1. RASHI METHOD: REFERENCES BRIEF EXPLANATION: Commentary on a verse is provided thru a cross-reference to another verse. The cross references can either provide (1a) further details, (1b) confirm citations, or (1c) clarify word meaning. This examples applies to Rashis Dt29-10a URL Reference: (c) http://www.Rashiyomi.com/w33n4.htm Brief Summary: Dt29-10a discussing 'Your ...elders, judges, ...from the wood cutters to water drawers' REFERENCES Jo09-04: 'The Givonim were made into wood-cutters...

Verse Dt29-10 discusses all Jews ...from your wood cutters to your water drawers Rashi clarifies that This cross-references verse Jo09-04,21 which discusses how the Givonim tricked the Jews into making a treaty with them. The Jews honored their treaty and made the Givonim wood cutters and water drawers. Apparently such conversions (people from hostile nations) were made in the time of Moses also (and they too were made into wood-cutters and water-drawers).

Text of Target Verse Dt29-09:10	Text of Reference Verse Jo09-04,21
Ye are standing this day all of you before HaShem your G-d: your heads, your tribes, your elders, and your officers, even all the men of Israel, your little ones, your wives, and thy stranger that is in the midst of thy camp, from the hewer of thy wood unto the drawer of thy water;	And they [The Givonim] also behaved deceptively... And the princes said concerning them: 'Let them live'; so they became hewers of wood and drawers of water unto all the congregation, as the princes had spoken concerning them.
Rashi comments: Apparently converts from hostile nations were accepted also in the Days of Joshua and Moses. The treay was honored but because of the hostile nature of their nation they were made into hewers of wood and drawers of water.

An idiom is a collection of words which means more than the sum of the meanings of each of the phrases individual words. Verse Dt29-14 discussing the people with whom God was making a convenant states but with him that standeth here with us this day before HaShem our G-d, and also with him that is not here with us this day-- Rashi explains: The phrase with him that is not here with us this day is an idiom meaning the future unborn generations.

Sermonic Points: Notice the contrast:
• In English the idiom those who aren't with us refers to the dead.
• In Hebrew the idiom those who aren't with us refers to the unborn.
We see here a beautiful contrast of languages. English looks backward while Hebrew, the Holy language, looks forward.

The ancient process of making a treaty is discussed in Jr34-18 which states And I will give the men that have transgressed My covenant, that have not performed the words of the covenant which they made before Me, when they cut the calf in twain and passed between the parts thereof; That is, an animal was cut in half, the treaty participants walked between the two halves and then consumed the animal in the treaty meal. Hence the Rashi: Making a treaty uses the active not the causative mode since the treaty is made by literally passing through the two cut halves of the animal. Here is another way of looking at this Rashi: To make a treaty you personally pass thru the cut animal halves. Phrases referring to making a treaty do not figuratively say that you make a treaty by causing someone else to pass into the treaty.

It follows that this Rashi is teaching us how to conjugate Biblical roots. When you wish to indicate making a treaty you use the active mode of the verb to pass.

Sermonic Points: Rashi seems to simply be saying a grammatical conjugational point. But Rashi is doing more. He is describing God as Himself interested in the convenant. That is, God is not described as making us pass into the treaty (causative) but rather as being Himself intersted in passing into a treaty with us (active.). This has philosophical implications for our relationship with God.

The table below presents an aligned extract of verses in Dt30-19, Dt11-26:28. Both verses discuss the need for the Jews chosing between the path of Good and path of Evil. The alignment justifies the Rashi assertion that Moses added his blessing that he was confident that the Jews would chose life. Rashi infers this from the extra underlined phrase in Dt30-19.

Verse	Text of Verse	Rashi comment
Dt30-19	I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before thee life and death, the blessing and the curse; therefore choose life, that thou mayest live, thou and thy children;	Two points: Chose between Good/life and bad/death I am confident that you will chose life and live
Dt11-26:28	Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse: the blessing, if ye shall hearken unto the commandments of HaShem your G-d, which I command you this day; and the curse, if ye shall not hearken unto the commandments of HaShem your G-d, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known.	Only one point: Chose between good/life and death/bad.

The table below presents presents two contradictory verses. Both verses speak about Moses in his capacity as a leader. The underlined words highlight the contradiction. One verse says Moses was strong at his death and hadn't loss any vigor while the other verse states Moses could not come and go. Which is it? Was Moses capable of leading or not. Rashi simply resolves this using the broad-literal method: Moses was strong enough to lead but God did not allow him to lead.

