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.

Verse Ex30-13c discussing the obligation of a half-dollar tax for the temple, states, This they shall give, every one that passeth among them that are numbered, half a shekel in holy shekels--the shekel is twenty gerahs-- half a shekel for an offering to HaShem. The underlined phrase holy shekels cross references the currency used for donations made to the Holy Temple defined in Lv27-02:03 and Lv27-25: Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them: When a man shall clearly utter a vow of persons unto HaShem, according to thy valuation, then thy valuation shall be for the male from twenty years old even unto sixty years old, even thy valuation shall be fifty shekels of silver, in the holy shekel .... And all thy valuations shall be according to the holy shekel; twenty gerahs shall be the shekel. Hence the Rashi comment:Holy shekel refers to the currency used in Holy Temple matters.

Advanced Rashi: The JPS English translation that we use reflects this Rashi thru a punchy translation. JPS translates holy shekels as Temple shekels: This they shall give, every one that passeth among them that are numbered, half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary-- the shekel is twenty gerahs--half a shekel for an offering to HaShem. The use of punchy translations to reflect Rashi comments was first advocated in my article Peshat and Derash, which may be found on the world wide web at http://www.Rashiyomi.com/rashi.pdf.

Rashi, besides explaining the meaning of individual words, will also explain the meaning of idioms. An idiom is a collection or group of words which collectively, as a whole, have a meaning which transcends and differs from the meaning of the individual constituent words. Today we study an idiom which is identical to both Hebrew and English.

Verse Ex32-09 states And HaShem said unto Moses: 'I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people. In both English and Hebrew stiffnecked means stubborn. Thus we could profitably translate the verse as follows And HaShem said unto Moses: 'I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stubborn people.'

Advanced Rashi: Rashi actually literally says They show their necks and turn their backs to people who talk to them and thereby symbolically affirm their refusal to listen.
• It appears that Rashi is deriving the meaning of stiff necked from the above logical argument -- this however is not the approach to Rashi.
• An alternate argument is that we know the meaning of stiff necked by oral tradition -- this is also unnecessary.
• The proper perspective is that
  • the phrase stiff necked is an idiom whose meaning is known to speakers of the language. That is the oral tradition is not a religious oral tradition but rather a national oral tradition by secular speakers of the language.
  • Rashi's logical argument above is one component of how this idiom developed.
  • Furthermore, it would not contradict Rashi to observe that other forces shaped the idiom -- for example the neckbone has a hard bony nature which symbolizes hardness and lack of flexibility.

One of Rashi's grammar methods focuses on the specific meanings of special connective words. The Hebrew connective word Zeh, Zayin Hey, normally translated as this is interpreted by Rashi to refer to indicate something pointed to. We present below a list of verses where this finger pointing interpretation is manifest.

• Verse Ex32-01c states And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him: 'Up, make us a god who shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we know not what is become of him.' Rashi comments on the word this: Satan showed them the image of Moses (Something to point to).
• Verse Lv11-02d states Speak unto the children of Israel, saying: These are the living things which ye may eat among all the beasts that are on the earth. Rashi comments on the word these: God showed him kosher animal pictures (Something to point to).
• Verse Nu08-04a states And this is the work of the candlestick, beaten work of gold; unto the base thereof, and unto the flowers thereof, it was beaten work; according unto the pattern which HaShem had shown Moses, so he made the candlestick. Rashi comments on the word this: God showed him a Candellabrah (Something to point to).
• Verse Ex30-13c states This they shall give, every one that passeth among them that are numbered, half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary--the shekel is twenty gerahs--half a shekel for an offering to HaShem. Rashi comments on the word this: God showed him a Temple-dollar (Something to point to)

Sermonic points: In all the above verses Rashi interprets this as referring to a picture or image which God showed Moses. Rashi does not go further - why did Moses have to be shown a picture? Rashi however does indicate that Moses had difficult understanding the construction of the candellabrah; God therefore showed him a diagram of the candellabrah to give Moses a better understanding.

Here God teaches us principles of pedagogy: Today it is well known and accepted that pictures and diagrams are useful teaching aids. Very often a picture or diagram might accomplish what words cannot accomplish. This is particularly true in some of the areas mentioned above: Today we have many diagram books on Kashruth and the Temple construction. The idea of these diagram books originated with the above Rashis!

The following two verses discussing God's anger at the Jewish people and His desire to destroy them are identical except for one word
• Verse Ex32-09 states HaShem said unto Moses: 'I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people.
• Verse Dt09-13 states HaShem spoke unto me,To say: 'I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people;

Rashi comments on the one underlined differing word, to say: The phrase To say creates emphasis: God as it were wanted Moses to say and answer Him back. In other words God told Moses He wanted to destroy the Jewish people in order to provoke Moses into praying for them.

