The 10 RashiYomi Rules
Their presence in Rashis on Parshat Chayay Sarah
Vol 19#7 - Adapted from Rashi-is-Simple 
(c) RashiYomi Incorporated, Dr. Hendel President, Nov. 8th, 2012
For the full copyright statement see the Appendix

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GOALS
The goal of the Weekly Rashi Digest is to use the weekly Torah portion to expose students at all levels to the ten major methods of Rashi's commentary. Continual weekly exposure to these ten major methods facilitate the acquisition, familiarity, and facility with the major exegetical methods. This year, 2012-2013, we are concentrating on the grammar rule. We acknowledge benefitting from Dr. Isseroff's book, An Introduction to Rashi's Grammatical Explanations in the Book of Genesis, 1985, Published by the Torah Education Department of World Zionist Organization, MP Press Inc, ISBN 965-222-049-3. For a full  lightning statement of all Rashi rules see the Appendix.

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Proper vs. Improper Nouns: The vs a Sunday: Nov 11 2012

All languages distinguish between proper and improper nouns. 
•		A proper noun indicates a particular noun; 
•		An improper noun indicates a general category.

Considedr the following verse describing Eliezer's feelings and prayer upon journeying to a strange place to find a wife for Isaac and immediately seeing Rivkah's charitable  behavior: 
Gn24-07 states: Blessed be God, the Lord of my master Abraham....who has guided me in the path to the house of my master's brother.

Rashi comments on the choice of article indicated by the underlined word:: 
•	guided me in the path to the house of my master's brother vs.
•	guided me in a path to the house of my master's brother.

Rashi explains: The path connotes the perfect path without side roads or obstacles that gets me directly to my destination. Contrastively, a path would refer to a road that got him there albeit possibly with detours and obstacles.

If you like, Rashi here interprets the article the  as indicating the best and choicest.

As we go through the Bible and studies Rashi's commentary on articles we will in fact find 6 nuances to the article the.
 
New Grammar Monday: Nov 12 2012
 
As part of our weekly newsletter, we are excited to present not only Rashi's encyclopedic knowledge of grammar but also his capacity to discover new rules that are not in modern textbooks. Today's example is illustrative.

A variety of biblcial verses in several contexts discuss the age of death. Here is a repesentative list from people who lived more than hundred years.

•	2  and 10 years and 900 years (Gen. 5:8)
•	5 and 10  years and 800 years (Gen. 5:10)
•	2 and 60  years and 100 years (Gen. 5:18)
•	5 and 60 years years and 300 years (Gen. 5:23)
•	7  and 80 years and 100 years (Gen. 5:25)
•	2 and 80  years and 700 years (Gen. 5:26)
•	100 years 20 years and 7 years (Gen. 23:1)
Do you see the pattern and new grammatical rule? Do you see the exception? 
Rule: A three digit number, ABC, is indicated in biblical Hebrew by using the expression c and years and a hundred years. So for example, if a person was 782 years old when he died- so ABC = 782 with A=7, B=8, C=2  - the Bible says: When he was two and eighty years  and 700 years he died.
I have not found this rule in any modern textbook dealing with biblical Hebrew. Notice how Gen. 23:1 discussing Sarah's age at death violates the rule.  
•	It should say: Sarah lived 7 and 20 years and 100 years
•	Instead it says: Sarah lived 100 years, 20 years, and 7 years.
Rashi resolves this anomaly by concluding that the Bible is not discussing her age but the quality of her life. That is the numbers indicate qualities not ages and the verse should be translated: Sarah lived the 100-year life, the 20-year life and the 7-years life, the years of the life of Sarah. Sarah died in Kiryat Arbah..... Rashi in turn explains the 100 year life as indicating the quality of maturity, the 20 year life as indicating the quality of beauty and the 7 year life as indicating innocence.
We note in passing that many Rashi-ists use a different approach to this Rashi. They use a rule called omnisignificance which means that because the Bible was written by God each word is carefully calculated and any extra words are intended to be interpreted exegetically.  Since Gen. 23:1 repeats the word year three times when it could have said it once - Sarah lived 100, 20 and 7 years - the Bible intended the extra years exegetically.
But the omnisignificant folks don't explain the double use of years in the Genesis 5 chapter listed above. In other words omnisignificance is not consistently used by these Rashiists. On the other hand most of the deviations from the grammatical rule we presented above are commented on by Rashi. For example Gen. 25:7 describing Ishmael's age at death - 100 years and 70 years and 5 years - prompts a similar comment from Rashi so that e.g. the 5-year life refers to innocence, etc. 
It is for this reason that I prefer the gramamtical approach to Rashi outlined above. I, in fact, once heard from my teacher, Rabbi Joseph B. Solveitchick of blessed memory,  from whom I learned much of  my Rashi: If you want to understand Rashi, go to the placid waters of grammar and avoid the stormy sea ofphilosophy.
Verbs - Conjugations Tuesday: Nov 13 2012

