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.

Gn32-13b, presenting Jacob's supplication to God to save him from this brother Esauv states And you,God, said, I will surely do you good, and make your seed as the sand of the sea, which can not be counted for multitude. Rashi simply explains the underlined citation by providing a cross reference from an other verse: Rashi first cites Gn28-14 which states And your seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south; and in you and in your seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

Rashi is not fully satisfied with this other verse. After all one verse speaks about your seed shall be as the sand of the sea while the other verse speaks about your seed shall be as the dust of the earth. Dust and sand are similar but not identical. Rashi therefore cites a verse mentioned to Abraham, Gn32-13 That in blessing I will bless you, and in multiplying I will multiply your seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and your seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; Rashi argues that since this blessing was stated to Abraham for his progeny it is therefore an appropriate cross reference to Jacob.

Sermonic points:The Talmud states that the incidents of the Patriarchs are moral norms for the children. Here Jacob teaches us how to pray: Jacob was afraid he might die---to strengthen himself thru prayer he cites a Biblical prophecy that Abraham's seed would be plentiful. Here the Biblical prophecy directly contradicts the possibility of war and massive death. In this way the utterance of prophecy during prayer spiritually strengthens him. Such uses of prophecy during times of stress are meritorious and an intrinsic part of the prayer experience.

One of Rashi's 10 major methods is the word meaning method. Rashi will sometimes explain Biblical Hebrew roots in a manner parallel to literary explanations in other languages. A common technique of word meaning in all languages is naming by exaggeration. Some common English examples are
• A sky-scraper is seen as scraping the sky
• A breakfast is seen as breaking the fast of the night
• The English idiom hear a pin drop means silence.

Some further examples of naming by exaggeration are given by the Rashis on the following verses:
• Verse Ex21-03a states If he came in with his body, he shall go out by himself; if he was married, then his wife shall go out with him. Rashi explains the underlined phrase using the technique of exaggeration: come with his body means single-- that is, one body not two.
• Verse Lv19-20a states And whoever lies carnally with a woman, who is a slave wintered to a man, and not wholly redeemed, nor freedom given her; inquiry shall be made; they shall not be put to death, because she was not free. Rashi explains the underlined phrase using the technique of exaggeration: she is wintered to a man means she is engaged. That is their relationship is cold vs hot.
• Verse Gn33-13a states And he said to him, My lord knows that the children are tender and the flocks and herds are young on me and if men should overdrive them one day, all the flock will die. Rashi explains the underlined phrase using the technique of exaggeration: young on me means too young to care for themselves but rather have to be looked over that is, they are like human infants who have to be held and carried on ones shoulder, vs. being able to bear themselves.

Verse Gn32-18 states three questions: And he commanded the foremost, saying, When Esau my brother meets you, and asks you, saying,
1. Whose are you? and
2. where are you going? and
3. whose are these before you?
Gn32-19 states a corresponding 3 responses Then you shall say,
1. They are your servant Jacob’s;
2. it is a present sent to my lord Esau; and, behold, also
3. he is behind us.

Thus Rashi here teaches the grammatical rules governing answering questions: A sequence of answers following a sequence of questions should be parallel: That is the first answer responds to the first question, the second answer responds to the second question, etc. This parallel rule is depicted above in the numbered lists.

Sermonic points: We have presented this Rashi as grammatical. But most people see this Rashi as indicating etiquette: It is proper etiquette to answer questions sequentially, rather than in a random order.

Note the alignment of the underlined words in the following verses
• Jacob, in verse Gn34-16 discussing a possible alliance between Jacob and Schem states
  • Then will we give our daughters to you,
  • and we will take your daughters for us, ...
• Schem in verse Gn34-21 continuing the discussion of the alliance states These men are peaceable with us; therefore let them live in the land, and trade in it; for the land, behold, is large enough for them;
  • let us take their daughters to us for wives,
  • and let us give them our daughters.

Rashi, commenting on the underlined verbs, ironically observes Each side -- Jacob and Schem -- both used the word give with their own daughters but used the word take with the daughter's of the other side. In other words despite their ideological differences each side thought their daughters special.

Sermonic points: Rashi's point echoes the concerns of the modern concept of democracy: For negotiations between two sides to succeed the two sides must treat each other equally despite large ideological differences.

Note the contradiction in the following verses.
• Verse Gn34-13a discussing the response of Jacob's sons to the rapist (of his daughter Dinah) who wanted to marry his daughter, states And the sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father deceitfully, and said
• Verse Gn34-13 however continues because he had defiled Dinah their sister;

We see the contradiction: Which is it? Were Jacob's sons deceitful or did Schem deserve it because he had raped and defiled their daughter / sister?

Rashi resolves this contradiction using the broad-literal method of resolution: Rashi prefers a translation of cunning to deceitful. Rashi translates Gn34-13 as follows: And the sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father cunningly, because he had defiled Dinah their sister; and said:

The point here is that the word deceitful has perjorative connotations while the word cunning has laudatory connotations. Therefore the translation deceitful is not accurate since its nuances contradict the fact that the behavior of Jacob's children was morally proper.

