Rashi goes a step further. Comparing the language used for prophecy
in Lv01-01 vs. Nu23-03 Rashi comments: Jewish
prophecy is termed God calls while non-Jewish prophecy is
termed God accidents. The non-Jew sees the prophetic
content as shocking and abrupt while the Jew is prepared for the
prophecy by a calling by God which orients the prophet mentally
to prepare for the unexpected.
A rather interesting advanced Rashi point is the classical explanation of the
Rashi on Ex01-07a which states: the Jews
insectified. Rashi comments: Insectify: This means they
produced 6 children at a time. The advanced Rashi-ists claim that Rashi derived
the number 6 from the 6 verbs and adverbs occurring in Ex01-07a: the Jews
were very, very, fruitful, insectified, multiplied, became-hugh. I think this
association of 6 verb-adverbs with 6 children per woman is fanciful and not rule-based.
I prefer a conceptual approach to Rashi: The word insectify means swarming
with children like insects. Since the maximum number of births is 6 Rashi illustrated this
idea using 6. The advantage of using my proposed explanation of Rashi is that it is
rule-based and reproducable--it allows the serious student of Rashi to apply similar techniques
in other contexts.
Verse Ex02-05c states
And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river;
and her maidens walked along by the river’s side;
and when she saw the ark among the reeds,
she sent her maid to fetch it.
Rashi notes the sudden shift in the underlined words
from singular to plural. Hence
the Rashi comment (with added explanation):
Pharoh, her father had issued a death decree on the Jewish babies.
So his daughter couldn't take the risk of allowing any maid to take
the baby since word would leak back to her father. Instead she sent
her personal maid, the one who was always in attendance on her.
The verse indicates this by the shift in plurality: The maidens
walked along the river but she sent her maid to fetch it.
Advanced Rashi and sermonic points:
Rav Hirsch points out that despite Pharoh's decree the Egypitan
people were not blood thirsty and didn't really care to participate
in the mass murder. Here we see Pharoh's own daughter violating his
decree and conspiring with the child's Jewish mother.
This has relevance for us today. Bad decrees very often emanate
from rulers; the masses however may be sympathetic to Jewish causes.
This allows formation of an underground that can help Jewish causes.
The Jews have frequently exploited this in their various struggles.
Rashi's literal language is as follows:
The verse refers to Pharoh's daughter's maiden. However the
Talmudic Rabbis referred it to her personal hand which stretched
forward several feet to save the baby.
I would interpret personal hand to mean her personal handmaid.
I would interpret stretched several feet to mean that Pharoh's daughter
carried a royal sceptre by which decrees can be made. We find such a sceptre
referred to by Achashveirosh who stretched forth his sceptre to prevent
his protective service from killing queen Vashti Es05-02. I would
apply this concept here also. Pharoh's daughter strecthed forth her sceptre
several feet and prohibited termination of the baby. The stretching forth
of her sceptre is picturesquely referred to by Rashi as stretching forth
her hand.
Thus, although the literal interpretation of this Rashi appears difficult,
I believe that Rashi expresses the simple meaning of the text. We have arrived
at this simple meaning using the single-plural distinction and by
using well known idioms. Thus we interpreted her hand the same as
the English her right hand indicating her personal handmaid.
Similarly we have interpreted stretched forth her hand as stretched
forth her sceptre. Finally a review of the 6 times that the Hebrew word
Stretched occurs in the Talmud justifies interpreting this word not
as a physical stretching but as an extension of authority.
Consequently I consider this Rashi interpretation an ideal way to approach
all Rashis.
Note the alignment of the underlined
words in the following verses:
Verse
Ex04-06
discussing
how God punished Moses with leprosy for slandering
the Jewish people that they would not accept a prophet
states
-
And the Lord said furthermore to him, Put now your hand into your bosom.
And he put his hand into his bosom; and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous, white as snow.
while
verse
Ex04-07a
discussing how God cured Moses' leprosy states
-
And he said, Put your hand into your bosom again.
And he put his hand into his bosom again;
and when he took it from his bosom,
behold, it was returned to healthy flesh.
Rashi comments on the aligned underlined passages which
contrast when the cure and leprosy punishment took place--when he took it out
of his bossom vs when he took it out [completely]:
-
He was cured as soon as he took his hand out of his bossom
but
- he was punished after he took his hand completely out.
Hence the Rashi comment:
We see from this that God's cure and redemption is faster
than his punishment.
Sermonic points:
The above passage has obvious relevance for all of us as we
improve our lives. We should always be aware of the swiftness
of God's mercies despite the length of time we have endured
suffering.
