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Their presence in Rashis on Parshat MaTToTh Volume 11, Number 3 Rashi is Simple - Volume 34 Number 3 Used in the weekly Rashi-is-Simple and the Daily Rashi. Visit the RashiYomi website: http://www.Rashiyomi.com/ (c) RashiYomi Incorporated, Dr. Hendel, President, July 24th, 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.
Verse Jo06-13, discussing the military formation Joshua formed to conquer Israel states And seven priests carrying seven shofarot of rams? horns before the Ark of the Lord went on continually, and blew with the shofarot; and the armed men went before them; but the rear guard came after the ark of the Lord, the priests going on, and blowing with the shofarot. Rashi clarifies the underlined words armed men went before them by referencing verse(s) Nu32-17b, discussing the deal Moses made with the Gaddites - that they would fight for the Jews in return for letting them keep the Transjordan as an inheritance - which states but we [the Gaddites] ourselves will be ready armed to go before the Jews, until we have brought them unto their place; and our little ones shall dwell in the fortified cities because of the inhabitants of the land. Hence the Rashi comment: The verse text in Joshua which speaks about the front-line of armed men that went before them is clarified by the statement of the Gaddites to Moses that they would go armed before the Jews. In other words this front line of armed men was in fact the Gaddites.
Advanced Rashi: Notice the twist here: Usually Rashi uses the verse he is commenting on to clarify some other verse. However here Rashi is clarifying the target verse in Joshua by using the verse he is commenting on in Numbers. Such switches occur infrequently in Rashi's application of the reference method. This Rashi is further elaborated on in rule #9, NonVerse below. There we clarify why the Gaddites went armed in the front line. Rashi uses the reference method again, citing a verse from Dt33-20, And of Gad he said, Blessed be he who enlarges Gad; he lives as a lion, and tears the arm with the crown of the head. In other words Gad volunteered to go in the front lines because he is a good lion-like warrior. Front lines need stronger fighters because it is the thick of battle.
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.
Frequently the underling unified theme in our unified meanings is only conjecture. But in this case we have a charming verse in which both of the meanings of rattle and wander occur confirming our hunch on a poetic analogy. Verse Am09-09 discussing the punishment of the Jews states For, behold, I will command, and I will make the house of Israel wander among all nations, like grain is rattled in a sieve, yet not even the least grain shall fall upon the earth. Using the above Rashi we would translate Nu32-07,13a as And why do you rattle the heart of the people of Israel from going over to the land which the Lord has given them? Thus did your fathers, .... And the Lord?s anger was kindled against Israel, and he made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until all the generation, that had done evil in the sight of the Lord, was consumed. Advanced Rashi: Notice how Moses also used the root Nun-Vav-Ayin in the sense of both rattling and wandering. This gives a rare moment of insight: We can appreciate how the Prophet Amos borrowed Moses' Biblical pun and used it in his own prophecies. Such cute insights enrich the Rashi experience.
The multi-verse rule simply states that some Biblical sentences span multiple verses. Knowledge of the multi-verse rule enables one to see distinct Biblical sentences as contributing meaning to each other. Today's example illustrates this. Verses Nu32-02:05 form a multi-verse sentence as shown below (Verse Nu32-01 is added as an introductory sentence).
The table below presents an aligned extract of verses or verselets in Nu32-03,Nu32-34:38 Both verses/verselets discuss the cities that the 2 1/2 tribes wanted in Transjordan. The alignment justifies the Rashi comment that: The cities mentioned in Nu32-34:38 are the same cities mentioned in Nu32-03 with minor changes in vocalization. The order is also reversed: Thus cities #1 and #2 are reversed and similarly cities #7,8,9 become #9,7,8.
Advanced Rashi: Actually Rashi only comments on city #9, which has both its vocalization and sequence number changed. But, as we have numerous times in this weekly digest indicated, the understanding of Rashi is enriched if we consistently apply the Rashi principle to all similar items in the verse. That is, we perceive Rashi as giving an example of what he is trying to say and letting the teacher fill in other examples for his students.
