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 Dt11-22b URL Reference: (c) http://www.Rashiyomi.com/w34n7.htm; Brief Summary: The obligation to WALK IN GOD'S WAYS (Dt11-30e) refers to IMITATING HIS 13 ATTRIBUTES (Ex34-06:07)

Verse(s) Dt11-22b discussing the obligation to walk in God's ways states For if you shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you, to do them, to love the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, and to hold fast to him. Rashi clarifies the underlined words to walk in all his ways by referencing verse(s) Ex34-06:07 discussing God's 13 attributes of mercy, which states And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children?s children, to the third and to the fourth generation. Hence the Rashi comment: The ways of God, in which we were commanded to walk, are the 13 personality traits of God shown to Moses in response to his request to know God's way.

Text of Target verse Dt11-22b	Text of Reference Verse Ex34-06:07
For if you shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you, to do them, to love the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, and to hold fast to him;	And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, Keeping mercy for thousands of generations forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and Cleansing...
Rashi comments: The ways of God, in which we were commanded to walk, are the 13 personality traits of God shown to Moses in response to his request to know God's way. .

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.

Verse Dt07-23a, discussing the aid God gives the Jews in conquering Israel, states Ad-noy, your G-d, will defeat them before you, and will confuse them with great confusion until they are destroyed. The Hebrew word Hey-Mem-Mem is punctuated Kamatz-Kamatz. Rashi consequently interprets the terminal suffix letter Mem as indicating an object confuse them. Had the word been punctuated Kamatz-Patach it would simply mean to confuse without any object.

Rashi frequently taught grammar using what I have called the near miss method. Rashi examines several almost identical forms and identifies the grammatical differences between them.

Here are some further near misses presented by Rashi, that illustrate grammatical points.
• (Rashi Ex19-18a) The Hebrew word Ayin-Shin-Nun
  • When punctuated Kamatz-Kamatz means the noun, smoke
  • When punctuated Kamatz-Patach means the verb, to smoke
• (Rashi Gn49-04a ) The Hebrew word Pay-Cheth-Zayin
  • When punctuated Patach-Patach means the noun fizz
  • When punctuated Kamatz-Patach means the verb, to fizz.
• (Rashi: Dt07-23a)The Hebrew word Hey-Mem-Mem
  • When punctuated Kamatz-Patach means the verb, to confuse
  • When punctuated Kamatz-Kamatz means the verb-object pair, to confuse them.

The table below presents an aligned extract of verses or verselets in Gn12-07 Gn13-15. Both verses/verselets discuss the giving of Israel to the Jews. The alignment justifies the Rashi comment that: The land of Israel was promised both to a) The Jews, the descendants of Abraham and also b) to Abraham himself (hinting at his resurrection)

Verse	Text of Verse	Rashi comment
Gn12-07	And the Lord appeared to Abram, and said, to your descendants will I give this land; ...	The land of Israel was promised both to a) The Jews, the descendants of Abraham and also b) to Abraham himself (hinting at his resurrection)
Gn13-15	For all the land which you see, to you will I give it, and to your descendants forever.

Advanced Rashi: Using the above alignment of Genesis verses we can understand the following text and Rashi: Dt11-21: That your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth. Rashi:The underlined phrase does not say to give to you but rather to give to them. This proves that Israel will be given both to the descendants of Abraham and to Abraham himself who will be resurrected.

The above alignment also justifies other inferences. For example a famous Rashi explains that the verse which states that Abraham and his nephew Lot fought, is speaking about the right to occupy land now which Abraham knew he will eventually inherit. We will discuss the other consequences of this alignment in appropriate future issues.

This Rashi can also be understood using rule #5, contradiction and rule #7, formatting, which we present below.

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 examples applies to Rashis Dt11-21b URL Reference: (c) http://www.Rashiyomi.com/w34n7.htm Brief Summary: a) TO you and b) TO your decendants I have given this land. I give to DECSENDANTS...Land I swore to give to THEM

The table below presents two contradictory verses. Both verses talk about the giving of Israel to the Jews. The underlined words highlight the contradiction. One verse says Israel was given to the descendants of Abraham while the other verse says Israel was given to Abraham (and the other Patriarchs). Which is it? Was Israel given only to the descendants of the Jews or was Israel given to Abraham also (which sounds strange, since Abraham didn't receive Israel during his lifetime, or, is the intention of the verse that he will inherit it upon resurrection.) Rashi simply resolves this using the 2 aspects method. method: Israel was given both to a) the Jews, the descendants of Abraham and to b) Abraham himself. But the delivery was different: Israel was delivered to the Jews in this world while Israel is delivered to Abraham at the resurrection. This resolution is explicitly stated at Gn13-15:
For all the land which you see,
• to you will I give it, and
• to your seed forever.