Although this Rashi is a bit technical, addressing Hebrew conjugations, I will follow my usual custom of finding English equivalents. Additionally, even those fluent in Hebrew will find something new here.

Hebrew 
•	Consists of three-letter-roots. 
•	The roots are conjugated by adding letters before (prefixes) and after (suffixes) the root. 
•	Each conjugation is referred to as a Binyan (a construction). 
•	Each Binyan has its own characteristic meanings.

The hitpael construction adds a hey and tauv before the root letters. The hitpael construction is used to indicate doing things relative to the self. Here are some examples:
•	Pay-Lamed-Lamed (PaLeL) is a root meaning to judge; Hith-PaLeL is reflexive and means to judge oneself; this typically done through prayer when one acknowledges (judges) ones shortcomings and ask God for help.
•	Hay-Lamed-Caph (HaLach) is a root meaning to walk;  Hith-halech means to stroll or meander, to walk for oneself (not to go anyplace in particular but simply to walk for oneself).

However, when the first root letter is a shin, the hey and tauv are intermingled before and after the root letter. Here is a simple example from the biblical root shin-mem-resh, which means to watch or to guard, and in hitpael means to watch oneself or to guard onself, for example, to avoid something. The hitpael conjugation of shin-mem-resh is not hey-tauv-shin-mem-resh but rather hey-shin-tauv-mem-resh. Here the hey comes prior to the root letter shin while the tauv comes after the root letter tauv.

We can summarize these examples with the following table.
Pay-lamed-lamed	to judge  	becomes 	Hey-tauv-pay-lamed-lamed 	to judge oneself
Hey-lamed-Caph 	to walk 	becomes 	Hey-tauv-hey-lamed-caph 	to meander, to walk for oneself
------------------- 	--------	----------	-------------------------------	-----------------------------------
Shin-mem-Resh 	to guard 	becomes 	Hey-shin-tauv-mem-resh 	to avoid, to watch onself
Shin-Aleph-Hey 	broken 	becomes 	Hey-shin-tauv-mem-resh 	shocked (breakage of the self)
Shin-Mem-Mem, 	broken 	becomes 	Hey-shin-tauv-mem-mem 	shocked(breakage of the self).

We can make several interesting points about these examples.
•	We see how the hithpael conjugation indicates activity relative to oneself
•	We see how the hithpael conjugation is characterized by a hey and tauv
•	We see how the hey and tauv usually both precede the root letters but
•	We see that before a root beginning with shin, only the hey precedes.

Another point to emphasize here is that Rashi lived prior to the age of Hebrew textbooks. There were only a handful of grammar textbooks and these were written for scholars not for students. We can see Rashi's pedagogical mastery of teaching: Rashi indicates both the general rule and exception and like modern textbooks provides examples (The examples with initial shin letters are all given in the Rashi text itself).

Another point to emphasize is that the above list does not exhaust all rules of the hitpael conjugation. For example the hitpael conjugation of daleth-beth-resh is hey-daleth-beth-resh (hiddaber). Similarly the hitpael conjugation of nun-beth-aleph is hey-nun-beth-aleph (hinnavay). 

I frequently emphasize when I teach Rashi that Rashi does not always give the whole story. Rather Rashi begins the story; Rashi expects the teacher to supplement his comments with other examples for the students. In other words, it is wrong to approach Rashi the way say one approaches the Rambam, as a complete work. Rather Rashi intended that his work be considered incomplete to be supplemented by the teacher.

A final point to consider is that even good students of Hebrew may not know all rules of the hitpael conjugation. Thus Rashi addresses both scholar and student.

