3-11 (posted later
in this issue).
#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*# (C) Dr Hendel, 1999 *#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*
VERSE: v2d18-1
======
v2d19-1 Heard
* What God did for the Jews
v2e18-1 * That God took the Jews out of Egpt
*That God saved you from
v2a18-10 -the hand (ie reign) of Egypt
v2b18-10 -the hand (ie reign) of Pharoh
v2c18-10 *That God saved you from under the reign of Egypt
RASHI TEXT:
===========
v2d18-1 "what God did for the Jews"--ie The Manna, Well etc
v2e18-1 "..God took Jews out of Egypt"--a yet bigger miracle
v2a18-10 "The reign of Egypt"--a harsh Nation
v2b18-10 "The regin of Pharoh"-a harsh leader
v2c18-10 "from under the reign of Egypt"--from the oppresion
of Egypt
BRIEF BUT COMPLETE NARRATIVE EXPLANATION:
=========================================
This is one of those Rashis that can be understood at various levels
ELEMENTARY LEVEL
----------------
At the elementary level the simple meaning of 2-18-10 is that
>Yithro heard that God saved the Jews from
> >Egypt
> >Pharoh
> >under Egypt
The verse is just saying the same thing in several ways. Such a
repeating style is common in the Bible. The prophets such as
Isiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel are filled with this repeating style.
Repetition is simply a way of denoting EMPHASIS, URGENCY, EMOTIONAL
URGENCY. In fact Rashi goes out of his way to state that
REPETITION is NOT a cause for extra comment but simply a style to
indicate emotional urgency.
-----------------------------------------------------
|QUESTION 1: |
|---------- |
|How would you prove that Repetition denotes |
|emotional urgency? How would you find verses |
|where there is repetition. What tools would you |
|use? {LIST1} below provides a partial answer. |
-----------------------------------------------------
INTERMEDIATE LEVEL
------------------
At the intermediate level we see Rashi as adding POSSIBLE NUANCES
to the translation of the verse. True, the verse is simply saying
that Yithro heard that God took us out of Egypt but we can
APPRECIATE it more by seeing different nuances in the 3 different
phrases
>from Egypt = The NATION
>from Pharoh = The KING/LEADER
>from Under Egypt = Oppression
Notice at this level we 'tolerate' Rashi--he is not giving us
the simple meaning of the text but adding nuances that do not
contradict the simple meaning of the text.
ADVANCED LEVEL
--------------
At the advanced level we SOMEWHAT defend Rashi (who is giving
POSSIBLE nuances to the verse). Rashi is distinguishing between
>saved the Jews from the HAND of EGYPT
>saved the Jews from UNDER THE HAND OF EGYPT
What then is the difference between
>the HAND of EGYPT
vs
>UNDER the HAND OF EGYPT
In fact the Hebrew word
>UNDER
can mean
>OPPRESION
as shown in {LIST2}. (Similarly HAND can mean REIGN). Thus a
proper translation of the verses phrases are
>saved from the REIGN of EGYPT
>saved from the OPPRESION of EGYPT
------------------------------------------------------
| QUESION 2: |
| ========== |
| How would you help Rashi (who cited the Targum)? |
| What tools would you use to prove that |
| >UNDER = OPPRESSION? |
| A partial answer is contained below in {LIST2} |
------------------------------------------------------
THE PROFOUND LEVEL
------------------
At the PROFOUND level we recall the principle that Biblical Hebrew
represents
>BULLETS
by
>REPEATING KEYWORD CONNECTIVES
So the verse should be read
>Bless be God
>THAT saved you
>From the REIGN of Egypt
>From the REIGN of Pharoh
>THAT saved the nation from the OPPRESSION of Egypt
This clearly shows the nested bullet structure. In Modern Notation
we would write this as
>Blessed be God
* He saved you from
** Egypt
** Pharoh
* He saved you from Oppression
This principle that "BULLETS are represented by KEYWORD CONNECTIVES"
was first developed in volume 4 number 22, v2a3-11 (If the verse had
wanted to avoid the bullet like appearance it could have just said
>Blessed be God who saved you from Egypt, Pharoh and their
>oppression)
-------------------------------------------
|QUESTION 3: |
|=========== |
|How would you find all verses which have |
|the form .....KEYWORD....KEYWORD? |
|What tools would you use? How would you |
|then confirm the thesis that the DOUBLE |
|KEYWORD functions like bullets? |
|{LIST3} below contains as a partial |
|answer the 6 Biblical verses with |
|use of KI. |
----------- -------------------------------
In summary it is the
>DOUBLE USE OF "THAT"
in the verse which alerts us to a Bullet like structure.
