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.

Gn04-04 states And Abel also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat of it. But the Lord had respect for Abel and for his offering; Rashi explains the underlined words had respect by citing an Other Verse at 1Ki18-37:38 which states Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that you are the Lord God, and that you have turned their heart back again. Then the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood pile, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the ditch. This other verse shows that God answers/shows respect for prayer by the fire of God falling and consuming sacrifices. Hence the Rashi comment on Gn04-04, The Lord showed respect for Abel and his offering: Rashi states: A fire came down and licked the offering.

Here Rashi clarified the meaning of the underlined words had respect by citing an other verse showing how God shows respect: By a fire of God coming down and consuming the sacrifice.

Sermonic Points: Throughout the Bible fire is a universal symbol of prophecy. Consequently we would suggest that Gn04-04 indicates that God rewarded Hevel by giving him a prophetic vision in which his offering to God was consumed and elevated heavenward indicating the transformation of Hevel's animal life upwards to spirituality. Hence the Kayin-Hevel story indicates that when a person brings thinks of God and makes sure that even his symbolic gestures use high-class and good symbols he is rewarded with prophetic/inspirational insights.

One of Rashi's 10 major methods is the word meaning method. One word meaning sub-method is the literature sub-method. Rashi is justified in using literary techniques common to all languages to infer new word meaning. One such literary technique is metonomy. Metonomy refers to naming by something related. For examples the statement America defeated Iraq really means that The people of America defeated the people of Iraq. Here the word America which definitionally refers to the country or land of America has a new related meaning: The people of America.

Verse Gn03-19a states By the sweat of your face shall you eat bread, till you return to the ground; for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust shall you return. Rashi states: Sweat of your face refers to hard excessively exertive work. Hence the verse means You will harvest food, but only through hard excessively exertive work. Here Rashi interprets the phrase sweat of your face, not literally, but metonymically as meaning hard work. In other words the Biblical verse is fulfilled by a person who works from 6 in the morning to 9 at night even if (s)he has a white-collar job and never sweats.

Verse Gn04-10a states And He said, What have you done? the voice of your brother’s bloods cries to me from the ground. Rashi interprets the word bloods as wounds. Here Rashi uses the metonomy principle which asserts that wound and blood are related and therefore blood can mean wound.

Sermonic Points: We tend to think of crime simplistically. The murderer loses his temper, shoots a gun and the person is dead. He didn't really mean it. Not so says Rashi! Most of the grave sins--murder, defecting to other religions, sexual crimes -- do not take place in an instant. They arise from premeditation with repeated blows and acts by the criminal against the aggrieved.

One of Rashi's 10 major goals is the explanation of grammatical rules similar to modern grammar textbooks. A major submethod of Grammar is the conjugation method. Congugation governs verb as well as noun conjugations. Most grammar textbooks present the rules of verb conjugations. But the rules for noun conjugations are equally important

Today we study the noun conjugation form 1st-Letter Yud 2nd Letter. A simple example might be the word Aleph Yud Nun (Ayin), which means not found, nowhere, non-existent. Now the root Aleph Nun Hey means where.

We easily see the semantic relation between not found and where: not found provokes a question of where. Here the word Aleph Yud Nun,not found, has the form 1st-Letter Yud 2nd-Letter while the form Aleph Nun Hey, where has the form 1st-Letter 2nd-Letter Hey. What Rashi is suggesting is that the forms 1st-Letter Yud 2nd-Letter vs. 1st-Letter 2nd-Letter Hey are related by the concept of provocation. The list below justifies this. The rule probably appears strange to most readers, even advanced Talmudic scholars. But that is only because we are familiar with verb-conjugation since it is taught to us in elementary school; but we are not familiar with noun-conjugation rules because it is not taught.

• Aleph Yud Nun , not found provokes a question of Aleph Nun Hey where.
• Daleth-Yud-Shin the harvest season provokes Daleth Shin Hey the act of harvesting.
• Ayin Yud Nun to eye someone provokes Ayin-Nun-Hey responsiveness (on the person eyed)
• Zayin-Yud-Nun weapons provoke Zayin-Nun-Hey defection
• Kuph Yud Nun Eve's first son, Kayin, provokes Kuph Nun Hey possessiveness, since one must acquire a home, toys, and possessions for the son.

Sermonic ideas: This Rashi teaches us how the start of a family, the birth of children, creates changes in the parents. All of a sudden, possession, social status, respect, the latest fashions, all become important so that the son will grow up normally.

Note the alignment of the underlined words in the following verses
• Verse Gn02-17 discussing the prohibition of Adam and Eve eating from the tree of Knowledge states
  • But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,
  • you shall not eat of it; ...
• Verse Gn03-03 discussing Eve' repetition of this command states
  • But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden,
  • God has said, you shall not eat of it,
  • nor shall you touch it,

We see the contrast. Eve added the underlined prohibition nor shall you touch it, which was not given by God. The Midrash humorously describes how this led to Eve's sin: The snake mocked her: Don't touch it?. The snake pushed her against the fruit and said You touched it--why haven't you died? Eve then believed the snake and ate from the fruit of the tree. Rashi echoes this Midrash by a contrastive pun: Because Eve added prohibitions she lost her stay in Paradise.

