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Their presence in Rashis on Parshath VaYeChi Volume 15, Number 16 This weeks Weekly Rashi with Hebrew/English source tables Is accessible at http://www.Rashiyomi.com/rule1516.htm (c) RashiYomi Incorporated, Dr. Hendel, President, December 16 th, 2010 Visit the Rashi website http://www.Rashiyomi.com 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. Although I frequently use my own English translations of biblical verses and Rashi comments, the Hebrew and English translations in the source tables are derived from online parshah files at chabad.org who in turn acknowledges the Judaica Press Complete Tanach, copyright by Judaica Press.
Verse Dt33-18 discussing Moses' blessing to Yissachar and Zebulum states And of Zebulun he said, Rejoice, Zebulun, in your going out; and, Issachar, in your tents Rashi notes that the underlined words, Zebulun - out, Yissachar - in references verses Gn49-14:15 discussing Jacob's blessings to Yissachar and Zebulun Hence the Rashi comment Yissachar was blessed with agriculture ( strong donkey) and Zebulun with sea merchantry. Dt33-18 links the two together suggesting that Zebulun marketed Yissachar's agricultural products - that is they were in partnership as producer and transporter.
Advanced Rashi: First, we point out that this Rashi is really a comment on Rashi Dt33-18b. We also point out that this partnership is famous. It is erroneously used to justify people sitting and learning while others support them. But this is not what the text says. The text indicates that both were gainfully employed - Zebulun as a sea merchant and Yissachar as an agricultural person. They then entered partnership. What is true is that people in agriculture have more spare time to learn. While at sea, by contrast, you have to continuously navigate and deal with winds, waves, etc. What the verses allow is the use of a partnership to create extra time for learning. In fact the Bible explicitly states that the Yissachar-tribe was known for its great wisdom (1C12-32). However the Torah in this particular passage does not sanction one person working and the other person doing nothing at all but learning. Rather, as I described, it is permissable for a person to give an investor money - the other person shares proceeds with the first person who then has additional time to learn.
When Rashi uses the synonym method he does not explain the meaning of a word but rather the distinction between two similar words both of whose meanings we already know.
In our article Peshat and Derash: A New Intuitive and Logical Approach, which can be found on the world-wide-web at http://www.Rashiyomi.com/rashi.pdf we have advocated punchy translations of Biblical verses as a means of presenting Rashi comments. The following translation of verse Gn48-16c embeds the Rashi translation YIDGU means teeming. The Angel who redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them teem and overflow in the midst of the earth. Advanced Rashi: Rashi explains the basic idea: Swarm, means to have many; teem, means to have many. What we have added to the understanding of Rashi is the citation of three Rashis together and the supplementation with nuanced synonyms from English. This approach enables us to naturally see the difference between swarm and teem. We have therefore brought in the Rashis on the Hebrew words PRU, SHIRTZU as well supplied the English synonyms fruitful, swarm, teem. This use of English captures the nuance of teem - welcome proliferation vs. swarm - unwelcome proliferation.
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 Tzade-Vav-Hey can mean to command someone, or, to delegate someone to speak to others. How does one tell which meaning applies in a given verse? Rashi explains when this root is used with the Hebrew connective, Aleph-Lamed, El which means to the verb-connective pair of words means to delegate someone else to speak to the target person Hence the Rashi-suggested translation of verse Ex50-16a which states And delegated [someone] to Joseph, saying, Your father did command before he died, saying, Advanced Rashi: Actually Rashi simply cites other verses where Tzivah el means delegate. The idea of explicitly associating every verb-preposition pair with a distinct meaning is made explicit by the Malbim in his Morning hind.
The table below presents an aligned extract of verses in Gn49-01:02 Both verses discuss Jacob's farewell address. The alignment justifies the Rashi assertion that Jacob's blessings contains elements of both a) the future Messianic era b) present advice on how they should treat each other.
Advanced Rashi:The Rashi is based on the alignment as shown in the table above. However we can supplement this explanation of Rashi by citing actual references in the Jacobian blessings. Notice for example how the blessing to Judah contains Messianic references (the future!) while the blessings to Joseph contain mostly a present description of events with advice to the brothers. This supplementation of Rashi with references in the blessings strengthens the understanding of the Rashi comment: It is not simply based on an alignment but rather is solidly based on an alignment supported by references. This technique of supplementing an alignment with supporting references is fundamental to enriching Rashi. We can further support this alignment with the following grammatical explanation of Rashi: In Hebrew, the jussive mode (an indication of a wish rather than a statement of reality) is indicated by suffixing the letter Hey to the verb. Hence the Hebrew VeAGeeDaH should be translated as I wish to tell you what will happen in the future.