When we couple this BULLET like structure with the nuances
of
>UNDER=OPPRESSION
we obtain Rashis meaning. In a similar manner the phrase
>FROM THE REIGN OF
is repeated twice, again indicating a BULLET like structure
>From the REIGN of a bad NATION
>from the REIGN of a bad KING.
Further comments are made in the COMMENTS ON RASHIS FORM section.
COMMENTS ON RASHI'S FORM:
=========================
We make 3 comments
#1) Difference between THE PROBLEM vs STYLE
-------------------------------------------
Dr Leibowitz popularized the 'what is Rashis problem' approach
According to this approach the problem in the verse is the
dissimilar phrases
>hand of Egypt
>under the hand of Egypt
Our emphasis in this email list has been on STYLE, not on anomalies.
It is the bullet like structure of the verse that tells us that
HAND=REIGN, UNDER HAND = OPPRESSION. Although we use the RDK to
confirm this nuance it is nevertheless derived from the style of
the verse by itself. The bulletized style gives credibility to
the nuances used by Rashi. The clinching point here is that
nuances appear 'forced' while 'bullets' appear as the simple
meaning.
In a similar manner the 2 bullets in 2-18-1
>that God did for you
>that God took you out of Egypt
indicates 2 points (which Rashi just summarizes as THE EXODUS
ITSELF vs THE OTHER MIRACLES).
#2) The 2 bullets in 2-18-1
---------------------------
The 2 bullets in 2-18-1 don't begin with the same word.
One phrase begins with the Hebrew word
>ETH
while the other phrase begins with the Hebrew word
>KI.
Why then are we justified in calling this 2 bullets?
We discussed in Volume 1 Number 3, v1-41-15 that
the Hebrew root
>SHMA=TO LISTEN
has 4 meanings depending on what preposition is associated with
it. Thus
>Listen IN = To accept
>Listen TO = To given in / acquiesce
>Listen THAT = To hear a WHOLE STORY
>LISTEN "ETH" = To listen/understand
These meanings are compactly exhibited in {LIST5} {LIST6}.
It immediately follows that
>Yithro HEARD THE STORY OF THE EXODUS
requires the preposition KI. While
>Yithro HEARD WHAT GOD HAD DONE TO THE JEWS
refers to PARTICULAR stories (The Manna,Well, Amalek).
This hearing of PARTICULAR stories can be expressed as
>HEARD
or
>HEARD ETH
By using the participle ETH the verse is creating 2 PREPOSITIONS
>ETH and KI
which function as bullets to the one verb HEAR
Thus the verse reads
>YITRHO heard
>WHAT God did for the Jews
>THAT God took the Jews out of Egypt
In passing we note that the phrase
>HEARD THAT
which denotes listening to a Storu emphasizes that unlike the other
events where Jithro just HEARD them, by the Exodus Yithro heard
the whole story (Because, as Rashi says, this was the main miracle).
#3) Comments on Livnis approach to Pshat
----------------------------------------
Livni's approach to 'simple meaning of the text' would not
work here. For Livni would look at Rashi as eg
>distinguishing between HAND, UNDER HAND
and would state that such attention to detail is not the simple
meaning (This corresponds to our advanced stage).
But at the profound stage we perceive the verse as BULLETTED;
IT IS the simple meaning of the text to see 2 bullets as
saying 2 things.
Thus the important thing in studying the simple meaning of the
text is to learn/infer as many new grammar principles as possible.
LISTS {For ADVANCED students and for those with more time}:
===========================================================
{LIST1} {Verses where something is REPEATED. In each of them
the repetition is not EXPOUNDED to denote a TWONESS
but rather the REPETITION is expounded to denote
endearment. This LIST is compiled from similar
lists notated by the Mesorites on the Chumash}
NAME: VERSE WHERE THEY WERE REPEATED TWICE
================== =====================================
Abraham 1-22-11 *2
Jacob 1-46-2 *2
Moses 2-3-4 *2
Shmuel Sam-3-10 *2
You're beautiful Songs-4-1 *3
Names of the Jews 2-1-1 and 1-48-8 *1
FOOTNOTES
*1 The identical phrase "And these are the names of the Jews"
is used in both 2-1-1 and 1-48-8. By contrast the repetition
of the names of Noach (in 1-5-32 and 1-10-1) use different phrases
*2 It is hard to appreciate the list until we add the fact that the
other people that God spoke to (Isaac, Aharan, Joshua...) do not
have ANY verses where there a repetition.
