The 10 RashiYomi Rules
Their presence in Rashis on Parshat VaYeChi-Shemoth
Vol 19#15 - Adapted from Rashi-is-Simple 
(c) RashiYomi Incorporated, Dr. Hendel President, Jan. 3rd, 2013
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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.

NEW: Starting with Shemoth we will be listing references, secular articles on grammar that enhance the Rashi experience.  NEW

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Verbs DAILY RASHI: Sunday Jan 6 2013  

 What is the difference between the following English sentences.
•	Positive Meaning:  During an argument about a pen I give up and tell the person I am arguing with, "OK, take it," and hand him the pen.
•	Negating the opposite Meaning: During an argument arising after someone borrowed and then kept my pen, I give up and tell the person I am arguing with, "OK, take it. 

The above underlined sentences are identical in words, but differ in meaning.
•	In the first positive meaning sentence, the word take has its ordinary meaning of taking something.
•	But in the 2nd negating the opposite meaning sentence, the pen was already taken from me. Hence my statement "OK take it" means "OK keep it." The relation between take and keep is that keep means you do not have to give it back. In other words in the second sentence take negates (indicated by the underlined word not) the need to do the opposite of taking, that is, to give back (here, giving has the opposite meaning of taking).

This concept that in biblical Hebrew a word can also mean the negative of its opposite meaning is a very useful technique that can shed light on many biblical verses. The article by Gordis, below presents 2 dozen examples of difficult biblical passages that can be explained using this principle. During the yearly cycle we hope to show that Rashi knew and applied this principle. Below find an example.

Example 1: Ex01-17
Biblical text: The midwives feared God and therefore didn't do as the King of Egpt spoke to them but rather they let the children live.
Rashi (paraphased) : The Hebrew root used, ChaYaH, Ceth-Yud-Hey, means to live or in the causative tense to give life. In this sentence it means the negation of its opposite: The midwives did not kill the babies, but rather let them live.

Rashi makes two additional points:
1) Rashi points out that the 2nd and 3rd person female future plurals have identical conjugations (even though there are two potential meanings corresponding to the 2nd and 3rd person, they let live, you let live.
2) Rashi suggests that the midwives didn't just act passively by not killing them but rather actively gave the children necessary food and water.

REFERENCES

Robert Gordis, Journal of Biblical Literature, Vol. 52, No. 2/3 (Jun. - Sep., 1933), pp. 153-162 

Verb Connectives DAILY RASHI: Monday Jan 7 2013

Most people know that the meaning of Hebrew verbs are determined by their 3-letter roots. For example the basic Hebrew root, Shin-Mem-Resh, means to watch. So for example, ShaMaRti means I watched, while, yiShMoR means he will watch.

People are aware that the different modes of the verb (binyanim) can change meaning. For example,
•	the Qal mode of the root Beth-Vav-Aleph means to come
•	the Hifil mode (causative mode) means to bring (to cause something else to come).
 
Here the two concepts - come, bring -  
•	have the same verbal Hebrew roots  but
•	have different English roots.

In a similar manner
•	just as verbal modes can change a root meaning
•	so too the same root with differing prepositional or adverbial connectives can change meaning.

Many people however are not aware that the prepositional connective that follows a verb may determine its meaning. As we go through the weekly Parshah cycle we will examine examples of this phenomenon. This phenomenon happens in English also. See the discussion at the end.

Example 1 Gn50-16
Compare the following two sentences
•	They commanded Joseph ...as follows: Your father commanded: Forgive your brothers
•	They commanded to Joseph ...as follows: Your father commanded: Forgive your brothers

Rashi: Command to refers to a command sent by a delegate or messenger. 

Such a sending shows distance from and respect for the authority and feelings of the person being commanded.

Example 2: Ex09-02
Biblical Text: [Background: Moses is talking to Pharoh in the name of God and demaning the release of the Jewish people. He continues with a threat.]
For if you refuse to let my people go and continue to hold them.
Rashi: The Hebrew root Cheth-Zayin-Kuph, 
•	ordinarily means to be strong
•	but when followed by the preposition beth means hold or grab.

Rashi proceeds to cite other verses illustrating this concept.

REFERENCES

In English we distinguish between prepositional and phrasal verbs. Like in Hebrew these verbs can change meaning because of the preposition or adverb following them. Some simple examples are 
•	 put off the party (postpone the party), 
•	bring up an issue (mention an issue), 
•	turn down a gift (refuse the gift).

Here the verb-adverb pairs, put-off, bring-up, and turn-down have meanings totally different than the singleton verbs put, bring and turn.

