The goal of this Weekly Rashi Digest is to use the weekly Torah portion to expose students at all levels to the ten major methods of commentary used by Rashi. It is hoped that continual weekly exposure to these ten major methods will enable students of all levels to acquire a familiarity and facility with the major exegetical methods.

Background:
• Biblical Chapter Nu02 relates the camping positions of the Jews. Biblical
• Chapter Nu10 relates the journeying positions of the Jews.

Remarkably, both chapters have identical orders of tribes. Here are beginning excerpts from chapter Nu02 And the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, Every man of the people of Israel shall camp by his own standard, with the ensign of their father’s house; far from the Tent of Meeting shall they camp.
• And on the east side toward the rising of the sun shall they of the standard of the camp of Judah camp their armies; and Nahshon, the son of Amminadab, shall be captain of the sons of Judah. And his army, and those who were counted of them, were seventy four thousand and six hundred.
• And those who camp next to him shall be of the tribe of Issachar; and Nethaneel, the son of Zuar, shall be captain of the sons of Issachar. ...

Here are beginning excerpts from chapter Nu10 And it came to pass on the twentieth day of the second month, in the second year, that the cloud was taken up from the tabernacle of the Testimony. And the people of Israel took their journeys out of the wilderness of Sinai; and the cloud rested in the wilderness of Paran. And they first took their journey according to the commandment of the Lord by the hand of Moses.
• In the first place went the standard of the camp of the sons of Judah according to their armies; and over his army was Nahshon the son of Amminadab.
• And over the army of the tribe of Issachar was Nethaneel, the son of Zuar. ...

Hence the Rashi comment The underlined words They shall journey first in Nu02-09 which describes the camping positions of the Jews, All who were counted in the camp of Judah were a hundred thousand eighty six thousand and four hundred, throughout their armies. They shall journey first , these underlined words cross-reference the other verse Nu10-11:28 which describes the journeying positions of the Jews.

Background: Although the phrase on the face of occurs many times in the Bible, the phrase on the face of so and so only occurs a handful of times. In each of these cases, except one, Rashi translates the phrase on the face of as an idiom meaning during the lifetime. We present below the four verses where Rashi uses this translation. Notice how the verses flow.

• Nu03-04a: And Nadab and Abihu died before the Lord, when they offered strange fire before the Lord, in the wilderness of Sinai, and they had no children; and Eleazar and Ithamar ministered in the priest’s office during the lifetime of their father.
• Gn11-28a: And Haran died during his father's, Terach's lifetime in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldeans.
• Ex20-03c: You shall have no other gods during My lifetime (Rashi: Forever)
• Dt05-07a: You shall have no other gods during my lifetime (Rashi: Forever)

Background: One of Rashis 6 main goals is to explain grammar the same way modern Hebrew grammar books explain grammar.

One particular focus of grammar is the conjugation of verbs and the meaning of the various conjugation modes.The most controversial of the conjugation modes is the hitpael mode. Most elementary books interpret the hitpael as meaning reflexive.

There are at least 3 other theories on the meaning of the hitpael. Rashi interprets the hitpael as meaning interactive. Verse Nu01-18a provides an opportunity to examine this approach.

Nu01-18a states And they assembled all the congregation together on the first day of the second month, and they interactively childrened by families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, by their polls.

Rashi translates interactively childrened as meaning they brought proof of their tribal status (e.g. they brought their birth certificates).

The Davka translation of the Bible that I use offers the translation registered which is close to Rashi's translation of brought proof of their tribal status. The translation that we have provided above, interactively childrened is a literal translation based on the verb, to be a child of and based on the Rashi translation of the hitpael as meaning interactive. The idea then is that to interactively be a child means to prove your child status.

The reader may object that this derivation is not clear cut. Indeed, the reader is correct! The other approaches to the hitpael mode are also not clear cut. It is for this reason that there are four theories on the meaning of the hitpael since no one approach provides a neat explanation. The student here has an opportunity to see how Rashi comments may provide one approach of many in interpreting a difficult Biblical verse.

Note the underlined differences in the alignment of the following two verses.
• Nu01-02:03
  1. Take a census of all the congregation of the people of Israel, by families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of names, every male by their polls;
  2. From twenty years old and upward,
  3. all who are able to go forth to war in Israel; you and Aaron shall count them by their armies.
• Nu03-15
  1. Count the sons of Levi according to the house of their fathers, by their families;
  2. every male from a month old and upward shall you count them.

Notice how Nu01-03 has three clauses, the last one giving a reason, those fit for the army while Nu03-15 has only two clauses, the reason clause being absent. This difference in the aligned verses prompted Rashi to supply a reason for the censii
• The goal of the Nu01-03 census was to count potential army staff
• The goal of the Nu03-15 census was to count potential civilian staff. Rashi further explains that Once an infant reaches one month (s)he is considered viable.