Advanced Rashi: The above Rashi came from a computer analysis of the entire Bible. I instructed the computer to align all verse pairs with several common words. The entire project consumed several dozen hours of computer time. When the project was over I was able to identify the Rashis on all verse pairs except two which I had never noticed. The above verse pair was provided by the computer. I immediately recognized it as justifying the Rashi cited above. Such an analysis reinforces our belief that the understanding of Rashi can be accomplished by rules accessible to anyone.

Note the contradiction in the following verses discussing God's visitation of deeds on descendants:
• Ex20-06 states and showing mercy unto the thousands of generations of them that love Me and keep My commandments.
• Ex34-07 states keeping mercy unto the thousands of generation, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin; and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and unto the fourth generation.'
• Dt07-09 states Know therefore that HaShem thy G-d, He is G-d; the faithful G-d,
  • who keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love Him and
  • keep His commandments to a thousand generations;

  We see the contradiction: Which is it: Does God show mercy to thousands of generations or to only one thousand generations?

  Rashi resolves this contradiction using the two aspects method: As can be seen from the above verses God rewards and shows mercy
  • To those who love him for thousands of generations
  • To those who only keep his commandments to only 1 thousand generations.

  In other words Rashi distinguishes between those who serve God out of love vs. those who serve God because He is King. To the former He shows mercy for thousands of generations while to the latter He shows mercy to only 1 thousand generations.

  Sermonic points: The sermonic point is actually mentioned in Rashi: From the resolution of this contradiction we infer the obvious fact that serving God out of love is superior to serving God out of respect for the King.

  6. RASHI METHOD: STYLE
  Rashi examines how rules of style influences inferences between general and detail statements in paragraphs.
  • Example: Every solo example stated by the Bible must be broadly generalized;
  • Theme-Detail: A general principle followed by an example is interpreted restrictively---the general theme statement only applies in the case of the example;
  • Theme-Detail-Theme: A Theme-Detail-Theme unit is interpreted as a paragraph. Consequently the details of the paragraph are generalized so that they are seen as illustrative of the theme.
  This examples applies to Rashis Ex30-12a
  URL Reference: (c) http://www.Rashiyomi.com/ex30-12a.htm
  Biblical verses Ex30-11:16 are written in a general-specific-general style as follows: And HaShem spoke unto Moses, saying:
  • General: When thou takest the sum of the children of Israel, according to their number, then shall they give every man an atonement for his soul unto HaShem, when thou numberest them; that there be no plague among them, when thou numberest them.
  • Detail: This they shall give, every one that passeth among them that are numbered, half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary--the shekel is twenty gerahs--half a shekel for an offering to HaShem. Every one that passeth among them that are numbered, from twenty years old and upward, shall give the offering of HaShem. The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less, than the half shekel, when they give the offering of HaShem, to make atonement for your souls.
  • General: And thou shalt take the atonement money from the children of Israel, and shalt appoint it for the service of the tent of meeting, that it may be a memorial for the children of Israel before HaShem, to make atonement for your souls.'

  Rashi comments on the general - detail - general style: The General-detail-general style requires generalization of the detail clause to similar situations: Not only for purposes of the Temple count, but generally for any count of the Jewish people, the act of counting had to be done by counting coins (rather than by counting actual people).

  Sermonic points: The reason why the counting could not be done directly (through counting of people) but instead was done indirectly (through counting of coins) is to symbolically affirm that God sends a blessing in uncounted items. After all if we know exactly how many people there are and how much food is available then we begin to make computations that prohibit more people. By avoiding counting the people we create a free atmosphere in which people are encouraged to reproduce as much as they want. For this reason the verse refers to the counting by coins as an atonement since it atones for the sin of counting and fixing the people. This Biblical attitude that we should freely reproduce and not compute people-vs-resources is diametrically opposite to many modern attitudes that people should control their environment and only reproduce at a rate that is proportional to the current availability of resources.