Sermonic points: You can ask: "But is it proper to be deceitful in response to an immoral event? Doesn't that close the door on repentance. After all Chamor did rape Dinah? He now wanted to repent and marry her--- what justifies the deceit?"

I actually found a legal answer to this in the Rambam, Laws of Employees, Chapter 9: "An employer has the right to be deceitful to an employee who quits in the middle of a time sensitive job where no replacement is possible. For example, you can promise to pay him more if he finishes the job and then reneg on the promise. Or, you can withold payment of a loan due to him." In a similar manner Jacob's children were morally justified in deceiving a rapist.

Gn32-17a:21, discussing the gift Jacob sent to his brother Esauv before meeting him has a detail-theme format as shown below:
• Detail: And he delivered them to the hand of his servants, every drove by themselves;
• Detail: and said to his servants, Pass over before me, and
• Detail: put a space between drove and drove..... ....it is a present sent to my lord Esau; ....
• Theme: And say you moreover, Behold, your servant Jacob is behind us. For Jacob said, I, Jacob, will appease Esauv with the present that goes before me, ....

To explain this Rashi we note 3 points:
• We understand the details--every drove of animals was by itself, there were spaces between the droves etc.
• We also understand the theme--that Jacob wanted to appease Esauv
• But we don't yet understand how the details contribute to the theme. It is this connection between details-theme that Rashi explains. Here is the verse again with the Rashi comments attached: Notice how the sole goal of each Rashi is to connect the details to the main theme.

• Detail: And he delivered them to the hand of his servants, every drove by themselves; [Rashi: The distinctness of each drove of animals gave an air of diversity, making the present more appealing, and the consequent likelihood of appeasing Esauv more likely.]
• Detail: and said to his servants, Pass over before me, and [Rashi: Jacob suggested present first, I follow, thus letting the appeasing nature of the present take effect prior to Jacob's appearance.]
• Detail: put a space between drove and drove..... ....it is a present sent to my lord Esau; .... [Rashi: The spaces between droves gives an air of spaciousness, increasing the appeal of the present and the consequent likelihood of appeasing Esauv more likely.]
• Theme: And say you moreover, Behold, your servant Jacob is behind us. For Jacob said, I, Jacob, will appease Esauv with the present that goes before me, .... [Rashi: The spaces between droves, distinctness of each drove and the prior appearance of the present to Jacob's appearance--- all these items created an air of appeal for the present that heightened the probability of the present appeasing.]

We consider this Rashi an excellent example of the style method: We again emphasize that the paragraph details and theme are each understood. Rashi's sole contribution is to show the connection between details and theme, that is, to show the paragraph unity.

Sermonic Points: The sermonic points on this Rashi are clear: When asking people in power for favors one should send them gifts and praise them. Interestingly, the Talmud says that any time Rabbi Judah the prince, the Author of the Mishnah legal code, had to appear before the Roman Emporer, he first studied this Biblical passage, Gn32 as this chapter contains the secrets for political success with foreign diplomats.

A modern author who wishes to indicate special emphasis to each item in a list uses bullets to indicate this emphasis. By bulleting the reader is asked to dwell for a moment on each list item and listen to its nuances. In my article Biblical Formatting to appear in the Jewish Bible Quarterly I have explained that when the Biblical Author wishes to indicate special emphasis on each member of a list, repeated keywords are used. The repeated keywords should be interpreted as the equivalent of a bulleted format. The following example illustrates this. The Rashi comments illustrating each bulleted point are combined with the text.

Gn32-22:25, discussing the journey of Jacob over the river states as follows
• So the present passed over before him; and he himself lodged that night in the camp.
• And he rose that night, and took his two wives, and his two women servants, and his eleven sons, and passed over the ford Jabbok.
• And he took them, and passed them over the brook,[ The people, wives, and children.]
• and passed over that which he had., [Rashi: His possessions]
• And Jacob was stayed behind alone; ...[Rashi: To check for left behind items.]

We see here how the bullet method words. The common denominator of all the verses is items transferred over the Jordan. Rashi then supplements the explicitly identified items with reasonable complements as follows:
• The present went first (explicitly stated)
• The people went second, wives, and children (explicitly stated)
• The possessions went third (not explicitly stated but a reasonable inference)
• Finally Jacob left behind presumably to check for leftover items (not explicitly stated but a reasonable inference)

Advanced Rashi: We think the above example an excellent illustration of the format method. The illustration shows the delicate blend between explicitly stated and inferred items. It also shows the non-deterministic nature of the exegesis.

Sermonic Points: Notice that Rashi interprets Jacob stayed behind alone as referring to Jacob checking on leftovers. Rashi points out: Monetary exactness and honesty is very important to righteous people.

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