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 Lv23-39b URL Reference: (c) http://www.Rashiyomi.com/w33n17.htm Brief Summary: Passover is in SPRING; Succoth is in HARVEST season. So leap years are made if necessary

Verse Lv23-39b discussing when to celebrate the holiday of Succoth states Also in the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruit of the land, you shall keep a feast to the Lord seven days; on the first day shall be a sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a sabbath. Rashi clarifies the underlined words when you have gathered in the fruit of the land by referencing verses Dt16-01 which states Watch for the month of Spring, and keep the Passover to the Lord your God; for in the month of Spring the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by night. Hence the Rashi comment: The Bible ties Passover to Spring and Succoth to harvest. From this requirement we infer that calendar months must be watched (adding if necessary extra months) so that Passover always falls out in Spring and Succoth at Harvest time.

Text of Target verse Lv23-39b	Text of Reference Verse Dt16-01
Also in the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruit of the land, you shall keep a feast to the Lord seven days; on the first day shall be a sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a sabbath.	Dt11-10:17 which states Watch for the month of Spring, and keep the Passover to the Lord your God; for in the month of Spring the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by night.
Rashi comments: The Bible ties Passover to Spring and Succoth to harvest. From this requirement we infer that calendar months must be watched (adding if necessary extra months and making a leap year) so that Passover always falls out in Spring and Succoth at Harvest time.

Advanced Rashi: Rashi literally states From here - Verse Lv23-39b, discussing Succoth and harvest - we learn that calendar months must be adjusted so that Succoth coincides with harvest. Ah! But that is not true! It is not true that we learn this law (adjusting the calendar) from Succoth. In fact we learn the law requirement of adjusting the calendar from the explicit Biblical verse at Dt16-01 Watch [for] the Spring time and make a Passover. It appears to me that this Rashi text is proof that when Rashi say we learn from here this phrase should not be taken literally. It rather should be interpreted as This is one of the possibly many places where we learn from and it is not even the main place. Throughout this email list I have encouraged such reinterpretations of exclusive statements by Rashi. The serious student of Rashi should carefully review the Rashi text and the arguments presented above to convince him/her self of this. For this reason we always feel free to supplement a Rashi statement we learn from here with other derivations. The more skeptical reader is encouraged to read the Rashi on Dt16-01 which proves that Rashi did not learn the calendar law requirement from here. For another application of this fundamental principle in reading Rashi please see below rule #4, alignment.

When Rashi uses the synonym method he does not explain the meaning of a word but rather the distinction or commonality between several similar words both of whose meanings we already know.

In today's example we switch things. Instead of presenting two Hebrew words with common meaning we present two English words with common meaning which however are both translated to the same word in Hebrew.
• Continual, means e.g. every day, while
• continuous, means every second, all the time.
Both continual and continuous are translated in Hebrew as Tauv-Mem-Yud-Daleth, TaMeeD. Hence when verse Lv24-02c states Command the people of Israel, that they bring to you pure oil olive beaten for the light, to cause the lamps to burn continually, Rashi correctly interprets the underlined word which in Hebrew is Tauv-Mem-Yud-Daleth as meaning continually, - that is, every day - rather than as meaning continuously, which would require that the Temple Candellabrah burn 24 hours a day.

Today's grammar example deals with paragraph unification rules. We use to include these rules under the main grammar rule. However we have switched our thinking and intend to reclassify these paragraph unification rules under the format rule. In todays digest we present two paragraphs unified by sentence contrast. One example is presented under the Grammar rule and the second below is presented under the format rule.

An important task for any writer is sentence unification within each paragraph and paragraph unification within each chapter. Rashi used three main methods of unification:
• unification by contrast
• unification by cause-effect-consequence
• unification by commonality.
The unification principle is not cosmetic. It is powerful leading to novelty in meaning and interpretation. Today's example shows this.