Verbs - Conjugations Wednesday: Nov 14 2012

Although this Rashi is a bit technical, addressing Hebrew conjugations, I will follow my usual custom of finding English equivalents. Additionally, even those fluent in Hebrew will find something new here.

Hebrew 
•	Consists of three-letter-roots. 
•	The roots are conjugated by adding letters before (prefixes) and after (suffixes) the root. 
•	Each conjugation is referred to as a Binyan (a construction). 
•	Each Binyan has its own characteristic meanings.

Very often the difference between an advanced and a good beginning student is that the good beginning student may know a way of how to do something while the advanced student knows several ways of doing something. In other words the advanced student is characterized by knowledge of multiplicity of approaches. The following verse and Rashi are illustrative.

(Gn24-64) [Background: Eliezer went to acquire Rivkah as a wife for  Isaac. Rivkah accompanies Eliezer back to meet Isaac. Upon seeing him] She took the scarf and covered herself.  

In the previous article in this issue we have discussed how the hitpael conjugation indicates activity relative to the self. So covered oneself would require a Hitpael conjugation. In this case most students would expect the textbook Tauv-Tauv-Kaph-Sin-Hey, with Kaph-Sin-Hey (kissah) meaning to cover, and tauv-tauv-kaph-sin-hey meaning to cover oneself, indicated by the hitpael conjugation, in turn indicated by the prefix tauv-tauv.

However the actual verse says tauv-tauv-kaph-sin not tauv-tauv-kaph-sin-hey. In other words the verse uses an abbreviated or truncated form (without the terminal hey). Such an abbreviation is call acopation. It frequently occurs as an alternative conjugation at the end of verses. 

Another example (also explained by Rashi) occurs at Gen. 9:21. Noah who had just become drunk, uncovers himself in his tent (from drunkedness). We recognize the uncovering of oneself as requiring a hitpael conjugation. The Hebrew root for uncovering is gimel-lamed-hey.  We would therefore expect that the uncovering of oneself is yud-tauv-gimel-lamed-lamed with the characteristic prefix yud-tauv for hitpael. Instead,Gen. 9:21 uses the acopated yud-tauv-gimel-lamed without the terminal hey.

Again, as in the previous article, we see how Rashi uses his commentary to provide a grammar textbook for students teaching them the basic rules of conjugation.
 
Verbs - Active and Passive Voice Thursday: Nov 15 2012: 
 
All languages have the capacity to express concepts in the active or passive voice. Here are some simple examples in English.
•	Active: I ate the apple
•	Passive: The apple was eaten by me.
Both these sentences describe identical scenes. They however differ in style. 

Style conveys extra nuances of meaning. A skilled author can use style to indicate things not explictly stated in the text  There is no one set of rules for style. As we go through the year we will tune our ears to the various nuance implicit in use of active and passive. We present below a Rashi on today's Parshah.

Example: Gn25-21
[Background: Rivkah could not give birth. Isaac, her husband, prayed for her to become pregnant.]
•	Isaac intensified [prayer] to God
•	....
•	because she was barren
•	God was intensified to him 
•	Rivkah became pregnant.
 
For convenience, I have underlined the verbs. Rashi makes several comments on these underlined words.
•	The biblical root Ayin-Tauv-Resh usually indicates intensity. The following two verses illustrate this- (Ez. 8:11) The intense incense cloud - Prov. 27:6-7, Open rebuke is better than hidden love. [Consequently] The [verbal] wounds of a friend are trustworthy while the kisses of an enemy are excessive [intense]. However, when Ayin-Tauv-Resh occurs by itself without any explicit verb it refers to prayer. Hence Isaac intensefied means Isaac intensified prayer. I have indicated this comment of Rashi with the parenthetical insert intensified [prayer].
•	The same verse uses the active voice (Kal) when Isaac prays to God but uses the passive voice (Nifal) when describing God's response. We have captured these nuances with English equivalents: Intensified and was intensified.
•	Finally Rashi explains what the passive of intensified prayer means: It means acquiescence and acceptance of a prayer: Hence the construction God was intensified to Isaac.

English translations typically bypass these comments and translate
•	Isaac prayed to God
•	....
•	because she was barren
•	and God listened to Isaac
Such a translation using prayed and listened omits important nuances showing a dialogue aspect (intensefied - was intensified) between God and Isaac (Isaac requests and God responds). For this reason, we have translated the verse literally with the phrases intensified and was intensified even though these expressions are a bit awkward to an English speaker.