This idea was first proposed by
[1] T. F.Mitchell, "Syntagmatic relations in linguistic analysis", Transactions of the Philological Society (1958), pp. 101-18, esp. 103-6. 

For a more detailed description see
[2] A.P. Cowie and R. Mackin, Oxford dictionary of current idiomatic English. Vol. 1: Verbs with prepositions and particles (London, 1975) 

For applications to interpreting difficult biblical verses (by reinterpreting the verb-preposition or verb-adverb pair) see

[3] T. Muraoka, "On Verb Complementation in Biblical HebrewAuthor(s)",  Vetus Testamentum, Vol. 29, Fasc. 4 (Oct., 1979), pp. 425-435 

Rabbi Ishmael Style Rules  DAILY RASHI: Tuesday Jan 8 2013

Consider the following verses and Rashi comments. They all illustrate a rule of style.

Example 1: Nu05-12:13
Biblical Text: 
If a man's wife goes astray and trespasses him and (another) man sleeps with her
Rashi: The first underlined words (astray and trespasses) is a general term while the last underlined word (sleeps) is specific and indicates how she trespassed, by committing adultery.

Example 2: Dt06-05:06
Biblical Text:
Love God your Lord with all your passions...these words should be memorized
Rashi: The first underlined word (love) is a general term while the last underlined word (memorized) is specific and indicates how loving God takes place, through memorizing God's law.

Example 3: Ex01-20:21
Biblical Text: God was nice to the midwives...because they feared God, He established for them a social standing.
Rashi: The first underlined word (nice) is a general term while the last underlined word (established a name) is specific and indicates how God was nice to them, by creating established social standings.

In each case the Bible indicated something by first stating a very general category and then narrowing in and restricting the category to something very specific. For example, there are many ways a woman can trespass her husband: she might insult him in public, or have physical relationship but not full intimacy with another man. The bible uses a general-specific style to indicate that the law only applies when she is suspected of adultery. However, if she did something less than adultery the law does not apply.

The astute reader may ask: "Why doesn't the bible just state,'If a woman commits adultery'; why does the bible use the general-specific style? The answer is simple and will be discussed in future issues.

In this introductory posting we want the reader to focus on the idea of a biblical style. The bible indicates ideas by presenting general and specific categories in a specific order. The general-specific order indicates that the paragraph content exclusively applies to the specific situation: So the adultery laws in Numbers 5 only apply if the woman actually committed adultery; so too the statement that God was nice to the midwives simply means he established for them social standings.

REFERENCES

The more experienced readers will no doubt recognize this literary principle as none other than the Rabbi Ishmael Style rule of General-Particular (Kelal and Perat). We argue that this rule, besides being a Sinaitic tradition applicable to legal situations, is also a rule of style applicable to aggadah. See my article below for further details. 

Russell Jay Hendel, "Biblical Formatting,"   Jewish Bible Quarterly, Vol 35, #1, pp 17 - 27: 2007

Rashi's Near-Miss Method DAILY RASHI: Wednesday Jan 9 2013
 
Rashi lived before Grammar Textbooks, as we know them today, were available. 
•	Today you can purchase many types of Grammar books. Using these books you can learn all about verbs, their conjugations, plurality, gender and pronomial suffixes.
•	In Rashi’s time such books were rare. Furthermore, the few grammar books that did exist were not written in a student friendly manner that facilitated learning.
Hence, one of Rashi’s primary jobs in his commentary was to teach grammar. 

Rashi used an ingenious pedagogic technique, the method of near misses, to teach grammar. Basically the near-miss method requires the teacher to teach grammar, not using tables, as is currently done in modern grammar textbooks, but rather, using grammatical pairs which are identical in almost all features except one or two. Rashi then teaches the difference in meaning between these two items. I call this method the near miss method since the two forms almost equal each other and nearly miss equality. The term near miss is borrowed from the computer science artificial intelligence literature. The near miss method is a powerful method and I am surprised it is not used in more textbooks.

There is a beautiful double near miss example in today's parshah.