Sermonic ideas: Rashi tells how it happens. One path to sin is the overemphasis on the prophylactic and preventative. People tend to identify the preventative with actual sin. When inadvertent violation of the preventatives does not lead to punishment people may erroneously assume that actual sin also does not lead to consequences. It is therefore important to carefully distinguish what is actually prohibited vs. what is preventative.

Note the contradiction indicated by the underlined words in the following verses
• Gn02-25a states And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not embarassed, while
• Gn03-07b states that after violating God's orders not to eat from the tree that And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.

We see the Contradiction: Which is it? Were they embarassed by their nakedness or not?

Rashi resolves this using broad/literal interpretation:
• Prior to their sin they cognitively knew about their nakedness but they weren't tempted to sin and hence were not embarassed
• After their sin they became aware of their vulnerability and hence were embarassed by their nakedness.

Sermonic ideas: Rashi literally says: They knew they were naked of the commandment that God had given them. We have interpreted this Rashi to mean awareness of vulnerability. In fact we could go a step farther: The prohibition of eating from the fruit of the tree was a prohibition of control; hence it is prototypical of sexual sins which are also sins of impetuousness and lack of control.

• Gn01-27 states So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female He created them.
• But then in Gn02-07:08 we read that And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.

Rashi explains the two accounts as bearing the relationship of headline vs. details. For example suppose you saw a headline Fire breaks out in forest and then started to read the article which states Today a fire broke out on the 500 acre forest at... You would not say that two fires broke out, one indicated by each sentence! You would rather say that one fire broke out. You would say that the first sentence Fire breaks out in forest is a statement of the general idea while the second sentence presents the details. Alternatively you could say that the first sentence is the headline while the second set of sentences is the story details.

Rashi cites the views of Rabbi Eliezer whose set of literary rules was more developed then the corresponding literary rules of Rabbi Ishmael. Rabbi Eliezer points out that the Bible uses the headline-story method or the General-detail method quite often. The point here is that we do not have a repetition---we are not being told that something happened twice--we are not for example being told that God created man twice. Rather we are told a general idea---man was created---and then are explained the developmental details of that idea. For example Gn02-07:08 explains the integration of Gn01 around the creation of Adam---the trees and vegetation created on the third day formed a garden in which man could delight.

Sermonic idea: Rashi and Talmudic hermeunetics is very often associated with pickiness and the so called the question or what is bothering Rashi. Anomalies are important. But equally important are matters of style and overall structure. The headline-detail method is simply a way of presenting material---it need not provoke a question---nothing need be bothering Rashi. This is an important principle which we will revisit throughout the year.

When an author wishes to create emphasis (s)he will use bullets. The bullet formatting indicates the authors intent that each bulleted item is distinct with distinct emphasis. The Biblical Author indicated abullet effect by repeating key connective words. In other words some Rashi commentators take the position that every Biblical word has emphasis because they come from a Divine source. Our position is similar but not identical. We believe that God used human phraseology--individual words need not have special emphasis. However if God uses a Bulleted list as indicated by the repeating connective keywords then we can be certain that special emphasis was indicated.

With this background note the doubly bulleted structure of Gn01-14:15 indicated by the repeating underlined words and phrases: And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night;
• and let them be
  • for signs, and
  • for seasons, and
  • for days, and
  • for years;
• And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth;..

The Rashi comments simply explain the implied emphasis in each item of the doubly bulleted list. Here is the doubly bulleted list again with the Rashi comments--note the brevity and elegance by which the comments are communicated
• and let them be Rashi:Periodic activities
  • for signs, and
  • for seasons, and Rashi:The holiday cycle
  • for days, and Rashi:Day night cycle
  • for years;Rashi:The year (Summer-Winter) cycle
• And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth;.. Rashi:General idea of light [e.g. deterrent to burglaries]

Note the brevity and elegance by which these Rashi comments are hinted at. To recap because, as indicated by the repeating connective underlined words and phrases, the Bible indicates a doubly bulleted list, we therefore emphasize the special nuance in each list item.

Sermonic ideas: The Bible above emphasizes that light in and of itself is good. One possible utility of light, indicated by us in brackets, is that it is a deterrent to thieves (Crime is more likely at night). In America we have daylight saving times law to extend the amount of daylight we deal with. These concepts are hinted at in the above passage.

Rashi reviews the items created mentioned in Genesis, Chapter 1. Some of them received blessings from God and others didn't. For example Gn01-21:22a states the following blessing And God created the great crocodiles, and every kind of creature that live in the waters, and every kind of winged birds, and God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let the birds multiply in the earth. One can create a list or database query showing which items were blessed and which were not.

