The 10 RashiYomi Rules
Their presence in Rashis on Parshat VaYaQHayL
Volume 9, Number 6
Used in the monthly Rashi-is-Simple and the Daily Rashi.
Visit the RashiYomi website: http://www.Rashiyomi.com/
(c) RashiYomi Incorporated, Dr. Hendel, President,
Feb - 28, - 2008

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.

    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 Ex38-08b
    URL Reference: (c) http://www.Rashiyomi.com/w33n10.htm
    Brief Summary: Women organized into groups for Temple donations; men came second; leaders came third.

Verse Ex38-08b discussing the copper mirrors donated to the Temple states And he made the laver of brass, and the base thereof of brass, of the mirrors of the organized women that did organize at the door of the tent of meeting. Rashi clarifies the underlined words organize by referencing verse Ex35-22 which states And the men came after the women; all who were willing hearted, and brought bracelets, and ear rings, and rings, and bracelets, all jewels of gold; and every man who offered offered an offering of gold to the Lord. Hence the Rashi comment: [The women came first] The women organized into groups from each tribe with each woman donating specific items so that as a whole the women provided a large percentage of temple items.

Text of Target verse Ex38-08b Text of Reference Verse Ex35-22
And he made the laver of brass, and the base thereof of brass, of the mirrors of the organized women that did organize at the door of the tent of meeting. And the men came after the women; all who were willing hearted, and brought bracelets, and ear rings, and rings, and bracelets, all jewels of gold; and every man who offered offered an offering of gold to the Lord.
Rashi comments: [The women came first] The women organized into groups from each tribe with each woman donating specific items so that as a whole the women provided a large percentage of temple items.

    Advanced Rashi: To properly understand this Rashi we must use several Rashi methods:
    • The other verse method shows us the purpose of the women organizing by the Temple
    • The word meaning method shows us that the Hebrew Tzade-Beth-Aleph which is usually translated as army really means organized.
    • Finally the format method shows us that the repetition in Ex38-08 - the organized women who organized - indicates an emphasis showing that they deliberately organized for the purpose of donations.
    We will therefore revisit this Rashi at several other points in this issue. Such a panaromic view of this Rashi will crystalize its understanding.

      2. RASHI METHOD: WORD MEANING
      BRIEF EXPLANATION: The meaning of words can be explained either by
      • (2a) translating an idiom, a group of words whose collective meaning transcends the meaning of its individual component words,
      • (2b) explaining the nuances and commonality of synonyms-homographs,
      • (2c) describing the usages of connective words like also,because,if-then, when,
      • (2d) indicating how grammatical conjugation can change word meaning
      • (2e) changing word meaning using the figures of speech common to all languages such as irony and oxymorons.
      This examples applies to Rashis Ex38-08b
      URL Reference: (c) http://www.Rashiyomi.com/w33n10.htm
      Brief Summary: The Hebrew TZADE-BETH-ALEPH means AFFILIATIONS.

When Rashi uses, what we may losely call, the hononym method, Rashi does not explain new meaning but rather shows an underlying unity in disparate meanings. Rashi will frequently do this by showing an underlying unity in the varied meanings of a Biblical root.

In my article Peshat and Derash found on the world wide web at http://www.Rashiyomi.com/rashi.pdf. I advocate enriching the Rashi explanation using a technique of parallel nifty translations in modern English. Today's examples show this.

Today we illustrate with the Biblical root Tzade-Lamed-Aleph. This root is traditionally translated as army. We think a better translation is affiliations. According to the dictionary the word affiliation is closely related to nuances of organization. This pair - affiliation / organization will be used in the translations we present below of some typical verses.

    In the verses below we have translated the underlined occurrence of Tzade-Beth-Aleph by using affiliated. When necessary we have made appropriate comments in brackets. The reader should mentally check that the suggested translations are superior to the traditional translation army.
  • Gn26-26 Then Abimelech went to him from Gerar, and Ahuzzath one of his friends, and Pikol the chief of affiliations [i.e. Army].
  • Ex07-04 But Pharaoh shall not listen to you, that I may lay my hand upon Egypt, and bring forth My affiliates, my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments. [affiliation has a connotation of organization perhaps poking fun at the contrast between the lack of family life in Egypt vs. the family affiliations of the Jews. Here the word affiliation indicates nuances of organization.]
  • Ex38-08 And he made the basin of bronze, and its pedestal of bronze, from the mirrors of the affiliated women who affiliated at the door of the Tent of Meeting. [the nuances here are that the women affiliated for purposes of organized donations.]
  • Jb14-14 If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my affiliation will I wait, till my reward comes. [Job looks at his life as an assignment against his will to an affiliation from which his only wish is to escape.]
  • 2K21-03 For he built up again the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and he erected altars for Baal, and made an Ashera, as did Ahab king of Israel; and worshipped all the affiliates of heaven, and served them. [Here affiliates of heaven refers to the constellations and star clusters]

Advanced Rashi: Returning to Ex38-08b we would translate this using the other verse alluded to above: ..he made the basin of copper ...from the mirrors of the affiliated women who affiliated at the door of the temple for the purpose of giving donations. As remarked earlier we will visit this verse in the following rules: other verses, meaning, and formatting.

