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 Lv16-24 describing the Yom Kippur service states And he shall wash his flesh with water in the holy place, and put on his garments, and come out, and offer his elevation offering, and the elevation offering of the people, and make an atonement for himself, and for the people. Rashi identifies the reference of the underlined phrases, his burnt offering, burnt offering of the people, as referring to the elevation offerings that were commanded to be brought in verses Lv16-03 Thus shall Aaron come into the holy place; with a young bull for a sin offering, and a ram for a elevation offering. and Lv16-05 And he shall take of the congregation of the people of Israel two kids of the goats for a sin offering, and one ram for an elevation offering. .

Most people are aware that both Biblical and Modern Hebrew is built on 3-letter roots. The rules governing the conjugation of 3-letter roots are known as grammatical conjugation rules. Rashi fully believed in the 3 letter root theory.

Rashi also believed that the meaning of 3-letter roots can be derived by using semantic conjugation rules which break the 3-letter root into a 2-letter root and a single letter with meaning.

When the second letter of a Hebrew root is the Hebrew letter Nun then the nun means like.

Here is a simple example:
• The Hebrew root Cheth-Nun-Pay means flattery.
• The Hebrew root Cheth-Pay means cover.
• Rashi's 2-letter root theory would translate the cheth-nun-pay root into the letter nun and the root cheth-pay. Hence flattery is etymologically seen as like (Nun) a coverup (Cheth-Pay).
• We can summarize this as follows: Flattery (Cheth-Nun-Pay) means Like (Nun) a Cover-up (Cheth-Pay).

Some other examples of Nun meaning Like are
• We (Aleph-Nun-Cheth) means like (Nun) brothers (Aleph-Cheth)
• Leap (Zayin-Nun-Kuph) means like (Nun) a spark (zayin-kuph).
• To Turban (Tzade-Nun-Pay) means Like (Nun) a covering (Tzade-Pay).

A well known grammatical concept, present in all languages, is the active-passive distinction. Verse Lv16-10 discussing the sending of the he-goat to Azazel, states But the goat, on which the lot fell to be for Azazel, shall remain alive before the Lord, to make an atonement with him, and to let him go to Azazel into the wilderness. Rashi's comment is deceptively simply, and applies in both English and Hebrew: The underlined phrase remain alive is in the passive voice.

We can add depth to Rashi's explanation by listing the four methods of indicating the passive voice in Hebrew. First, recall that Hebrew roots are conjugated in 7 grammatical modes. Three of these modes indicate passive activity:
• The pual mode - (See Ex10-08a for an example);
• The Nifal mode - (See Lv27-27c for an example);
• The Hofal mode - (Our verse, Lv16-10a is an example);
• The participle can also be used to indicate the passive voice (See Dt32-36 for examples)

Advanced Rashi: Rashi actually makes two comments on this verse. Rashi infers from the underlined phrase remain alive that the he-goat sent to Azazel is sent to death. We will revisit this second Rashi inference later in rule #7, formatting.

Biblical verse Lv16-14 discussing the sprinkling of blood in the sin offering of the Yom Kippur service states And he shall take of the blood of the bull,
• and
  • sprinkle it
  • with his finger
  • '
  • upon the covering eastward;
• and
  • before the covering
  • shall he sprinkle of the blood
  • with his finger
  • seven times.

The bullets clearly indicate that there are two procedures of sprinkling. Rashi makes two comments on the aligned underlined differences:
• The first sprinkles are Upon, that is, on the curtain top;
• The second sprinkles are before, that is on the curtain bottom;
The second Rashi comment focuses on the blank bullet in the first set of sprinkles contrasted with the seven times in the second set of sprinkles.
• There were seven sprinkles on bottom
• There was only one sprinkle on top

Advanced Rashi: Rashi simply says: The verse connotes one sprinkle. Rashi does not further indicate how he infers that only one sprinkle is performed. I would suggest that Rashi makes this inference from the alignment.

For a full explanation of the alignment method see my article The Pedagogy of the Four Sons.

Note the contradiction in the following two verses, discussing the selection of a successor High Priest.
• Verse Lv16-32 states And the priest,
  • whom he shall anoint,
  • and whom he shall consecrate
  • to minister in the priest’s office
  • to replace his father,
  shall make the atonement, and shall put on the linen clothes, the holy garments;
• Verse Lv21-10 states And he who is the high priest
  • among his brothers,
  • upon whose head the anointing oil was poured,
  • and who is consecrated to put on the garments,
  shall not uncover his head, nor tear his clothes;

We see the contradiction, indicated by the underlined words. Which is it? Is the successor priest his son or a colleague from among his brothers?