Verse Lv21-10:12a discussing the prohibition of the High Priest from becoming ritually impure at funerals of his parents uses a contrastive sentence unification method as shown below:
• And he who is the high priest among his brothers, upon whose head the anointing oil was poured,...shall not uncover his head, ... Neither shall he go to any dead body, ... for his father, or ... mother;
• [but rather]Neither shall he go out of the sanctuary,... for the crown of the anointing oil of his God is upon him; I am the Lord.
We have indicated Rashi's contrastive intepretation by interpolating the bracketed words [but rather]. Rashi interprets The High priest shall not become ritually impure by leaving the temple to attend funerals of parents but rather he shall remain in the Temple and continue to offer sacrifices. Rashi continues Hence we infer that a High Priest should offer sacrifices even if his parents have died and it is pre-burial (Note that other Israelites are exempt from positive commandments during this period.)

Verse	Text of Verse	Rashi comment
Lv21-01e	to a soul in the country the priest should not become defiled	He shouldn't come to ordinary funerals in the country But if he bumps unexpectedly to a dead person on the road then he should bury it.
Lv21-11	to any dead soul ----- the High priest should not come	He shouldn't come to ordinary funerals in the country But if he bumps unexpectedly to a dead person on the road then he should bury it.

Advanced Rashi: In our analysis we have emphasized the two contrastive aligned pairs come-defile and in the country indicated in bullets (2) and (4) in the above table. The combined nuances of these two bullets - come vs. bump into- and - in the country vs on the road - make it plausible that the Bible makes an exception if either the priest or High Priest bumped unexpectedly into a dead body on the road with no one attending to the person to bury it. In such a case the Priest must defile himself and bury the body. In presenting this explanation we have deviated from Rashi's literal statement that we infer this law from the extra phrase in the country (bullet #(2)). We instead offer a combined approach come vs bumped into unexpectedly (bullet #(4)) and in the country vs on the road (bullet #(2)). The combined approach makes Rashi more plausible. Such a reading of Rashi where we interpret Rashi's statement we learn from here to mean We learn from a variety of places inclding here is consistent with the approach to Rashi laid down in rule #1, references above.

There are some further subtleties in this Rashi which we have not gone into. For example the Bible splits the aligned nuances between the chapters dealing with Priest and High Priest. The High Priest should not come to a dead body but he may defile himself to a dead body he bumps into unexpectedly. Similarly the ordinary priest should not let himself be defiled for funerals in the country; but for a dead body on the road he may or even should let himself be defiled. It is my opinion that Rashi simply noted one difference in the country. He expected each student to supplement this one observation with other differences.

Today's example requires combining two Rashi rules. The reader is encouraged to first re-read rule #4, alignment, above, before reading the Rashi here.

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 and consequently the law only applies to the enumerated details but not to other cases. Today's example illustrates this as shown below.

Verse Lv21-11c discussing the prohibition of a High Priest from becoming ritually impure to dead people is written in a General-Detail or Theme-Development form and states
• General: Neither shall he go to any dead body
• Detail: [namely] he should not defile himself for his father and mother
We have indicated Rashi's interpretation by interpolating the bracketed word [namely]. Rashi reads the verse as follows: The High priest should not defile himself: Of all dead he should only not defile himself to his father and mother. The Rabbi Ishmael style guidelines require this restrictive interpretation whenever a general-detail form is used. Hence the Rashi conclusion: The High priest is only prohibited from becoming ritually impure to his father and mother; however he may become ritually impure when he bumps into a dead body on the road which requires burial.

Advanced Rashi: There are several supplemental points to make here. First: The fact that the restrictive interpretation is applied by allowing burial of dead on the road is inferred from the alignment we performed above in rule #4.

Second, a rather unusual point in this General-Detail example is that by specifying father and mother the Bible is actually including all close relatives: father, mother, son, daughter, brother, virgin sister, wife. That is the high priest cannot defile himself to his father and mother and similarly may not defile himself to his son, daughter, brother, virgin sister and wife. It would seem that once verse Lv21-02:03 enumerated these seven relatives as prohibited for an ordinary priest, any mention of some of them (e.g. father-mother) automatically includes all of them.

An important task for any writer is sentence unification within each paragraph and paragraph unification within each chapter. Rashi used three main methods of unification:
• unification by contrast
• unification by cause-effect-consequence
• unification by commonality.
The unification principle is not cosmetic. It is powerful leading to novelty in meaning and interpretation. Today's example shows this.