      3. RASHI METHOD: GRAMMAR
      BRIEF EXPLANATION: Rashi explains verses using grammar principles, that is, rules which relate reproducable word form to word meaning. Grammatical rules neatly fall into 3 categories
      • (a) the rules governing conjugation of individual words,Biblical roots,
      • (b) the rules governing collections of words,clauses, sentences
      • (c) miscellaneous grammatical, or form-meaning, rules.
      This examples applies to Rashis Ex36-07b
      URL Reference: (c) http://www.Rashiyomi.com/w13n11.htm
      Brief Summary: The craftmanship was sufficient to craft the temple and TO HAVE LEFTOVER

Most people are aware that Hebrew verbs come from three-letter roots. Each root is conjugated in the 7 dimensions of person, gender,plurality, tense, activity, modality, and direct-object. For example the root Shin Mem Resh means to watch. The conjugations Shin-Mem-Resh-Tauv-Yud and Nun-Shin-Mem-Resh-Nun-Vav mean I watched and we were watched respectively.

The rules for Hebrew grammar are carefully described in many modern books and are well known. Rashi will sometimes comment when a verse is using a rare conjugation of an odd grammatical form.

When presenting grammatical Rashis my favorite reference is the appendix in volume 5 of the Ibn Shoshan dictionary. This very short appendix lists most conjugations.

Verse Ex36-07b discussing the craftsmanship donations for the temple states For the craftsmanship they had was sufficient for construction of all the temple crafting, and to leave over. Rashi comments on the Hebrew word Vav Hey Vav Tauv Resh corresponding to the underlined word to leave over: The Biblical root Yud-Tauv-Resh means extra. The causative infinitive form of this verb changes the Yud to a Vav and adds a Hey to indicate the causative: Hey-Vav-Tauv-Resh. Hence the translation of the causative infinitive to leave over.

The reader can confirm this in Table 5 of the Ibn Shoshan dictionary which discusses the Yud-2-3 root form.

      5. RASHI METHOD: CONTRADICTION
      BRIEF EXPLANATION:Rashi resolves contradictory verses using 3 methods.
      • (5a) Resolution using two aspects of the same event
      • (5b) Resolution using two stages of the same process
      • (5c) Resolution using broad-literal interpretation.
      This example applies to Rashis Ex37-01a
      URL Reference: (c) http://www.Rashiyomi.com/ex37-01a.htm
      Brief Summary: Bezalel, MANAGER of Temple construction, is credited with for the construction.

The table below presents presents two contradictory verses. Both verses talk about the temple construction. The underlined words highlight the contradiction. One verse says ...the wise men constructed the temple while the other verse says ... Bezalel constructed.... Which is it? Did Bezalel construct the Temple or did the staff of wise people construct it? Rashi simply resolves this using the 2 aspects method: Bezalel was the manager of Temple construction The crafstmen were the staff of Temple construction. Managers obtain credit for the entire project since by overseeing the project they enable others to do its work.

Summary Verse / Source Text of verse / Source
The wise staff constructed the Temple Ex36-01:02 Then, Bezalel and Aholiab, and every wise hearted man, in whom the Lord put wisdom and understanding to know how to work all kinds of work for the service of the sanctuary, did according to all that the Lord had commanded. And Moses called Bezalel and Aholiab, and every wise hearted man, in whose heart the Lord had put wisdom, every one whose heart stirred him up to come to the work to do it;
Bezalel made the ark Ex37-01 And Bezalel made the ark of shittim wood; two cubits and a half was its length, and a cubit and a half its breadth, and a cubit and a half its height;
Resolution: 2 Aspects: Bezalel was the manager of Temple construction The crafstmen were the staff of Temple construction. Managers obtain credit for the entire project since by overseeing the project they enable others to do its work.

    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 Ex35-03a
    URL Reference: (c) http://www.Rashiyomi.com/w33n10.htm
    OBSERVE SABBATH : NO FIRE :: General:Footnote. Even parts of craftsmanship like fire prohibited

The Rabbi Ishmael style rules govern whether Biblical laws are considered as exclusive or paradigmatic examples. For example the example ox in don't muzzle an ox is interpreted paradigmatically. The law applies to any animal. One cannot muzzle any animal while working. By contrast when you offer animal sacrifices from cattle and penned animals is intepreted exclusively. Only cattle and penned animals may be offered as sacrifices but other animals - like lions and tigers - cannot be offered as sacrifices.

The major Rabbi Ishmael style rules are well known: Theme-development, development-theme, theme-development-theme. These rules and their interpretation are well known. Occasionally rare forms of the Rabbi Ishmael rules occur. These rare forms don't have standard interpretations; their interpretation may be subject to controversy. We examine one such form today.

    Verse Ex35-02:3a discussing the obligation to observe the Sabbath states
    • General: Six days shall craftsmanship be done, but on the seventh day there shall be to you a holy day, a sabbath of rest to the Lord
    • General: whoever does craftsmanship in it shall be put to death
    • Detail: You shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations upon the sabbath day
    As can be seen the verses have a General-General-Detail form. There are in fact no rules on this form. Rashi therefore brings two possible interpretations.

