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 Dt29-11b URL Reference: (c) http://www.Rashiyomi.com/w34n12.htm; Brief Summary: The idiomatic phrase PASS THRU THE TREATY refers to the ancient treaty ceremony Jr34-18 of walking between animal halves.

Verse(s) Dt29-09:11 discussing the convenant / treaty made between God and Israel states You all stand this day before God..... That you should pass through the covenant with the Lord your God, and into his oath, which the Lord your God makes with you this day; Rashi clarifies the underlined words pass through the covenant by referencing verse(s) Jr34-18 discussing God's punishment of people who violate the convenant which states And I will give the men who have transgressed my covenant, which have not kept the words of the covenant which they had made before me, when they cut the calf in two, and passed between its parts. Hence the Rashi comment: The phrase pass through the convenant is an idiom referring to the ancient treaty ceremony of cutting an animal in half, having both parties of the treaty pass through or walk between the two halves and then consuming the animal. Dt29-09:11 refers to this ceremony and uses this language.

Text of Target verse Dt29-11	Text of Reference Verse Jr34-18
You all stand this day before God..... That you should pass through the covenant with the Lord your God, and into his oath, which the Lord your God makes with you this day;	And I will give the men who have transgressed my covenant, which have not kept the words of the covenant which they had made before me, when they cut the calf in two, and passed between its parts.
Rashi comments: The phrase pass through the convenant is an idiom referring to the ancient treaty ceremony of cutting an animal in half, having both parties of the treaty pass through or walk between the two halves and then consuming the animal. Dt29-09:11 refers to this ceremony and uses this language.

Advanced Rashi: Rashi should be supplemented by pointing out that the treaty God made with the Patriarch Abraham (Gn15) involved a similar cutting ceremony and is colloquially known as the treaty of cuts. Perhaps the walking between the cut halves symbolically affirms that both parties respect the property rights of the other and share in joyous occasions (Such as treaty enactments).

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.

The following Hebrew words all refer to anger
• Cheth-Resh-Hey, Charah heated up, anger [ here anger is named by how it feels ]
• Nun-Aleph-Tzade, Niutz, impatient, angry [ here anger is named by how one acts ]
• Cuph-Ayin-Samech, Ca'ath cutting, anger [ Ca'ath like Niutz is named by how how one acts. But Ca'ath connotes a more explosive cutting fighting action. ]

The table below presents an aligned extract of verses or verselets in Dt29-16 Both verses/verselets discuss the detestable idols seen by the Jews. The alignment justifies the Rashi comment that: There are many types of idols Stone and wood gods lie around houses and gardens. But gold and silver gods are kept inside the house, with the people. Although they are gods people steal them for their monetary value.

Verse	Text of Verse	Rashi comment
Dt29-16	and ye have seen their detestable things, and their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which are with them--	There are many types of idols Stone and wood gods lie around houses and gardens. But gold and silver gods are kept inside the house with the people. Although they are gods people steal them for their monetary value.
Dt29-16	and ye have seen their detestable things, and their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which are with them--

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 Dt31-28a URL Reference: (c) http://www.Rashiyomi.com/rule1308.htm Brief Summary: 1)Moses Blasts trumpets to gather the nation 2)Under Joshuas leadership the nation was gathered without trumpet blasts

The table below presents two contradictory verses. Both verses talk about congregating the nation The underlined words highlight the contradiction. One verse says blast the trumpets to gather the nation while the other verse says the nation was gathered, but no trumpet blasts were mentioned. Which is it? Are trumpet blasts used to gather the nation or not? Rashi simply resolves this using the 2 aspects method: The Trumpets were Moses' personal trumpets. 1) So Moses used the trumpets when he congregated the nation 2) But Joshua (and future leaders) did not congregate the nation in this way The exclusivity of trumpet blasts for Moses is indicated explicitly in Nu10-02 which states Make 2, personal, silver trumpets ....They are designated personally to you for congregating the nation and moving the camp.

Summary	Verse / Source	Text of verse / Source
Use Trumpets to gather the nation	Nu10-02	Make two personal silver trumpets; make them sculptured; designate them for personal congregation of the nation and moving the camp
Under Joshua's leadership the nation was gathered without trumpets	Dt31-23:28a	And he gave Joshua the son of Nun a charge, and said, Be strong and of a good courage; for you shall bring the people of Israel into the land which I swore to them; .... while I am still alive with you this day, you have been rebellious against the Lord; and how much more after my death!.... Congregate to me all the elders of your tribes, and your officers, that I may speak these words in their ears, and call heaven and earth to witness against them.
Resolution:	2 Aspects	The Trumpets were Moses' personal trumpets. 1) So Moses used the trumpets when he congregated the nation 2) But Joshua (and future leaders) did not congregate the nation in this way The exclusivity of trumpets blasts for Moses is indicated explicitly in Nu10-02 which states Make 2, personal, silver trumpets ....They are designated personally to you for congregating the nation and moving the camp.

Advanced Rashi: Rashi points out that Technically Moses was still alive, still exhorting the people and still in charge. But once he had appointed Joshua he stopped using the trumpets. Rashi further explains Moses' actions by pointing out that he was anticipating death as shown in the above citation. Rashi cites the verse Ec08-08 There is no reign on the day of death. I have added a further defense to Rashi's observation that Moses exclusively used the trumpets to congregate the nation: We never find other leaders such as Samuel using trumpets to congregate the nation (cf. 1S11-14, 1S12-01).