Summary	Verse / Source	Text of verse / Source
The descendants of Abraham, the Jews inherit Israel.	Gn12-07	And the Lord appeared to Abram, and said, to your descendants will I give this land; ...
Israel is given to Abraham himself, hinting at his resurrection.	Dt11-21	That your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth.
Resolution:	2 Aspects	Israel was given both to a) the Jews, the descendants of Abraham and to b) Abraham himself. But the delivery was different: Israel was delivered to the Jews in this world while Israel is delivered to Abraham at the resurrection. This resolution is explicitly stated at Gn13-15: For all the land which you see, to you will I give it, and to your seed forever.

Advanced Rashi: We can analyze this Rashi using Rule #4, Alignment, or Rule #5, Contradiction or Rule #7, Formatting. See below.

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 Dt11-12b URL Reference: (c) http://www.Rashiyomi.com/w34n7.htm Brief Summary: a) DETAIL: Reward / punishment governs Israeli rainfall b) GENERAL: Good / bad of Israel subject to God's decree.

Certain Biblical paragraphs are stated in a detail-Theme form. In other words a detailed specific law is stated first followed by a thematic restatement of a broad general nature. Today's example illustrates this as shown below.

Verse Dt11-10:12 discussing the providence of God over the land of Israel states
• Detail:
  • For the land, which you enter to possess, is not as the land of Egypt, from where you came out, where you sowed your seed, and watered it with your foot, as a garden of vegetables;
  • But the land, which you are going over to possess, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinks water from the rain of the skies;
• General: A land which the Lord your God cares for; the eyes of the Lord your God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.

The underlined phrases tell the story. Israel is not a foot watered land but rather a rain dependent land. In other words God controls the economic prosperity of the land by controlling the rain flow. This is a special case of a more general statement of Divine providence that God oversees Israel continually. The well-being (or non well being) of the land is governed by God's continuous decrees.

Rashi's exact lanaguage is as follows: God's eyes are always on Israel to see what it needs and to decree providence-decrees on Israsel; sometimes for good and sometimes for bad. As can be seen, the detail example - the control of rain - is a paradigmatic example of how God control's the prosperity of Israel

We think this Rashi particularly illustrative of the use of the detail-general style.

This example continues rule #4, alignment, also continued in rule #5 contradiction.

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 Dt11-17c URL Reference: (c) http://www.Rashiyomi.com/w34n7.htm Brief Summary: When God decrees a punishment: If there are no wise men to teach the people God may delay punishment for a long time.

Today we ask the database query: When God decrees a punishment how much lag time does God give in order to give people time to repent? The query uncovers three major examples. An examination of these examples justifies the Rashi assertion that (a) The generation of the flood and Ninveh did not have leaders to learn moral behavior from; hence they were given extra time to repent (b) The Jews had great leaders to learn from and hence their punishment is immediate (Since no further time is needed to learn and repent) The table below presents results of the query along with illustrations of Rashi's comment.

Verses Dt11-10:11 states
• For the land, which you enter to possess, is not as the land of Egypt, from where you came out, where you sowed your seed, and watered it by foot, as a vegetable garden;
• But the land, which you are going over to possess, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinks water from the rain of the skies;
Rashi interprets the two bullets contrastively: There are two types of lands:
• Those for whom rain water is sufficient and
• those like a vegetable garden which are watered by foot.
Rashi supports this contrastive structure by bringing in real-world facts about vegetable gardens. Rain water, typically, is not sufficient for a vegetable garden. The rain water must be supplemented by manual watering either by foot or by shoulder-carried pails.

We can summarize Rashi as follows:
• For certain lands rain-water is sufficient;
• For other lands (for example, vegetable gardens), the rain water is not sufficient and must be supplemented by manually supplied water.

Rashi's innovation is to generalize and emphasize that
• rain water does not suffice for vegetable gardens
• these gardens therefore require supplemental water supplies, one example of which is watering by foot (but there are also other examples like watering by shoulder-carried pails).

Since Rashi's innovation requires bringing in real-world knowledge of vegetable gardens we classify this Rashi as Non Verse. One should note that we also used the grammer method since the sentences have a contrastive structure. Rashi weaves the real-world knowledge about vegetable gardens into the textual meaning by generalizing the details and examples so that they illustrate the intended contrast.