Note the possible contradiction indicated by the underlined phrases in the following two verses. These verses are speaking about the training of the Levites.
• Nu04-02a: Take a census of the sons of Kohath from among the sons of Levi, after their families, by the house of their fathers, From thirty years old and upward even until fifty years old, all who enter into the army, to do the work in the Tent of Meeting. This shall be the service of the sons of Kohath in the Tent of Meeting, about the most holy things;
• Nu08-24 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, This is it what concerns the Levites: from twenty five years old and upward they shall go to be posted on posts for theservice of the Tent of Meeting;

We see the possible contradiction. Which is it? Do Levites start working at 30 years or 25 years?

Rashi resolves this contradiction using the 2 stages method of resolving contradictions.

When discussing the training of the Levites there are two stages:
• Training The five year Levite training program starts at 25
• Actual Service The actual service of the Levites in the Temple starts at 30.

Note that Rashi's resolution is hinted at by the Biblical phrase Go to be posted on posts which could imply training. However Rashi did not make his inference from word meaning but rather from the contradiction which demanded a resolution.

The Rabbi Ishmael Style rules state that when the Bible uses a General-Detail style rule the intent is that of all the possible applications of the General principle, only the detail item is held. Several examples are presented below.

• Nu05-12d: Speak to the people of Israel, and say to them, If any man’s wife goes astray, and
  • commits a trespass against him,
  • And a man lies with her carnally, and it is hidden from the eyes of her husband,
  Rashi:Adultery is the only trespass about which the chapter speaks.
• Dt06-06a:
  • And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.
  • And these words, which I command you this day, shall be on your heart;
  Rashi: A person Loves God by studying his law.
• Nu03-06a: And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
  • Bring the tribe of Levi near, and present them before Aaron the priest, that they may serve to him. And they shall keep his charge, and the charge of the whole congregation before the Tent of Meeting,
  • to do the guard of the tabernacle.
  Rashi: The only service the Levites must do for Aaron is guard the Temple.

In all these cases Rashi interprets the General-Detail clause as indicating that only the Detail clause applies.

When a modern author wishes to indicate deemphasis he could use strikeout. The Biblical Author had a similar technique--word overdotting. That is certain words in the Bibles have dots over them indicating de-emphasis.

Gn33-03a: And Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him; and they wept. It is known that Esau hated Jacob. We therefore assume the kiss is insincere. This is indicated by the dotted word kissed which indicates a strikeout effect of deemphasis.

Nu03-39a: All who were counted of the Levites, which Moses and Aaron counted at the commandment of the Lord, throughout their families, all the males from a month old and upward, were twenty two thousand. Rashi: Aaron was a priest and therefore not counted among the Levites. This is indicated in the text by the dotted word Aaron which indicates a strikeout effect and deemphasis.

Today Rashi examines the following Database query: Is there any unusual language in the censii mentioned in the Torah. The query uncovers one strange underlined phrase below that is only present in one of the censii.

• Nu03-14:16a : And the Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, saying, Count the sons of Levi according to the house of their fathers, by their families; every male from a month old and upward shall you count them. And Moses counted them according to the word of the Lord, as he was commanded.
• Nu03-40:42 : And the Lord said to Moses, Count all the firstborn of the males of the people of Israel from a month old and upward, and take the number of their names. And you shall take the Levites for me, I am the Lord, instead of all the firstborn among the people of Israel; and the cattle of the Levites instead of all the firstlings among the cattle of the people of Israel. And Moses counted, as the Lord commanded him, all the firstborn among the people of Israel.
• Jo08-10 : And Joshua rose up early in the morning, and counted the people, and went up, he and the elders of Israel, before the people to Ai.

Notice that only one verse states that the counting was done by the word of God. Hence the Rashi comment: The other censii had actual counting. However the Levite census was done by the word of God, that is, Moses counted them prophetically.

Rashi then explains why this census was different: Presumably because this census involved the count of infants, therefore, God counted them since it would have been immodest for Moses to go into everyone's house and inspect children or even ask mothers how many children they have.

In the above list we only presented 3 censii. If necessary we could have presented more censii. There is only one verse with the underlined phrase!

Background: The Biblical chapter Nu03 presents the census of the Levites. After the sin of the Golden calf it was decreed that the Levites should replace the firstborn. The best way to understand Nu03 is to use an actual Spreadsheet to depict the replacement. Notice the 300 discrepancy between the verse reported total and the actual sum total of Levites.

Hence the Rashi: Why is the actual total 300 more than the verse total? Because the verse total's purpose is to indicate the replacement of Levites and Firstborn. It would stand to reason that there were 300 firstborn among the Levites who did not need to replace anybody(They replace themselves). Hence the actual sum total of Levites is 22,300 while the total for purpose of first born replacement is only 22,000.

This week's parshah contains no examples of the symbolism method. This concludes this weeks edition. Visit the RashiYomi website at http://www.Rashiyomi.com for further details and examples.