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.

Verses Lv12-02c describes the ritual impurity of a woman who gave birth to a child Speak to the people of Israel, saying, If a woman conceives, and bears a male child; then she shall be unclean seven days; as in the days of her menstruation, shall she be unclean. As is clear from the underlined words, as in the days of her menstruation, this verse cross-references the laws of ritual impurity of the menstruant which are described beginning in Biblical verse Lv15-19: And if a woman has a discharge, and the discharge of her flesh is blood, she shall be put apart seven days; and whoever touches her shall be unclean until the evening. Rashi basically identifies this cross reference: Rashi: The laws of ritual impurity, of the woman who gave birth to a child, are similar to all laws of ritual impurity mentioned in the cross referenced chapter on menstruant ritual impurity.

Verse Lv13-02 states When a man shall have in the skin of his flesh a Sin Aleph Tauv a scab, or bright spot, and it is on the skin of his flesh like the disease of leprosy; then he shall be brought to Aaron the priest, or to one of his sons the pries Rashi commenting on the meaning of the Hebrew word Sin-Aleph-Tauv states: Names of leprosy plagues ...varying degrees of whiteness.

Rashi does not further explain how he knew this meaning. I would conjecture that Rashi used the method of meaning by root. Indeed, the Hebrew root of the word Sin Aleph Tauv is Nun Sin Alpeh which means (among other things), cloud. Hence Sin Aleph Tauv would mean cloud-white. It is common in languages to name colors by related objects of that color - this technique is known as metonomy. Some typical examples in English of colors named by related objects with the same color are orange, aqua, violet. Similar examples abound in other languages.

Advanced Rashi: Without the methods of this email list we might have dismissed this Rashi as a meaning known through oral tradition. While Judaism certainly has an oral tradition it also has a tradition based on logic and inference. It is important to show logical derivations and inferences when they apply. Such derivations are supplemental and supportive or oral traditions and strengthen them.

A simple exegetical grammatical method, readily understood by everyone, is the skillful use of singular- plural. Verses Lv12-07:08 states And when the days of her purifying are fulfilled, for a son, or for a daughter,
• she shall bring a lamb of the first year for an up offering, and
• a young pigeon, or a turtledove, for a sin offering, to the door of the Tent of Meeting, to the priest;
The priest
• shall offer it before the Lord,
and make an atonement for her; and she shall be cleansed from the issue of her blood.

Rashi comments on the singular pronoun, it, versus the plural up, sin offerings: She brings two offerings; but only one of them is needed to achieve ritual cleansing.

Note that the Scriptural text does not identify which offering - up or sin - effects ritual cleansing. Rashi therefore makes a reasonable conjecture: [Most probably] It is the sin offering which effects ritual cleansing since sin offerings are typically brought for atonement [which is a synonym for ritual cleansing].

Advanced Rashi: This Rashi is typical: Rashi first makes a clear inference from the Biblical text based on a sound grammatical foundation. Rashi then conjectures on the applicability of this inference. Thus in this example Rashi first infers that only one of the two offerings is required for ritual cleansing. Rashi makes this inference from the contrast of the singular pronoun, it vs. the plural reference up,sin offering. Then Rashi applies this inference of one offering effects ritual cleansing to the sin offering since sin offerings are typically brought to effect atonement which is a synonym for ritual cleansing.

The idea that Rashis should be understood in stages was first advocated in my paper Simple and Exegetical Meaning: A New Approach. This principle of stages facilitates the appreciation of many Rashis as being the simple intended meaning of the Biblical text.

Biblical verse Lv13-47:48 states A garment which has the disease of leprosy, whether it is a woollen garment, or a linen garment; Whether it is in
• the warp,
• or woof;
  • of linen,
  • or of woollen;
• or in a skin, or
• in any worked skin;

Rashi charmingly comments on the nuances of the aligned difference in the underlined words:
• skin refers to raw leather;
• worked skin refers to polished leather.

Advanced Rashi: Note the power and elegance of the alignment method. Without the alignment there would be no reason to interpret skin by itself to refer to raw leather. Indeed, in general, skin need not refer to raw leather. However the alignment - skin vs. worked skin - forces us to perceive the word skin by itself to refer to raw leather.

Note the contradiction in the following two verses, discussing the leprosy of bald spots.
• Verse Lv13-29:32 states If a man or a woman has a leprosy on the head or the beard; ... And if the priest looks on the leprosy ... and there is no black hair in it; ... there is in it no yellow hair,
• But verse Lv13-33 states ...but the patch he shall not shave;

We see the contradiction, indicated by the underlined words. Which is it? Is the leprous spot bald without black or blond hair? Or does the leprous spot contain hair that can be shaved?

Rashi resolves this contradiction using the method of two aspects:
• The leprous spot itself is bald;
• But the borders of the leprous spot are defined by surrounding normal black hair.
Hence, the prohibition don't shave the leprous spot really means don't shave the borders of the leprous spot. This leads to the Rashi comment: He leaves a border of two hairs around the leprous spot so as to fulfill don't shave the leprous spot.

Biblical verse Lv14-09 discussing the purification procedure of the lepor is written in a Theme-Detailed-Theme style. This verse states But it shall be on the seventh day,
• Theme: that he shall shave all his hair off
• Detail:
  • his head and
  • his beard
  • and his eyebrows,
• Theme: all his hair he shall shave off; and he shall wash his clothes, also he shall wash his flesh in water, and he shall be clean.

We have explained in our article Biblical Formatting that the theme-detail-theme style indicates a paragraph structure. Consequently the details are seen as the development of the theme. The Talmudic sages stated this development idea as follows: The details in a theme-detail-theme structure should be partially generalized to resemble the theme.