*3 Note how Songs-4-1 deals with attributes vs names
{LIST2} {The 6 meanings of the word UNDER, courtesy of RDK, ROOTS}
MEANING VERSE TEXT
======= ======== ============================================
Underneath Isa14-11 Underneath you will be worms
replace Isa55-13 In place of the THORN BUSH youll have myrtles
bottom 1-6-16 It will have Bottom, 2nd and 3rd stories
steathily 2S3-12 He steathily sent a note 'You are leader'
oppression 2S22-48 Bring down nations under my oppression*1
place 2-16-29 Every person sit in his place
FOOTNOTES
---------
*1 RDK doesn't explicitly use the term oppression---but he clearly
cites several verses where 'being underneath someone' is a sign
of conquest.
{LIST3} {The 6 verses in the Torah where it uses the form
....THAT....and THAT (In other words THAT is repeated
We refer to these in the text as DOUBLE THAT verses.
We interpret these THATS as the equivalent of BULLETS
in English..each one denoting one point. The LIST was
compiled using the work of the Mesorites.}
VERSE THE TEXT BULLET INTERPRETATION
====== ================================== =====================
1-3-6 THAT the tree was good for food Become godlike
&THAT it is a desirous to the eyes Become selfaware
1-29-12 THAT he is the brother of her father Knows Deceipt
&THAT he is the son of Rivkah Knows Brotherhood
1-33-11 THAT God has been graceful to me Started with nothing
&THAT I have enough Now I have sufficient
2-3-11 THAT I should go to Pharoh Physical capability
&THAT I should save the Jews Jews merit?
2-4-31 THAT God remembered the Jews
&THAT He saw their suffering *1
4-5-20 THAT you've strayed from your husband
&THAT you have become impure *1
FOOTNOTES
*1 There is no Rashi on these verses
{LIST4} {Of verses illustrating the meaning of SHMA + PREPOSITION *1
VERB PREPOSITION VERSE TRANSLATION
---- ----------- ----- -----------
SHMA EL 1-16-11 God SYMPATHIZES with
your suffering
1-21-17 God SYMPATHIZES with the lad
1-39-10 ..didn't SYMPATHIZE with her
to sleep
SHMA B 5-1-45 God didn't ACCEPT your
complaints
1-30-6 ..God ACCEPTED my suffering..
SHMA KI 1-34-5 ..FOUND OUT STORY of
Dinah's rape
1-29-33 ..FOUND THE STORY of
my being hated
SHMA Nothing 1-5-1 ..he UNDERSTOOD/HEARD
someone's oath
4-30-5*2 ..he UNDERSTOOD/HEARD her oath
FOOTNOTES:
==========
*1 We omit some cases where we
don't fully understand the nuances. Thus SHMA+ETH as manifested in
2-16-9 1S-2-22 4-30-5 does not have a commanality that I can
presently discern. We invite postings and suggestions.
*2 Thus the father or witness not only heard the
words of the oath but also understood their significance.
{LIST6} {Summary of meanings of SHMA+ROOT}
VERB+PREPOSITION TRANSLATION
---------------- -----------
SHMA EL SYMPATHIZE
SHMA B ACCEPT
SHMA KI HEARD A STORY
SHMA HEARD/UNDERSTOOD
CROSS REFERENCES:
=================
Volume 1 Number 6, v2-1-1 (Repeatition denotes endearment)
Volume 1 Number 25,v1-1-4 (Gen 1 talks about the creation
of prophecy)
Volume 4, Number 22, v2a3-11 (Repeated KEYWORDS=BULLETS)
Volume 1, Number 3, v1-41-15 (5 meanings of HEAR)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
=================
To Yosi Scheller for asking the question.
RULE CLASSIFICATION {See the web site for comparable examples}:
===============================================================
OVERALL STRUCTURE
OVERALL STRUCTURE
OVERALL STRUCTURE
OVERALL STRUCTURE
OVERALL STRUCTURE
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End of Rashi-Is-Simple Digest
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