Summary	Verse / Source	Text of verse / Source
Moses was strong and full of vigor at his death.	Dt34-07	And Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.
Moses could not come and go	Dt31-02	And he said unto them: 'I am a hundred and twenty years old this day; I can no more go out and come in; and HaShem hath said unto me: Thou shalt not go over this Jordan.
Resolution:	Broad Literal	We should translate the word can not as May not: I may no more go out and come in; and HaShem hath said unto me: Thou shalt not go over this Jordan.

Advanced Rashi: We have made the above derivation using the contradiction method. An alternate or supplemental derivation uses the Rabbi Ishmael Style method which sees the verse in a Theme-Detail style as follows: And he said unto them: 'I am a hundred and twenty years old this day;
• General: I can no more go out and come in;
• Detail: and HaShem hath said unto me: Thou shalt not go over this Jordan.
In other words Moses statement of not being able to come in and out is general and could mean lots of things but the 2nd verselet is specific and details and narrows the meaning of the 1st verselet: God said no and hence, that is the reason I may not come in and out. For those who remember, this derivation using style, was presented last year.

We ask the following database query: Find leaders who gave farewell exhortations before their death. The reader is encouraged to perform the query using a standard Biblical Konnkordance or search engine. This database query yields the list below. The list justifies the following Rashi inference: Several leaders gave farewell exhortations before their death and transition to a new leadership reminding the people of God's good to them and His punishments to those who transgress His will. The list below presents the results of the database query.

Person	Verses	Nature of Verses	When uttered.
Moses	Dt29, Dt30	If you do Good God will reward you; if you do bad you will be punished.	Before his death and transition to new leadership
Joshua	Jo23, Jo24	If you do Good God will reward you; if you do bad you will be punished.	Before his death and transition to new leadership
Samuel	1S12	If you do Good God will reward you; if you do bad you will be punished.	Before his death and transition to new leadership

Verse Dt31-26b states Take this book of the law, and put it by the side of the ark of the covenant of HaShem your G-d, that it may be there for a witness against thee.

Rashi explains this verse with a numerically labelled diagram

	ARK  15 handbreadths
'	- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
'  9	|                                        |

'	|                                        |	

'	|   Two tablets(10 commandments)         |

'   9	|   6 x 6  + 6 x 6  = 12 x 6      Sefer  |  9 HANDBREADTHS
                                          Torah
'	|				  2 x 8  |

'	|                                        |  

'   9	|                                        |    
'	- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Here is a rough overview of computations
• The ark was 9 handbreadths by 15 handbreadths
• The 10 commandments were written on two tablets of stone
• Each tablet was 6 handbreadth by 6 handbreadths
• Two tablets were 12 handbreadths by 6 handbreadths
• The length had 15 - 12 = 3 handbreadths left over
• The sides were each half a handbreath leaving 2 handbreadths
• So left over was 2 handbreadths x 8 handbreadths = 8 inches x 32 inches
• We infer that the Scroll of Torah Law was 8 x 32 inches and laid in the ark
• The diagram above illustrates this.

There are many problems with the above approach. We still have room on the sides since the tablets were 6 handbreadths and there are 2-3 handbreadths left over (Some say the broken chips of the first tablets are there). There are opinions that each cubit was 5 not 6 handbreadths only giving us 12.5 handbreadths length. The major point to take away is that Rashi interprets the verselet place the Torah by the side of the ark to mean The Torah was placed in the ark and there was room for it there. After that we have a lot of guesswork to do!

Verse Dt30-19 discussing Moses' adjuration to the Jews to observe the convenant states I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before thee life and death, the blessing and the curse; therefore choose life, that thou mayest live, thou and thy seed;

But Heaven and earth are inanimate. They can't be witnesses. Hence Rashi interprets this symbolically. Rashi's suggestion is simple: Heaven and earth follow the inanimate laws that govern them and as a consequence all is well with them. If only we humans could act similarly.

Advanced Rashi: Rashi's first explanation poetically sees the heaven and earth as two witnesses who punish the accused if convicted (The heavens abstain from rain and the earth from produce). However heaven and earth have no cogitive ability or free will and hence cannot really act as witnesses. Rashi's second explanation correctly sees them as symbolic affirmations adjuring humans to follow their inanimate counterparts. We have therefore concentrated on Rashi's 2nd explanation.

Sermonic Points: We close this year's Weekly Rashi series with a gem of a story from the founder of Chasiduth. The founder of Chasiduth, the Person with a Good name, as he is affectionately none, was, in his youth as a sexton, one day sweeping the synagogue floors. All of a sudden he burst into tears: This lowly broom has fulfilled its maximum potential in existence and has merited to clean synagogue floors but I, a human created in the image of the Supreme being, have not fulfilled my maximum potential. Of course, the Besht was simply echoing the above Rashi that sees Heaven and Earth as paradigms of inanimacy fulfilling the will of their creator and contrasting it with human behavior.