Hence the Rashi comment: Beard, head, eyebrows have hair that is dense and visible. So only dense, visible here is shaven. This excludes
• arm-hair, which is visible but not dense,
• armpit-hair, which is not visible but dense
• nose-hair, which isnot visible and not dense.

Advanced Rashi: If you look carefully at the verse above you will see that the word all is bolded. The word all always requires generalization. Hence the additional Rashi comment: The actual law requires shaving the arm and armpit hair. In other words all hair is shaven except the nose-hair which is neither visible nor dense.

This derivation is quite complex. My contribution is to see the derivation as emanating from two Rashi methods: The theme-detail-theme method and the special word- all method.

Sermonic Points: The natural question is, Why? Why should we care to shave off this hair or that hair? A beautiful, deep and profound answer is given by Rav Hirsch who gathers several example of shaving procedures. (For example the shaving procedure for the Levites mentioned in Nu08.)

Rav Hirsch explains that shaving symbolically affirms the presence of the female personality since women do not have visible dense hair (Except on their heads). The lepor is guilty of slander. A classical source of slander is between husband and wife when then man does not understand the special needs of the woman. To remove this source of slander the man must enter a female stage in which he becomes empathic with female feeling. This atones for the slander since now the man understands the way the woman feels. For this reason the symbolic feminization of the man by shaving hear is part of the lepor purification procedure.

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 bold, italics, underline by using repetition. In other words if a modern author wanted to emphasize a word they would either underline, bold or italicize it. However when the Biblical author wishes to emphasize a word He repeats it. The effect - whether thru repetition or using underline - is the same. It is only the means of conveying this emphasis that is different.

With this in mind let us read verse Lv13-35:36 which discusses leprous symptoms appearing after the two week examination and review process: But if the patch spread spread over the skin after his cleansing; Then ...he is unclean. Using the formatting principle presented at the beginning of this example, Rashi perceives this repeated word spread spread the same way a modern reader would see an underlined word: But if the patch spread over the skin after his cleansing; Then ...he is unclean. The underlined word, spread indicates an unspecified emphasis. Rashi interprets this unspecified emphasis: Spreading always confers a status of ritual impurity. He is unclean whether the spreading happened before or after the two week examination and review process.

Today we ask the database query: How is ritual impurity conferred? The query returns the table below, which shows that
• Leprosy impurity requires a formal declaration of impurity by the priest;
• Other forms of impurity do not require formal declarations - rather the ritual impurity is objective and based on the conditions of impurity being present.

Rashi explains the anomaly that only by leprosy is declaration of a priest required for the status of ritual impurity: All other ritual impurity statuses are objective; they are consequences of the conditions of that particular impurity. However leprosy impurity, besides requiring the presence of the conditions of leprosy impurity, also require a verbal pronouncement by the priest. Without this pronouncement the person is not yet ritually impure even though the conditions for impurity are present.

Biblical chapter Lv13 discusses the ritual impurity of leprosy. The atonement procedure for this ritual impurity is discussed in Biblical Chapter Lv14.

A full discussion of the rich and beautiful symbolism of leprosy would require applying the objective methods presented in my article on symbolism. In this weekly digest we simply sketch a few important ideas.

The atonement procedure for the lepor is presented in Lv14 which begins Then shall the priest command to take for him who is to be cleansed two birds alive and clean, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop

Rashi explains the symbolism of each of the underlined items.
• birds symbolize bird-like chatterers
• cedars symbolize lofty mighty people
• hyssops symbolize the lower classes
We could justify each of these symbolic associations by citing verses where these symbolisms are present. Instead we lightly sketch how Rashi applies these symbolisms.

Rashi states: Leprosy is a punishment for chattering like a bird which leads to slander, the core of Jewish sins. The atonement and remedy for slander is an awareness of the rich spectrum of human personality from the lower hyssop-like classes to the mighty cedar like upper classes. Awareness of the full spectrum of human personality prevents a person from slandering people since he understands each individual's behavior based on where they are.

Sermonic points:Rashi does not actually state the symbolic interpretation presented above. Rather Rashi states If a person feels high and mighty like a cedar then let him lower himself till he feels like a hyssop.

However I believe that Rashi interpreted the symbolic items as we have indicated above: There is a full spectrum of human personality. Rashi then gives an example of this very general idea: If you think you belong on the upper class, the cedar part of the human spectrum, then see those aspects of you that belong to the lower class, the hyssop part of the human spectrum. However Rashi would be fully comfortable to apply the cedar-hyssop spectrum in other ways also. In other words we see the Rashi text as an example of a more general symbolic interpretation.

In summary the full solution to slander and sinful idle chatter is awareness of the rich spectrum of human personality. There are many ways to apply this awareness to avoid slander. For example if you see a person who behaves like a rif-raf (like a hyssop) then do not slander him - then find his strong positive attributes, praise him for them until he reclassifies himself among the cedars. The following story of the Jewish expert on slander, the Chafetz Chaim, illustrates this point:
The Chafetz Chayim saw a certain person cursing and abusing people. In other words he saw the hyssop in the person. Everyone slandered the person and described him as no-good. They committed the sin of bird chatter. The Chafetz Chaim inquired: This person had been in the Russian Army for 25 years since he was a child. The Chafetz Chaim immediately saw the cedar like loftiness of the person. The Chafetz Chaim approached the person and said: They tell me you were in the Russian Army for 25 years and the only effect it had on you is that you drink and curse a little more than most people. You must be some type of saint that it affected you this little. Here the Chafetz Chaim performed the atonement procedure for slander by taking/seeing together in one person the cedar/hyssop the lofty and low. The person of course repented symbolized by the ritual purity conferred by the leprosy purification procedure.

Praise be Him who chose them and their learning.

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