  7. RASHI METHOD: FORMATTING
  BRIEF EXPLANATION:Inferences from Biblical formatting: --bold,italics, and paragraph structure.
  • Use of repetition to indicate formatting effects: bold,italics,...;
  • use of repeated keywords to indicate a bullet effect;
  • rules governing use and interpretation of climactic sequence;
  • rules governing paragraph development and discourse
  This example applies to Rashis Ex30-20a Ex30-20c
  URL Reference: (c) http://www.Rashiyomi.com/ex30-06a.htm
  We have explained in our article Biblical Formatting located on the world wide web at http://www.Rashiyomi.com/biblicalformatting.pdf, that the Biblical Author indicates bullets by using repeating keywords. Hence we would translate Ex30-06a using a bulleted structure as follows: And HaShem spoke unto Moses, saying: Thou shalt also make a laver of brass, and the base thereof of brass, whereat to wash; and thou shalt put it between the tent of meeting and the altar, and thou shalt put water therein. And Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet thereat;
  • when they go into the Temple, they shall wash with water, that they die not;
  • or when they come near to the altar to minister, to cause an offering made by fire to smoke unto HaShem; so they shall wash their hands and their feet, that they die not; and it shall be a statute for ever to them, even to him and to his seed throughout their generations.'
  Rashi interprets the two bulleted phrases as indicating a contrastive complementive emphasis: There is a death penalty for Temple service without washing hands and feet whether that Temple service consists of
  • altar service or
  • Temple service that is not altar service such as entry into the inner Temple to offer the daily incense.

  Sermonic points: The washing of hands and feet symbolizes the cleansing from sexual or monetary sin. By requiring washing of hands and feet for the offerings on the copper altar the Bible symbolically affirms that even though the altar atones for sexual and monetary sin nevertheless when you approach God you must have already begun to abstain from these sins. Similarly the requirement of washing of hands and feet for the service on the golden altar symbolically affirms that the golden altar experience, symbolizing excellence in prophetic spiritual understanding of God, cannot be maintained without the actions that are consistent with such a high spiritual state. These requirements of non-hypocritical consistency between action and thought are common in Jewish thought and occur throughout the Bible and Talmud.

  9. RASHI METHOD: SPREADSHEETS
  BRIEF EXPLANATION: The common denominator of the 3 submethods of the Spreadsheet method is that inferences are made from non textual material. The 3 submethods are as follows:
  • Spreadsheet: Rashi makes inferences of a numerical nature that can be summarized in a traditional spreadsheet
  • Geometric: Rashi clarifies a Biblical text using descriptions of geometric diagrams
  • Fill-ins: Rashi supplies either real-world background material or indicates real-world inferences from a verse. The emphasis here is on the real-world, non-textual nature of the material.
  This example applies to Rashis Ex33-01a
  URL Reference: (c) http://www.Rashiyomi.com/dt01-25a.htm

  Rashi observes that Geographically, Israel is perceived on top of the world; Consequently verses always speak about going up to Israel vs. going down from Israel. The verses listed below exemplify this usage.

  We have classified this as the spreadsheet method since Rashi clarifies the meaning of a word using diagrams.

  In the following verses the underlined words up,down indicate relative position to Israel and confirm the above Rashi comment:
  • Dt01-25a, discussing the bringing of fruit, by the spies, from Israel to the desert states And they took of the fruit of the land in their hands, and brought it down unto us, and brought us back word, and said: 'Good is the land which HaShem our G-d giveth unto us.'
  • Gn45-09a discussing the requested journey of the patriarch Jacob from Israel to Egypt, states Hasten ye, and go up to my father, and say unto him: Thus saith thy son Joseph: G-d hath made me lord of all Egypt; come down unto me, tarry not.
  • Ex33-01a discussing the journey from the desert to Israel, states And HaShem spoke unto Moses: 'Depart, go up hence, thou and the people that thou hast brought up out of the land of Egypt, unto the land of which I swore unto Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying: Unto thy seed will I give it--
  • Dt32-13b discussing the gift of Israel by God to the Jews states states He made him ride on the high places of the earth, and he did eat the fruitage of the field; and He made him to suck honey out of the crag, and oil out of the flinty rock;
  • Gn46-03:04 presenting a prophecy that Jacob must journey from Israel to Egypt, states And He said: 'I am G-d, the G-d of thy father; fear not to go down into Egypt; for I will there make of thee a great nation. I will go down with thee into Egypt; and I will also surely bring thee up again; and Joseph shall put his hand upon thine eyes.'
  • Dt17-08f discussing the requirement to journey to Jerusalem for legal inquiry from the Sanhedrin in complex cases, states If there arise a matter too hard for thee in judgment, between blood and blood, between plea and plea, and between stroke and stroke, even matters of controversy within thy gates; then shalt thou arise, and get thee up unto the place which HaShem thy G-d shall choose.

    Note that in the last example we supplement our basic thesis that the word up is used when going to Israel while down is used when going from Israel by extending the up-down metaphor for journey to or from Jerusalem relative to the rest of Israel.

    Sermonic Points: Traditionally up symbolizes heavenly maters while down symbolizes hellish earthly matters. This symbolism is valid in all languages. By associating Israel and Jerusalem with up the Bible symbolically affirms Israel's spiritual values.

    Conclusion

    This week's parshah does not contain examples of the symbolism and database method. This concludes this weeks edition. Visit the RashiYomi website at http://www.Rashiyomi.com for further details and examples.