Both the Biblical and modern author use the paragraph as a vehicle for indicating commonality of theme. Hence if two ideas are in a paragraph they may be assumed to have a similar context. The reader will no doubt recognize this formatting rule as none other than the most intuitive of the Rabbi Ishmael style rules which orthodox Jews recite every day as part of their daily prayer: the rule of inference from context. Today's example illustrates this.

There are three broad methods of paragraph unity:
• cause-effect
• contrast
• unifying theme with multiple effects

In explaining verse Dt29-12 Rashi uses two of the paragraph development methods cited above. Here is a brief snapshot of the verses in question:
• Reward and Punishment
  • Dt27 If you listen to God you will be rewarded
  • Dt28 If you don't listen to God you will be punished
  • Dt29-01:08 And now after 40 years you finally appreciate this.
• [Contrastive] Punishment will never be permanant
  • Bound by oath
    • Dt29-11:12 God is your God; You are his nation
      • God swore to your forefathers
      • [Causative | Parallel] So now you must swear to him

Advanced Rashi: Let us go over in detail the two uses of the paragraph development methods. First Rashi contrasts within Dt29-11:12: God can't get out of his oath and therefore [causation] you must swear also so as to be similarly bound. This explains the linkage of verses within the two sentence paragraph.

But Rashi also explains the linkage of verses between the Chapters Dt28 and Dt29: God will punish you if you misbehave but [contrastively] since He swore to be your God no matter how bad you are He will never destroy you.

As a result of this analysis we understand the two Rashi comments. One Rashi comment explains the contrastive connection between two Biblical chapters. The other Rashi comment explains the causative connection within 2 Biblical verses. In other words there are two paragraph connections to explain and Rashi explains both of them.

We ask the following database query: Find leaders who gave farewell exhortations before their death. 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: Several leaders gave farewell exhortations before their death and transition to a new leadership reminding the people of God's good to them and His punishments to those who transgress His will. The list below presents the results of the database query.

Person	Verses	Nature of Verses	When uttered.
Moses	Dt29, Dt30	If you do Good God will reward you; if you do bad you will be punished.	Before his death and transition to new leadership
Joshua	Jo23, Jo24	If you do Good God will reward you; if you do bad you will be punished.	Before his death and transition to new leadership
Samuel	1S12	If you do Good God will reward you; if you do bad you will be punished.	Before his death and transition to new leadership

Verse Dt31-26b states Take this book of the law, and put it by the side of the ark of the covenant of HaShem your G-d, that it may be there for a witness against thee.

Rashi explains this verse with a numerically labelled diagram

	ARK  15 handbreadths
'	- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
'  9	|                                        |

'	|                                        |	

'	|   Two tablets(10 commandments)         |

'   9	|   6 x 6  + 6 x 6  = 12 x 6      Sefer  |  9 HANDBREADTHS
                                          Torah
'	|				  2 x 8  |

'	|                                        |  

'   9	|                                        |    
'	- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Here is a rough overview of computations
• The ark was 9 handbreadths by 15 handbreadths
• The 10 commandments were written on two tablets of stone
• Each tablet was 6 handbreadth by 6 handbreadths
• Two tablets were 12 handbreadths by 6 handbreadths
• The length had 15 - 12 = 3 handbreadths left over
• The sides were each half a handbreath leaving 2 handbreadths
• So left over was 2 handbreadths x 8 handbreadths = 8 inches x 32 inches
• We infer that the Scroll of Torah Law was 8 x 32 inches and laid in the ark
• The diagram above illustrates this.

There are many problems with the above approach. We still have room on the sides since the tablets were 6 handbreadths and there are 2-3 handbreadths left over (Some say the broken chips of the first tablets are there). There are opinions that each cubit was 5 not 6 handbreadths only giving us 12.5 handbreadths length. The major point to take away is that Rashi interprets the verselet place the Torah by the side of the ark to mean The Torah was placed in the ark and there was room for it there.

Verse Dt30-19 discussing Moses' adjuration to the Jews to observe the convenant states I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before thee life and death, the blessing and the curse; therefore choose life, that thou mayest live, thou and thy seed;

But Heaven and earth are inanimate. They can't be witnesses. Hence Rashi interprets this symbolically. Rashi's suggestion is simple: Heaven and earth follow the inanimate laws that govern them and as a consequence all is well with them. If only we humans could act similarly.

Advanced Rashi: Rashi's first explanation poetically sees the heaven and earth as two witnesses who punish the accused if convicted (The heavens abstain from rain and the earth from produce). However heaven and earth have no cogitive ability or free will and hence cannot really act as witnesses. Rashi's second explanation correctly sees them as symbolic affirmations adjuring humans to follow their inanimate counterparts. We have therefore concentrated on Rashi's 2nd explanation.

Sermonic Points: We close this year's Weekly Rashi series with a gem of a story from the founder of Chasiduth. The founder of Chasiduth, the Ba'al Shem Tov, that is, the Person with a Good name, as he is affectionately none, was, in his youth, as a sexton, one day, sweeping the synagogue floors. All of a sudden he burst into tears: This lowly broom has fulfilled its maximum potential in existence and has merited to clean synagogue floors, but I, a human created in the image of the Supreme being, have not fulfilled my maximum potential. Of course, the Ba'al Shem Tov was simply echoing the above Rashi that sees Heaven and Earth as inanimate paradigms fulfilling the will of their Creator and contrasting it with human behavior.