The table below presents two contradictory verses. Both verses talk about incidents in Kadesh The underlined words highlight the contradiction. One verse says The rebellion of spies happened in Kadesh in Paran desert while the other verse says The rebellion of spies happened in Kadesh Barnayah. Which is it? Is the name of the place Kadesh or Kadesh Barnayah. Rashi simply resolves this using the 2-aspects method: (1) The rebellion of spies happened in Paran desert in Kadesh. (2)Kadesh is a one-word shortening of the full name Kadesh Barnayah. (3)There is a second Kadesh in Tzin desert where Moses lost his temper.
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.
This verse has a General-Detail style as shown by the bulleted structure. The Rabbi Ishmael Style Guidelines interpret a General-Detail verse as speaking literally / restrictively only about the details.
Rashi's treatment here of the general-detail style is illuminating. The classical explanation, as expounded by Rabbi Ishmael, of the general-detail style is that it indicates a literal/restrictive interpretation of the details. But if we followed this approach then the laws of the verse cited above would only apply if the person is really and only a teenager with no other attributes, such as mature, applicable. Rashi in this verse goes a step further and indicates that the restrictive interpretation is due to the fact that both the general and detail attributes must simultaneously apply. This teenager must be both in her father's house and a teenager. Hence we exclude the minor who is not yet a teenager and the mature teenager who is technically no longer in her father's house. Thus Rashi here makes a contribution here to the understanding of the Rabbi Ishmael Theme-Detail laws by pointing out that although there is an emphasis on the details the theme itself must simultaneously be present.
Very often Rashi will make an inference from the paragraph structure. A typical paragraph structures can be parallel or contrastive with or without bullets. The parallel and contrastive structure naturally generate Rashi comments. This type of inference also follows from the Rabbi Ishmael Style rule of inferring from context since the paragraph structure endows the disparate paragraph sentences with a unified context.
The Rashi comment consists of the observation that we have two paragraphs here: One on sacrifices and one on vows. Rashi points out that without the terminal Nu30-01 the paragraphs would be run on and non-parallel creating an impression that Moses was waiting for a later date to execute God's commands to teach the Jews about the festival sacrifices. Advanced Rashi: Rabbi Ishmael is the source of the Rashi comment. This is the same Rabbi Ishmael who authored the thirteen Rabbi Ishmael style principles. We see here an early Taanatic source for approaching serious Biblical exegesis through both a technical grammatical and broad stylistic approach. Such a combined approach is one of the hallmarks of this weekly Rashi digest.
Verse Nu32-17 speaking about the deal Moses made
with Gad - to go in the front lines when fighting for Israel
in exchange for which Gad received the TransJordan as an
inheritance - states
but we [the Gaddites]
ourselves will be ready armed to go before the Jews, until we have brought them unto their place; and our little ones shall dwell in the fortified cities because of the inhabitants of the land.
Rashi explains why the Gaddites volunteered to
go in the front lines: The Gaddites were good fighters.
Good fighters are preferred in the front line because it is
the thick of battle. Hence the Gaddites volunteered to go on the
front line. Rashi additionally supports
his comment using the reference method
citing a verse from Dt33-20,
which clarifies this volunteer to go in the front lines and
states:
And of Gad he said, Blessed be he who enlarges Gad;
he lives as a lion, and tears the arm with the crown of the head.
In other words Gad volunteered to go in the front lines because
he is a good lion-like warrior.
Although an other verse is referenced here
we have classified this Rashi comment
as a NonVerse method. Indeed
the focus of Rashi's comment is an explanation of why
Gad volunteered to go in the front line. To answer this question
Rashi uses knowledge of the real world: The front line men in a
battle must be stronger because
the thicket of the battle is there.
This deduction is logical and does not involve references to
other verses. Hence we classify the Rashi as using
the Non Verse method.
By coincidence Rashi found a reference supporting
this logical connection; but his comment is still is in essence a logical
connection. Alternatively, we can simply say that Rashi did use
a reference but explained the support of this other
verse by using knowledge of the real world such as the reasons
for placing certain people on the front lines of a war.
This week's parshah does not contain examples of the
symbolism, and database method.
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