Note the contradiction in the following verses.
- Verse
Ex02-06
discussing
the discovery, by Pharoh's daughter, of baby Moses in a basket
states
And when she had opened it, she saw the child;
while
- Verse
Ex02-06
also discussing the discovery of Moses in a basket by Pharoh's daughter,
states
and, behold, the baby wept. And she had compassion on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews’ children.
We see the contradiction: Which is it?
Did Pharoh's daughter discover a baby or
child?
Rashi resolves this using the two aspects method
of resolution.
- Moses had the age of a baby but
- the demeanor of a child.
Advanced Rashi:
I make the following conjecture: Moses mother knew that
if the child cried she would be caught. Hence at the
first sign of crying by the child Moses' mother would run
to take care of him. This vested a certain regality in the
child--for the child learned that by a simple utterance of a cry
he would get what he wants. This differs from most babies
who cry excessively when they don't get what they want.
Pharoh's daughter was attracted to this regality and therefore
wanted to raise the child as her own. Hence the dual language
in the verse---agewise Moses was an infant but in demeanor and
maturity he had the regality of an older child.
Biblical verses Ex01-20:21 forms a Biblical paragraph with
a theme-detail structure:
- Therefore God dealt well with the midwives;
[who enabled] the people to multiply, and became very mighty.
- And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that he made them socially distinguished.
Rashi paraphrased comments: The two sentences form one paragraph.
That is the statement in the first theme sentence
God dealt well with the midwives
refers to the details mentioned in the second detail sentence
God made them socially distinguished.
Rashi's comment seems rather obvious. His point of emphasis is
that the two verses should be read together. Here are the literal verse
and Rashi comments:
- Verse God dealth well with the midwives
- Rashi: And how did he deal well with them?
- Verse: God made them houses
- Rashi: That is, God made them socially distinguished.
Sermonic points: The sermonic inferences from these
verses and Rashi are obvious: God rewards good deeds and furthermore
the reward God gives to those who do good need not be monetary but
may be social. In this case God did not give them money or items of
monetary value: Rather God gave them social distinction. It is worthwhile
when we seek God's grace to remember that His grace may strongly manifest
itself with social graces.
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 that just appeared in the Jewish Bible
Quarterly,and available on the world wide web,
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.
Verse Ex03-11 presenting Moses' protestation against taking
the Jews out of Egypt states
And Moses said to God, Who am I,
- that I should go to Pharaoh, and
- that I should bring forth the people of Israel out of Egypt?
Rashi interprets the repeated connective keywords as indicating
a bullet format. The bullets create a contrastive emphasis
requiring focusing on each underlined item. Hence the Rashi comment:
- Who am I that I should argue against a difficult king like Pharoh
- Who am I that I should be a leader of an obstinate and difficult people
like the Jews
In todays query we ask:
Does the Bible name events by future incidents connected with that event?
We find many verses where items and events are named by future
events. Some of them are presented in the table below. The interpretations
of each list item are indicated in the accompanying footnotes.
=================================================================
VERSE NAMED/DESIGNATED FOR FUTURE EVENT FUTURE EVENT
======== =========================================== ============
Gn01-14e Moon designated for holidays Ex12-02*1
Gn07-02a Take 7 Kosher animals Lv11*2
Gn02-14c Rivers surrounded KUSH & ASSHUR Gn10-07:11*3
Gn14-07b ...the AMALAYK field Gn36-12*4*
Ex03-01b Mountain of God Ex19-18*6
NOTES
-----
*1 In other words, Gn01-14 refers to the moon as being
used for the holidays. Yet we don't find the moon being the
basis for holidays until much later in history (See Ex12-01. )
*2 God tells Noach (Gn07-02) to take 7 Kosher animals.
But the classification of animals as Kosher or non Kosher does
not occur till much later in history after the exodus (Lv11)
*3 During the paradise story the rivers are described as surrounding
Kush and Asshur,countries which did not exist for several hundred
ears since the founders of these countries were descendants of Noach.
*4 Gn14-07 written in Abraham's time describes the Amalayk
field. Yet Amalyak was not born till much later (See Gn36-12).
*5 Ex03-01 describes Moses sheparding at the mountain of God.
But Mount Sinai was not called the mountain of God till God
revealed himself on it which happened at a later date (Ex19-18)
=================================================================
Sermonic points:
The obvious sermonic point is that the Bible is a book about prophecy
and hence future events are frequently forshadowed.