Example 1: Ex01-20
Biblical Text:  God caused the midwives to be good 

The verb to cause to be good ( and God caused the midwives to be good)
•		Root: Yud-Tet-Beth
•		Mode: Is in causative (hifil) mode (God caused them to be good)
•		Parameters: It refers to a 3rd person, male, singular (God, He caused good)
•		Punctuation: The Yud receives a Tzaray, The Beth Receives a segol
•		Written: There are two yuds; one for future and one for the root Yud
•		Summary: VaYayTev

The verb to take a Journey (e.g. Gn12-04, Abraham journeyed....)
•		Root: Yud-Lamed-Caph
•		Mode: Is in active (Qual) mode (Abraham journeyed)
•		Parameters: It refers to a 3rd person, male, singular  (Abraham, he journeyed)
•		Punctuation: The Yud receives a Tzaray, The Beth Receives a segol
•		Written: There is one yud 
•		Summary: VaYayLech

The verb to turn (e.g. Ex02-13, Moses turned here and there and then killed the person)
•		Root: Pay-Nun-Hey
•		Mode: Is is Active (Qual) mode (Moses turned)
•		Parameters: It refers to a 3rd person, male singular (Moses turned)
•		Punctuation: The yud (indicating future) receives a Chirik, the pay receives a segol
•		Written: There is one yud 
•		Summary: VaYeePhen.

Discussion: Here are the three conjugations
•	VaYayytev - he caused them to be good
•	VaYayLech- he journeyed
•	VaYeePhen- he turned

Rashi explains
•	Ordinary 3rd person, male singular is punctuated with Chirik-Segol and one yud
•	3rd person male singular with a root beginning with yud is punctuated Tzaray-Segol and one yud
•	3rd person male singular causative with a root beginning with yud is Tzaray-Segol with two yuds

One can easily see all the possible confusions. By using the near miss method Rashi clarifies. Those studying Modern Grammar books may still miss these subtleties because the grammar books are centered on tables whereas Rashi centers on near misses.

(More can be said: For example there is an alternative conjugation VaYoResh. The form VaYayTev is rare (it occurs three times in the bible). However the above should suffice for now).

 Verbs - Conjugation DAILY RASHI: Thursday Jan 10 2013

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 interactive activity. Here are some examples:
•	Gn34-09 [Chamor, negotiating a deal with Jacob to unit with him] And we will (interactively) marry: your daughters we will take for ourselves, and our daughters you can take for yourselves
•	Ex08-04 [Moses bragging about God's power to Pharoh] Moses said to Pharoh: Interactively glorify [God] by me: Name the time when I should pray for you your servants and maids, to remove the frogs from you and your house...and he[Pharoh] said, 'Tomorrow'; and Moses said 'As you stated [so shall it be] in order that you know that there is none like our God
•	Gn37-18 [Background: Joseph was coming to his brothers who happened to hate him because of his dreams] They [Joseph's brothers] saw him from afar and interactively plotted against him in order to kill him [Here the intent is that when Joseph came to them they started an interrogation (presumably about his dreams); the interrogation was not investigative but provocative in order for them to justify (in their minds) executing him.]
•	Ex08-02 [Background: Pharoh had acknowledged God's presence at the 2nd plague of frogs and asks Moses to pray to God to remove them. Moses responds] Moses says to Pharoh: 'Challenge me' - name the time that I should pray to remove the frogs....and he [Pharoh] said, "Tomorrow"; and he [Moses] said 'So it will be in order that you know that there is none like our God.

Rashi points out that the Hebrew word which we have translated challenge is in fact the hitpael conjugation of the root Pay-Aleph-Resh, to adorn, glorify. Using our interpretation of Hitpael as interactive we would translate challenge as interactive glorification; in other words, Pharoh supplies when he would like to see this happen so that Moses can glorify the event by interacting with Pharoh's request.

Rashi makes a further point about the prepositional phrase used with the interactive hitpael mode
•	If the interactive activity is shared, one would use prepositional connectives meaning with
•	If the interacative activity is one-sided, one uses a prepositional connective connoting objects.

Examples: 
Gn34-09 (Above)
•	Chamor speaks about marrying of them (hithchatnu othanu) instead of the more shared 
•	marrying with them (hithchatnu emanu)

Gn37-18 (Above)
Similarly, since Joseph's brothers were not interested in the truth, the verse uses the objective case 
•	They plotted on him (Vayithnaclu otho) instead of the shared 
•	They plotted with him (Vayithnaclue ito) which e.g. would be appropriate if they really wanted to find out what his views were (instead of making up their minds before hand (In such a case another verb would have been used)
 
REFERENCES

A standard classical reference work on Hebrew grammar is Gesenius' grammer. There is an entire chapter devoted to hitpael and its half dozen meanings. In elementary school we teach that it means reflexive; this is one of its meanings but there are others.

[1] W. Gesenius, (T.J Conant translator, Corrections  and additions by E. Rodiger)
"Hebrew Grammar, 17th edition," D Appleton and Company, NY: 1875 Chapter 54

 
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
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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) 
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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
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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