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Their presence in Rashis on Parshat Lech LeChaH Vol 8, # 2 - Adapted from Rashi-is-Simple Visit the RashiYomi website: http://www.Rashiyomi.com/ (c) RashiYomi Incorporated, Dr. Hendel, President, Oct 18th, 2007 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 Gn15-14b discussing the punishment of the nation that will enslave the Jews states and also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge; and afterward shall they come out with great substance. Rashi notes The underlined word, judge, is confirmed in verse Ex04-23 where God threatens to kill the Egyptian first-born if they don't release the Jews from slavery.
Most people know that the Biblical meaning of a word is determined by its underlying three-letter root. The Biblical root can be conjugated in different a) persons, b) tenses, c) pluralities, d) genders, e) constructions and f) modalities. For example I watched has a different conjugation then I will be watched even though both phrases will use the same 3 letter Hebrew root. Additionally, a three letter root can take on new meaning based on the connective preposition used with it. For example the Hebrew root Ayin-Beth-Resh normally means pass over. However when this root is used with the Hebrew connective, Beth which means in, it means pass through. Hence the Rashi-suggested translation of verse Gn12-06a which states And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Shechem, unto the terebinth of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land. There are many Biblical verses illustrating this usage: For example verse Nu14-07 discussing the evaluation of the spies of Israel states the land we passed through is very very good. Similarly verse Nu20-18 is translated Edom told Israel 'Don't pass through my land...'. Many other examples can be found with standard search engines or Biblical Konkordances.
Rashi deals with the underlined pronoun, there. Does there refer to the place and time when Abraham initially journeyed? Or does it refer to the place and time when Abraham returned? Or perhaps it refers to both. Let us examine the three possibilities. They are presented below. Interestingly Rashi does not take sides but simply points out that there is ambiguity.
Finally Rashi points out The word there can be deliberately ambiguous. Abraham called in the name of God both when he journeyed to Egypt and also when he returned.
The table below presents an aligned extract of verselets in Gn17-15a. All verselets discuss the name of Abraham's wife. The alignment justifies the Rashi assertion that Abraham's wife's name was Sarai meaning my princess. But God renamed her Sarah meaning princess. The implication is that she no longer is a princess for her husband but rather a princess for all people. Here, God blesses her like Abraham, that she is a princess of nations.
The table below presents presents two contradictory verses. Both verses speak about Abraham's relationship with his father. The underlined words highlight the contradiction. One verse says leave ...the house of your father while the other verse states you will return peacefully to your fathers Which is it? Was Abraham's father something to avoid or something to join with? Rashi simply resolves this using the 2 Stages method: Abraham's father was initially a sinner. At that time God told Abraham to leave his father. But later in life Abraham's father repented at which point God promised him You will peacefully return to your fathers.
Certain Biblical paragraphs are stated in a Theme-Development form. In other words a broad general idea is stated first followed by the development of this broad general theme in specific details. The Theme-Detail form creates a unified paragraph. Today's example illustrates this as shown below.
Rashi comments on the Theme-Detail form which creates the illusion of an entire paragraph. Of all living things only those on land died. The fish (Water based) did not die. Sermonic Points: The fact that the animals and people died but the fish did not die reinforces the underlying reason that the flood was decreed because of sexual misbehavior. Since most fish reproduce by ovoparity - the mother lays undeveloped eggs which are usually fertilised outside the mother's body - it follows that the usual concepts of sexual misbehavior do not apply to fish.
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 indicated bullets by using repeating keywords. That is, if a modern author wanted to get a point across using bullets - a list of similar but contrastive items - then the Biblical Author would use repeating keywords. Today's verse illustrates this principle.
Advanced Rashi: Rashi actually uses two Rashi methods on this verse. Besides the bullet method Rashi uses the contradiction method: The verse tells Abraham to leave his birthplace. But in the previous Biblical chapter we are told he already had left his birthplace. We therefore interpret the verse to mean besides leaving your birthplace distance yourself farther and leave your father's influence. We have additionally added to this use of the contradiction method the use of the bullet method: God told Abraham to leave a three-some of items.
We ask the following database query: When God prophesies does he use accompanying symbols? 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: When God prophesies he uses accompanying symbols reinforcing the prohpetic message. For example God prophesied to Abraham about the exile and alien status of his children in foreign lands. God accompanied this prohpecy with a dark dream to symbolize the darkness of exile. The list below presents the results of the database query.
Conclusion
This week's parshah contains examples of all Rashi methods. Visit the RashiYomi website at http://www.Rashiyomi.com for further details and examples. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||