The table below presents two contradictory verses. Both verses speak about the deathbed statement of Jacob to his sons The underlined words highlight the contradiction. One verse says cursed be their anger.... while the other verse states he blessed them We see the contradiction---which is it? Did he bless them or curse them? Rashi simply resolves this using the 2 Aspects method: Jacob indeed blessed all his children. Although he cursed certain aspects of some of his children every child received a blessing.
Advanced Rashi: Rashi does not provide further details. However the curses of Shimon and Levi show cursed be their anger as well as I will apportion them in Israel. We may regard this last statement I will apportion them in Israel as a blessing (The Shimonites were involved in all aspects of Israel). In other words the resolution is that certain children had only blessings while other children had some curses and some blessings. But each child has some blessing.
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. The style rule requires that we interpret the general theme with special focus on the attributes of the illustrative detail selected. Today's example illustrates this as shown below.
Rashi comments: The two sentences form one paragraph. That is the statement in the theme sentence and his sons did to him according as he commanded them refers to the details mentioned in the second sentence his sons carried himm to Canaan and buried him. The Davka English translation facilitates this Rashi interpretation by inserting the underlined, subordinating conjunction, for which explicitly connects the two sentences. The use of such punchy textual interpolations hi-lighting Rashi translations was first advocated in my article Peshat and Derash.
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: Why did Rashi equate stature = priesthood and might = monarchy. A review of the logic involved would be illuminating. First the bulleted structure indicated by repeating keywords requires us to see an unspecified emphasis of distinctness in the bulleted items. Next it seems reasonable to associate might = monarchy. There is no obvious association with stature. But it is reasonable if we have already used up monarchy to associate stature with some other Jewish hierarchical social structure. Two obvious candidates are prophecy and the priesthood. Prophecy does not belong to any tribe but rather to any person who aspires to it. So Rashi associates stature=Priesthood.
We ask the following database query: How is death, as indicated by the Hebrew, Gavah, Gimel-Vav-Ayin referred to. 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: Every place the Bible uses the Hebrew GVA, Gimel-Vav-Ayin it also uses the word death except by Jacob where it uses GVA, Gimel-Vav-Ayin but not death. We conclude that Jacob never died. The list below presents the results of the database query.
Advanced Rashi: The above 6 verses are the only Biblical verses where the root GVA, Gimel-Vav-Ayin occur. This Biblical root roughly means expired. In all but one of the verses the phrase GVA, MT roughly he expired and died occurs except by the patriarch Jacob where it states GVA without MT. So the obvious linguistic conclusion is that Jacob did not die. However, already the Talmud, Taanith 5b, asks If he didn't die then why did they embalm him and why did they mourn him. We can even ask further If GVA does not mean death what does it mean? Furthermore if Jacob didn't die where is he? Why have we not heard from him. The Talmud doesn't really answer completely these questions. It says They mourned and embalmed him because they thought he was dead. But if he wasn't dead why did they think him dead? We can also point out that although the Bible doesn't say that Jacob died, he himself says I am about to die and uses the Hebrew MEM TAUV (Gn48-21). I have elaborated on this to show that Rashi does not always answer questions. Rashi's job was to preserve the Masoretic text. If there was a linguistic anomaly he cited an appropriate Midrash to preserve the text. Frequently the linguistic anomaly nicely corresponds to a punchy philosophic point. But sometimes, as in this case, we can only ask the question: It appears from the linguistic anomaly that Jacob did not die. This is a question with many unanswered ramifications. Rashi does not supply an answer to them. Nor do other books supply answers. So the proper attitude is that Rashi used linguistic tools to uncover intended nuances of the Biblical Authors. Rashi uncovered these nuances even if they didn't fully make sense. His job was complete when he pointed us to a source and showed what it implied. Those sources he didn't explain should be the subject of study of future generations.
Verse Gn48-17a discussing Joseph's removal of his father's hand from his son's head states And when Joseph saw that his father was laying his right hand upon the head of Ephraim, it displeased him, and he supported his father's hand, to remove it from Ephraim's head unto Manasseh's head.
Since this Rashi carries a geometric or diagramatic clarification we have classified it as non-verse.
Verse Gn49-22 is one of those delightful verses where each word has two meanings and these disparate double meanings wonderously combine to form two distinct interpretations of the same set of words. The verse states: Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall;
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. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||