QUERY: Which creatures are blessed in Gn01
======================================================
VERSE    ITEM                    WAS IT BLESSED
======== ======================= =====================
Gn01-14  STARS                   NO
Gn01-11  PLANTS                  NO
Gn01-22a INSECTS ANIMALS BIRDS   YES
Gn01-24  BEASTS                  NO
Gn01-27  HUMANS                  YES
======================================================

Rashi explains why certain items were blessed while others were not. Rashi answers that those objects that are vulnerable to diminuition--insects and humans-- are blessed while those objects that are not so vulnerable--stars, plants which replenish anyway and beasts which are not hunted for food-- are not blessed.

Sermonic ideas:It was not enough for God to create the world; God also had to sustain what he created. A similar idea occurs in tort law. Leaving an animal not attended is considered negligence--you are responsible for the damage caused by it. Tieing the animal up is considered adequate watching (And you are not responsibile if by accident the animal escapes. ) However if you tie the animal up and leave it with a minor you are considered negligent and must pay damages. Even though the tieing up is adequate watching you still must sustain the tied up status and a minor cannot do that. Thus here, God teaches us ethical behavior.

Rashi will sometimes make inferences based on the equivalent of a Numerical Spreadsheet. In such a case we say that Rashi uses the Spreadsheet method. A simple but prototypical example occurs in this week's Parshah.

Gn06-10 states And Noah fathered 3 sons:Shem, Cham and Yefeth. Superficially it sounds as if Shem was the oldest, since he is listed first. Rashi uses the Spreadsheet below to show that this is not so.

==========================================================
SOURCE    NUMERICAL STATEMENT   WHEN
========= ===================   ==========================
Gn07-06   Noach was 600         when the FLOOD started
Add 2     Noach was 602         two years after flood
Gn11-10   Shaym was 100         two years after flood
Subtract  ------------------------------------------------
-------   Noach was 502         when Shem was born
Gn05-32   Noach was 500         when he started giving birth
Conclude  ------------------------------------------------
--------  Shaym could NOT have been Noachs 1st son
===========================================================

Sermonic ideas: Contrary to popular belief the Bible did not judge people by form. Shem is listed first among Noah's children even though he wasn't oldest. He is listed first because he is the most religious.

Using symbolic methods I have argued that Genesis, Chapter 1, does not speak, as is commonly thought, about the creation of the physical world, but rather, about the creation of the spiritual world. That is, what happened 6000 years ago is not that physical world was created but rather that prophecy was created.

Here is another way at looking at this: There had to be a first point in time when man had a prophetic dream. Before this point in time there were no prophecies. After this point there were prophecies. This first point in time happened 6000 years ago. The person named Adam received a prophetic vision and this was the first time in human history that a prophetic vision was received.

The student interested in studying all details of this idea should visit url, http://www.Rashiyomi.com/gen-1.htm which contains my paper Genesis 1 speaks about the creation of prophecy not the creation of the world. We suffice in this newsletter to indicate a very rough sketch.

Genesis 1 could not be speaking about the creation of man: Indeed Genesis 3 describes slimy man, the snake. Similarly, Genesis 4 describes the city that Kayin built, presumably for other people. Gn01-02 when interpreted with proper grammar uses the past perfect: The world had been void.... The past perfect--had been--- shows that prior to the creation of prophetic-man the world had existed!

Because of these and other considerations Rashi states on Gn01-04, which states God said let there be light and there was light, Here also we require agaddic/symbolic methods: The verse speaks about the spiritual light hidden for the righteous in the future world. We have interpreted this Rashi as speaking about the light of prophecy which is destined for the righteous in the future world. Thus the proper translation of Gn01-01:04 is as follows:

For the sake of the choicest in man, God created both the physical and spiritual worlds. For the world had been void, with darkness over human emotions, and only a vestige of prophecy hovered over mans inner turmoil. And then one day God said let there be the light of prophecy and people had visions...

If one reads the article references above one can find a more detailed account of the methodology, other sources (besides this Rashi) that confirm this approach as well as many scriptural references (Such as references showing that light means prophecy.) We urge all readers to read it.

Sermonic ideas:The Bible is not a book about history or physics. The Bible is a book about spirituality and closeness to God. Although the highest closeness to God, the prophecy promised for the hereafter, is not in everyone's current reach, we can still learn the spiritual ideas associated with this high spiritual state. For example, the creation of the second day emphasizes the separation of heaven and earth symbolizing the separation of spirituality and physicality. This is an important separation which we routinely perform in our daily lives by having special times and places devoted exclusively to spiritual, non-physical matter.

This week's parshah contains examples of all methods. This concludes this weeks edition. Visit the RashiYomi website at http://www.Rashiyomi.com for further details and examples.