Rashi resolves this contradiction using the method of two aspects:
• If the current High-Priest's son is worthy then this son takes preference (is first candidate) in being considered for a high priest (even if someone else is equally qualified);
• If the current High-Priest's son is not worthy then the most worthy and qualified priest is selected as successor High-Priest

Sermonic Points: Judaism is frequently maligned by our enemies as being a tribal religion where authority is inherited. This is not so. Judaism is filled with people who rose to the top despite their lack of social placement: Moses and David were youngest not eldest; Ahaliav who built the temple was not from a preferred tribe; Ephraim and Menasheh were made into full Jewish tribes even though they were not children of Jacob. So too with the priesthood. We always want the most qualified and worthy person for high-priest. But if the son of the current priest is equally qualified then he is chosen. Here we see a delicate but meaningful blending of tribal and by-merit methods.

Biblical verse Lv17-13b discussing the requirement to cover the blood of a slaughtered animal is written in a general-detail manner: And whoever there is of the people of Israel, or of the strangers who sojourn among you,
• General: who hunts and catches any beast or bird
• Detail: that may be eaten;
he shall pour out its blood, and cover it with dust.

The General-detail Rabbi-Ishmael style rule requires that a general-detail sentence be interpreted restrictively. Hence the Rashi comment: The requirement to cover the blood of hunted / slaughtered animals only applies to animals that may be eaten, that is, Kosher animals. However, if you slaughter a non-Kosher animal you need not cover its blood.

Today we ask the database query: What drives the Biblical Author to use the phrase They did as commanded? The simple answer is that They did as commanded usually emphasizes compliance when we expected otherwise. The very small database selection below presents some examples.

Sermonic points: The Torah hear teaches us manners - if someone is usually rebellious and behaves in an exemplary manner on certain occasions then they should be praised.

Verse Lv16-14:24d, describing the Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) service states And he shall take of the blood of the bull, and sprinkle it with his finger upon the veil eastward; and before the veil shall he sprinkle of the blood with his finger seven times. ... and he will come out, and offer his elevation offering, and the elevation offering of the people, and make an atonement for himself, and for the people.

Rashi diagramatically explains the phrase come out. The veil is inside the Temple proper while the elevation offering if offered on the copper altar which is outside the Temple proper. Hence the verse states he will come out The diagram below clarifies this Rashi.

             Temple Courtyard wall
    ============================================
    ||          |     Temple Table |
    || Holy of  |                  |
    || Holies   |Veil       Temple Door  Copper
    ||          |                  |     Altar
    ||          |     Candellabrah |   
    ============================================
      Temple Proper  Temple Proper   Courtyard
                    
        Priest ---Goes out------->

Rashi sometimes interprets a law involving animals or inanimate objects as symbolically affirming moral values. To justify this approach requires a database query: In various moral episodes do we find spiritual leaders reinforcing necessary moral values with symbolic gestures? The answer to this query uncovers several such instances. These instances reinforce the symbolic-interpretation approach indicated above. We present below half a dozen examples where symbolic gestures reinforce moral norms.
• Nu21-09a discussing the copper snake Moses made to cure the Jews who were being bitten by snakes for slandering God states And Moses made a serpent of brass, and set it upon the pole; and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he looked unto the serpent of brass, he lived. Here the people looking up to the snake is a symbolic gesture reminding them to pray to the God whom they slandered in order to repent from their slander and thereby earn merit to be cured.
• Gn06-14a discussing the Ark made by Noach to save the Jews states Make thee an ark of lava wood; with rooms shalt thou make the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. Here Noah made the ark of lava wood to symbolize that the generation of the flood would be punished with molten lava for their sins if they did not repent.
• Verse Ex17-11a describing the war of the Jews against Amalayk states And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed; and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. The Talmud wryly asks: Do then Moses' hands create victory that when he raises them they were victorious but when he lowers them they were losing. But rather the verse is interpreted to mean When Moses raised his hands in prayer the Jews were victorious and when he lowered them they were losing.
• Ex17-11a discussing the war of the Jews and Amalayk states And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed; and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. Here Moses raising his hands is symbolic of urging Jews to raise their hands in prayer which is the real reason they are winning.
• Lv20-15a presents the punishment of a death penalty to an animal who sleeps with a person. And if a man lie with a beast, he shall surely be put to death; and ye shall slay the beast. This symbolically affirms how serious sexual crimes are. If we execute animals who violate them how much more so will the people who violate sexual norms be punished.
• Dt12-02 discussing the requirement to destroy idolatrous trees reinforces the requirement of avoiding idolatrous people: Ye shall surely destroy all the places, wherein the nations that ye are to dispossess served their gods, upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and under every leafy tree.

Sermonic Points: The idea is clear. If we in our daily lives wish to reinforce some moral norm we should use symbolic gestures.

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