APPENDIX
THE 10 RASHI RULE CATEGORIES / THE 30 RASHI RULES
Copyright 2001, Rashiyomi Inc., Dr Hendel President, www.Rashiyomi.com/rules-01.htm
NOTE ON COPYRIGHTS:
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======================================================== 
I-REFERENCE: Dt26-05d We went down to Egypt with a few people explained by Gn46-27: with 70 people
======================================================== 
II-MEANING / Lexicography / Dictionary:  EXAMPLE (Connectives) KI means IF,PERHAPS,RATHER,BECAUSE,WHEN,THAT (Rashi on Gn18-15a Gn24-33a  ) EXAMPLE (Nuances): YDA means FAMILIAR, not KNOW (eg Dt34-10a) eg Gn04-01 Adam was FAMILIAR with his wife EXAMPLE (Idioms) ON THE FACE OF means DURING THE LIFETIME (Rashi on Nu03-04a Gn11-28a Ex20-03c Dt05-07a) EXAMPLE (Synonyms) Marchesheth means  pot; Machavath means frying pan (Lv02-05a, 07a) EXAMPLE (Hononyms) SHAMAH can mean listen, hear, understand: (Gn42-23a) They didn't appreciate that Joseph understood them (Note: They knew he was listening) EXAMPLE (Metonomy) (Lv02-11a) Don't offer ...any honey as sacrifices RASHI: honey includes any sweet fruit juice
=========================================================
III-GRAMMAR:  EXAMPLE: BA-ah means CAME;ba-AH means COMING(Gn46-26a) 
EXAMPLE: Hitpael conjugation has different rules if 1st root letter is Tzade (Gn44-16a) 
===============================================================
IV-PARALLELISM: (Ex20-04) Dont POSSESS the gods of others Dont MAKE idols RASHI: So both POSSESSion & MAKING of idols are prohibited
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V-CONTRADICTION: (Nu04-03, Nu08-24a)Levites start Temple work at 25;  Levites start temple work at 30. RASHI: They apprentice at 25 but start actual service at 30.
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VI-STYLE: RABBI ISHMAEL RULES: EXAMPLE: (Simple verses should be generalized): (Rashi Pesachim 6) (Dt25-04a) Dont MUZZLE an OX while THRESHING RASHI: Dont STOP any WORKING ANIMAL from eating  
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VII-FORMATTING:  EXAMPLE (BOLD indicated by Repetition): Ex12-09c) COOK COOK it in water (So COOKED-COOKED is understood the same way bold is understood by modern reader) RASHI: Prefered to COOK it in water; But COOK it at all costs(Even if you dont have water) EXAMPLE: (BULLETS indicated by Repeating keywords) (Ex03-11a) Who am I - THAT I should go to Pharaoh - THAT I should take the Jews out of Egypt  RASHI: Repeated word THAT creates BULLET effect - Pharoh was a difficult king (Bullet one) - Jews were not yet ready for freedom (Bullet two) EXAMPLE (Climax assumed in any Biblical list): (Dt19-11a) If a man HATES, SPIES, CONFRONTS & KILLS. RASHI: Bible identifies 4 stages to murder(indicated by capped words
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VIII-DATABASE: EXAMPLE: God spoke to Moses to say over introduces about 7 dozen biblical commandments; God spoke to Aaron to say over only introduces 2 commandments. RASHI: (Lv10-03b) Aaron was silent when his sons died because they served in the Temple drunk; hence he merited that the commandment prohibiting priests to work in the Temple drunk, was given to him
==============================================================  
IX-NON VERSE: EXAMPLE: (Use of Algebra)(Ex38-26b) Temple donations of silver were 100 Kikar and 1775 Shekel from 630,550 half-shekels RASHI: So one Kikar of silver = 3000 Shekel.
================================================================= 
X: SYMBOLISM: EXAMPLE: (Use of puns) (NuXX-XX) Moses made a copper snake for people to look up to when bitten by snakes (so they should pray and recover) RASHI: (Nu21-09a) The Hebrew root for copper and snake are identical (Cf. The English copperhead) Moses  made the metal snake copper colored to symbolize the snake