    The traditional style rules are interpreted as indicating either exclusive or paradigmatic examples. The rare forms are interpreted as either exceptions or explanatory footnotes on the rules.
  • Exception approach: Don't work on the Sabbath since work carries a death penalty except in the case of lighting a fire which is a non-capital prohibition.
  • Explanatory footnote approach: Don't do crafstmanship on the Sabbath - even lighting a fire as part of an overall craftsmanship is prohibited (You needn't do the whole act to incur a death penalty).

Advanced Rashi: Rashi does not take sides. He simply prevents the controversy. Because this particular style form is rare it is not possible to justify one interpretation over another through a list. Nevertheless Jewish law takes the explanatory footnote approach: It is e.g. prohibited to die cloth on the Sabbath. A person who lit a caldron in which the die is being mixed would be liable to a death penalty even though he hadn't done the whole act of craftsmanship.

      7. RASHI METHOD: FORMATTING
      BRIEF EXPLANATION:Inferences from Biblical formatting:
      • 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 Ex38-08b
      URL Reference: (c) http://www.Rashiyomi.com/w33n10.htm
      Brief Summary: He made the basin of copper from the mirrors of the women who DELIBERATELY affiliated to donate.

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.

Notice the repeated underlined word in the following verse, Ex38-03: And he made the basin of bronze, and its pedestal of bronze, from the mirrors of the affiliating women who affiliated at the door of the Tent of Meeting. As indicated we interpret this repetition as indicating an unspecified emphasis. In modern notation we would translate this sentence with an underline: And he made the basin of bronze, and its pedestal of bronze, from the mirrors of the women who affiliated at the door of the Tent of Meeting. The repetition or underline indicates an unspecified emphasis. Rashi based on the other verse, Ex35-27 translates this emphasis as indicating deliberatenss: And he made the basin of bronze, and its pedestal of bronze, from the mirrors of the women who deliberately affiliated at the door of the Tent of Meeting. [for the purpose of donating.]

Advanced Rashi: We believe the above approach combining three Rashi methods, Other verses, Formatting, Meaning gives a proper natural understanding of Rashi.

      8. RASHI METHOD: DATABASES
      BRIEF EXPLANATION:Rashi makes inferences from Database queries. The precise definition of database query has been identified in modern times with the 8 operations of Sequential Query Language (SQL).

      This example applies to Rashis Ex35-34a
      URL Reference: (c) http://www.Rashiyomi.com/ex35-34a.htm
      Brief Summary: God choses by MERIT not LINEAGE. Ahaliab, the Temple builder, was from Dan, not Judah.

We ask the following database query: In the Bible, does God select by lineage or merit? 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-Midrashic inference: Selection for important posts was frequently done by merit not by lineage. The list below presents the results of the database query.

Person Chosen for Who was avoided that was better Verse support
Moses Prophet Aaron his older brother Ex04-10:16
Ahaliav Build Temple Ahaliav was from Dan-not Judah Ex35-34a
David King He was youngest of 8 1S16-07:12
Jacob Patriarch Esauv was older Gn27
Saul King Saul was from Binyamin-Not Judah 1S09-21

Sermonic Points: As can be seen from the above list God in many situations choses people based on merit rather than on tribal status (Judah vs. Benjamin or Dan) or seniority (the eldest). A famous clash between Jacob and Joseph in Gn48 further emphasizes that merit takes place on lineage and form. Judaism firmly believes that our standing before God is based on our own deeds. Such a positive attitude, placing responsibility on each individual, strongly encourages good deeds and action.

      9. RASHI METHOD: NonVerse
      BRIEF EXPLANATION: The common denominator of the 3 submethods of the NonVerse 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 Ex38-18a
      URL Reference: (c) http://www.Rashiyomi.com/w33n10.htm
      Brief Summary: Both the courtyard and the door were 5 cubits tall.

Verse Ex27-18 discussing the dimensions of the courtyard. states The length of the court shall be a hundred cubits, and the breadth fifty everywhere, and the height five cubits of fine twined linen, and their sockets of bronze. Rashi uses this other verse in clarifying the underlined word, against in verse Ex38-18a which states And the screen for the court gate was needlework, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen; and twenty cubits was the length, and the height in the breadth was five cubits, against the the court curtains. Rashi comments: The verse states that the court gate was five cubits against the court curtains. But we know from Ex27-18 that the courtyard itself was five cubits. Hence we interpret against to mean aligned at the same height since two things of the same height may be said to be against each other. We would therefore translate the verse as the court gate... was five cubits as the measure of the rest of the courtyard.

    Advanced Rashi: Notice that to explain this Rashi we used
  • the other verse method
  • the diagram method since the Rashi can be explained with the aid of a diagram showing that the courtyard and its gate each had the same height and aligned against each other.

Conclusion

This week's parshah does not contain examples of the alignment and symbolism methods. Visit the RashiYomi website at http://www.Rashiyomi.com for further details and examples.