Note the contrast in the following verses:
• ....Speak to the priests, ...they shall not become ritually impure to dead ...
• Except for his wife,...mother...sister...for her he should defile himself.

To fully understand Rashi's point we present the above verses in several forms:
• ....Speak to the priests, ...they shall not become ritually impure to dead ...
• Except for his wife,...mother...sister...
The implication here is: (a) Do not defile to ordinary people; (b) but you may defile to close relatives.

However the following format: -
• ....Speak to the priests, ...they shall not become ritually impure to dead ...
• Except for his wife,...mother...sister...for her he should defile himself
Rashi focusing on the contrastive nature of the verses - do not vs. he should - states, (a) There is a prohibition of defiling to non close relatives; (b) there is an obligation of defiling to close relatives. In other words the contrastive set of verses creates emphasis - the priest is not only permitted to defile himself to close relatives, he is in fact required.

Today we ask the database query: When is leaning used in Biblical commandments / procedures? The query uncovers 3 examples of commandments with leaning. An examination of these 3 examples shows that leaning symbolically indicates transfer of responsibility.
• Physically the leaner is now supported by the object he leans on.
• This symbolically affirms that the leaner is now supported morally by the object he leans on - that is, there has been transfer of responsibility.

The table below presents the 3 commandments as well as their symbolic interpretation. We also include a non-commandment example of leaning. It follows that this Rashi combines the database and symbolism methods.

Sermonic points: The idea of symbolically affirming a serious moment such as transfer of responsibility occurs in many cultures with many diverse symbols. All cultures recognize the need to symbolically affirm serious moments and values. The symbolism here identifes support in the physical realm with moral support in the social realm. It is a symbol based on function.

Verse Lv23-40d discussing the requirement to have a Lulav and Ethrog on Succoth states Take for yourself on the first day ...palm branches...and thick branches.... Rashi explains that thick branches refer to mrytle branches because the leaves are arranged in sets of three overlapping sets like the overlapping threads that make twine thick.

Rashi here explains meaning by form. We have frequently referred to the triple FFF method of naming items by Form/appearance - white house, pentagon, orange dress, Function/purpose - United Nations, screw-driver, Feel - e.g. hardship. Here Rashi names the mrytle branch by its thick appearance.

But to properly understand this Rashi we must use the Non-Verse-geometric method: The reason the mrytle branch appears thick is because its leaves overlap like the overlapping threads that are used to make thick twine.

Thus the proper understanding of this Rashi requires both the meaning and spreadsheet methods.

10. RASHI METHOD: SYMBOLISM BRIEF EXPLANATION: Rashi provides symbolic interpretations of words, verses, and chapters. Rashi can symbolically interpret either (10a) entire Biblical chapters such as the gifts of the princes, Nu-07 (10b) individual items, verses and words The rules governing symbolism and symbolic interpretation are presented in detail on my website. This examples applies to Rashis Lv24-14c URL Reference: (c) http://www.Rashiyomi.com/w33n17.htm Brief Summary: LEANING symbolizes TRANSFERENCE of AUTHORITY. LEANING on an executed criminal symbolizes that he is responsible for this own death.

Today we ask the database query: When is leaning used in Biblical commandments / procedures? The query uncovers 3 examples of commandments with leaning. An examination of these 3 examples shows that leaning symbolically indicates transfer of responsibility.
• Physically the leaner is now supported by the object he leans on.
• This symbolically affirms that the leaner is now supported morally by the object he leans on - that is, there has been transfer of responsibility.

The table below presents the 3 commandments as well as their symbolic interpretation. We also include a non-commandment example of leaning. It follows that this Rashi combines the database and symbolism methods.

Sermonic points: The idea of symbolically affirming a serious moment such as transfer of responsibility occurs in many cultures with many diverse symbols. All cultures recognize the need to symbolically affirm serious moments and values. The symbolism here identifes support in the physical realm with moral support in the social realm. It is a symbol based on function.