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Their presence in Rashis on Parshath BeShaLaCh Volume 17, Number 21 This weeks Weekly Rashi with Hebrew/English source tables will be accessible, on Sunday, at http://www.Rashiyomi.com/rule1721.htm (c) RashiYomi Incorporated, Dr. Hendel, President, Feb 2 2012 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 Ex17-14a discussing the requirement to remember what Amalayk did to us states And the Lord said to Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book, and recite it in the ears of Joshua; for I will completely put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. Rashi notes that the underlined words, memorial references verses Dt25-17:19 discussing the commandment to remember what Amalayk did to us. Hence the Rashi comment The commandment to create a memorial mentioned in Ex17-14a references the commandment to remember Amalayk Dt25-17:19, which requires us to remember how a) Amalayk pounced on us right after we left Egypt, b) killed our weak people, c) and picked on us while we were weary.
Advanced Rashi: Rashi's main point is that both Ex and Dt use identical language: remember/memorial, blotting out Amalayk's name, etc. The further details in Rashi come from the interpretation of the Dt passage. These interpretations follow Rashi rules and are explained when we reach that Parshah.
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 Ex17-02a embeds the Rashi translation Nisayon challenge / doubt Therefore the people complained to Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said to them, Why do you fight with me? why do you challenge/doubt God?
In this example Rashi points out Moses (incorrectly) complained that the people were not asking God to meet needs under unusual circumstances but rather the people were doubting God by asking for water in the wilderness. We have identified the source of this Rashi as linguistic: Nisayon means challenge/doubt; it does not, like Nisah mean test,show performance. Note also that this Rashi can be defended grammatically. A terminal nun indicates extra intensity: So if NSh means test then NShyon would mean challenge/doubt.
One rule governing sentence structure is grammatical functional sequence. Most Hebrew sentences are stated in a Verb-Subject-Object sequence. Similarly many noun phrases are stated in Noun-Adjective sequence.
But the Biblical Masoretic text has a pausal line inserted. The verse actually reads And Moses built an altar and called its name God || our-miracle. One can actually see these vertical lines in printed Bibles. There are a variety of opinions on why these lines occur. One reason for some of these pausal lines is to indicate non-standard sentence sequence. Thus God our miracle without the line indicates an idiomatic phrase constituting a name. By contrast God || our miracle with the pausal line indicates God [is] our miracle. The pausal line hints at an elliptical verb for which we have to pause and add. The whole sentence then reads And Moses built an altar and called its name [on the fact that] God ||[is] our-miracle. In other words Rashi states The phrase God our miracle is not the actual name of the altar but rather the reason for the name or calling of the altar (Which is not given). We have further explained above that the driving force for this suggested difference - between an actual name God-our-miracle and the name reason God [is] our miracle - is indicated by the pausal line which indicates a missing verb, is, for which we have to pause and add.
The table below presents an aligned extract of verses in Ex15-05b:10, Ex15-07 Both verses discuss the death of the Egyptians. The alignment justifies the Rashi assertion that a) The righteous Egyptians died like a stone or lead weight sinking; They died immediately. b) However, the wicked Egyptians died like stubble bobbing up and down; they did not die immediately but had a slow death with ups and downs.
The table below presents two contradictory verses/verselets. Both verses speak about the manna. The underlined words highlight the contradiction. One verse/verselet says the manna was like a coriander seed [note, coriander seeds are not white] while the other verse/verselet says the manna was white. We see the contradiction Which is it? was the manna white or not? Rashi simply resolves this using the 2 Aspects method: The manna resembled the coriander seed in shape, not color. Unlike the coriander seed the manna was white. But the manna was flaky-shaped like the coriander seed.
Advanced Rashi: Note that Rashi cannot be fully understood without the non-verse real world fact that coriander seeds are not white. This uses Rashi rule #9, non-verse. Also note that Rashi literally says The coriander seed is circular. However I think a more accurate description of its shape is that it is flake-shaped. Since this is a diagramatic interpretation it is also classified as non-verse. Pictures will be presented below.
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.
Rashi sees the detail clause 7th day as describing attributes/examples of the general clause, day of Rest, Sabbath Rashi states: Any day of rest, which like the 7th day is an official holy day for God contains a prohibition of gathering Manna. The list of holy days may be found in Lv23, and includes a) Sabbath, b) Festivals, c) New Year, d) Yom Kippur.
We formerly classified paragraph and chapter development under the grammar rule. However we think it more proper to devote the grammar rule to the relation between meaning and form, for example how verb conjugational forms indicates meaning. As indicated above the formatting rule governs use of sequence to indicate climax and paragraph sequencing.
Advanced Rashi: We reject Rashi's first explanation that God is a man of war: God [fights with his] name. We reject this explanation since we find God fighting with other materials besides His Name. For example P011-06 describes God's fighting as Upon the wicked he shall rain coals, fire and brimstone, and a scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup. Thus we think Rashi's second explanation is truer. It also rings nicly - even though God fights and kills the Egyptians He is still the God of Mercy. Rashi in fact adds: Other kings when they fight, do not have time for economic and building matters. But God, even when he fights, has time for mercy.
We ask the following database query: Of the nations declaring war on the Jews what was unique about Amalayk. 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-Midrashic inference: Although many nations declared war on the Jews when they left Egypt, Amalayk was the first. It so to speak broke the ice. Therefore they were singled out for being remembered by God for destruction. The list below presents the results of the database query and shows examples.
Advanced Rashi: We explain the database inquiry. Many nations declared war. But Amalayk was first to declare war. Hence God singled them out. Of all nations declaring war only on Amalayk does it say in verse Ex17-14 And the Lord said to Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book, and recite it in the ears of Joshua; for I will completely put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.
The table below justifies the computation that the Jews ate Manna for 40 years less one month. For further inferernces on this verse see rule #6 above.
Verse Ex17-12c discussing Moses' prayers for t he Jewish people during the war with Amalayk states But MosesÆ hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat on it; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. The rules of symbolism, listed in the above article, require symbolic interpretation when a verse description is anomolous. Here Moses supporting his hand with a stone versus a pillow is anomolous. The rules of symbolism, listed in the above article, state that when symbolic interpretation is required, we interpret items by function, form, linguistic association, and Biblical assocaition. In this case Rashi uses the form of resting on a stone: Resting on a stone is painful. Moses abstained from resting on a pillow to symbolically affirm that he empathized with the suffering of the Jewish people. This empathy was a source of strength to them and encouraged their fighting. Even though Moses was an angel and did not need war he emphasized his empathy with the plight of the Jewish people.
Conclusion
This week's parshah contains examples of all methods. Visit the RashiYomi website at http://www.Rashiyomi.com for further details and examples. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||