The 10 RashiYomi Rules
Their presence in Rashis on Parshat Tezaveh-KiTissah
Vol 19#21 - Adapted from Rashi-is-Simple 
(c) RashiYomi Incorporated, Dr. Hendel President, Feb. 21th, 2013
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GOALS
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Connective words - Zeh - This - Daily Rashi Sunday Feb 25 2013 

Every language has connective words which can connect two sentences or connect nouns with the adjectival phrases modifying them. Some common examples of connective words in English are because, and, or, if-then, from, when, ....

A beautiful discovery by Rashi, following the researchers of the Midrash, is that in biblical Hebrew, each connective word has multiple meanings, sometimes as many as half a dozen meanings. The most famous example points out that the biblical Hebrew word ki, can have any of the following six meanings! rather, perhaps, because, when, if-then, that. As several Rashi researchers have pointed out, this  principle of multiple meanings applies not only to ki, but generally applies to all connective words and prefixes. 

So biblical Hebrew is unlike English:
•	English is user friendly; the speaker explicitly by choice of words tells the listener exactlly what the speaker intends to say
•	Contrastively, in Hebrew, the speaker and listener share the discovery of meaning: The speaker says something, but the listener has a choice of meanings.

Perhaps the reason for biblical Hebrew in doing this is that by the listener participating with the speaker in identifying meaning the listening experience is intensified, facilitating retention of communication.

A consequence of this principle is that connective words do not necessarily have one meaning. In fact, the same prepositional connective can have opposite meanings - like to and from. 

Example: 
Ex30-13 [God speaking to Moses about the half dollar tax] This they will give,
half a shekel in Temple shekels...

Rashi: The pronoun this is exclusively used to refer to something present.
Hence whenever the bible uses the word this as used in a prophetic revelation,
we infer that God showed a fire image of the object. 

This type of prophetic reveleation shows God as teacher engaged in pedagogy.

As we go through the yearly cycle we will see identical treatments of this.

REFERENCES

The following are some references on the interchageability of specific connectives. There are many more

Esra Shereshevsky, The Use of Prepositions and Conjunctions in Rashi's Commentary,  The Jewish Quarterly Review, New Series, Vol. 57, No. 3 (Jan., 1967), pp. 200-211  

Nahum M. Sarna, The Interchange of the Prepositions Beth and Min in Biblical Hebrew, Journal of Biblical Literature, Vol. 78, No. 4 (Dec., 1959), pp. 310-316 

Verb Connectives Daily Rashi Monday Tuesday Feb 26 Feb 27 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.

Rashi lived before the modern era where there are many verb conjugation books. Rashi's job was to alert people to 
•	rare and
•	alternate 
conjugations.

Example 1: Lamed  Kuph Cheth
The command form of the root Lamed-Kuph-Cheth is leqax.
An alternate form is qax without the initial lamed.
The initial lamed falls off because it is a weak letter.

Homework
•	Qax is the more frequent form; it occurs about 5 dozen times in the bible
•	LeQax only occurs 2 times in the Bible.

Check out the following verses for examples:
•	Ex20-16 Ex29-01 2
•	Gn06-21 Gn12-19 Gn14-21 Gn22-02

Example 2: Resh-Vav-Mem
•	The root Resh-vav-mem means to raise.
•	The passive causaative form (Hofal) refers to a raised object (something that was raised).

The Hofal is 
•	normally indicated with an initial Komatz  (oh sound)
•	is indicated with an initial Shuruk (oo sound) before a weak root like Resh-Vav-Mem that has a vowel middle letter (vav).

Homework
Compare the passive causative in the following verses
•	Ex29-27b
•	Lv26-35

There are many more rules for formation of the Hofal, the passive causative.

One Character Suffixes Daily Rashi Wednesday Feb 28 2013

In our weekly Rashi on Bereishith we saw that the addition of one character at the end of a sentence changes the meaning of that sentence from a statement to a question. Here is an example. 
•	"You walked to the store in the rain."
•	"You walked to the store in the rain?"

A very important exegetical point is being made here: Skeptics tend to ridicule inference of meaning from one letter or character as being far fetched and homiletic. But we see in the just-mentioned English example that certain rules of grammar naturally motivate meaning differences based on one-character. The important issue therefore, is not how many characters drive the exegesis but rather the grammaticity of the inference.

Several other examples of grammatical change in meaning based on one character were also presented in the Bereishith digest:
•	The difference between a proper and improper noun is indicated in English by the word the, but is indicated in Hebrew by the prefix letter hey.
•	The difference between plural and singular in both English and Hebrew is indicated by a one character suffix, s, in English (in Hebrew it is indicated by a two-character suffix).

As indicated in a past issue, in biblical Hebrew, the question is indicated not by a character - a question mark - at the end of the sentence, but rather by a letter - hey - at the beginning of the sentence. By prefixing the hey to the first word in the sentence the sentennce becomes a question rather than a statement.

Today we have a similar one-character rule: 
A suffix hey indicates a feminine form of a noun. A feminine form of a noun could indicate 
•	a weaker form of the noun or  
•	a receptive form of the noun. 
As we go through the yearly cycle we will have occasion to examine several examples of this principle.

Example 1:
Tzedeck means justice
Tzedakah means charity
Both justice and charity are something deserved. However justice is something legally deserved while charity simply denotes deserved.

Example 2:
Aysh means fire
Isheh means baked, cooked or roasted, that is a fire that is receptive or fueled by some edible object which in turn gets cooked. (Rashi: Ex29-18)

Verbs   Daily Rashi Thursday Feb 29 2013

 What is the difference between the following English sentences.
•	I ate the apple.
•	I am eating the apple.
•	I eat apples
•	I will eat the apple.
•	I had eaten the apple.

The above sentences show a difference in both
•	Form and
•	Meaning. 

The differences in form, actually the form of the verb, is indicated by the underline. The sentences differ in when the apple was eaten, that is, at what time relative to the present moment was the apple eaten.
•	Past: I ate the apple.
•	Present: I am eating the apple.
•	Habitual Present: I eat apples
•	Future: I will eat the apple.
•	Past Perfect: I had eaten the apple.

We refer to the time when a verb or activity was done as the tense of the verb. For example, a past tense means the activity was done formerly, that is, in the past.

But what is the difference between
•	Present: I am eating the apple.
•	Habitual Present: I eat apples?

The difference is as follows:
•	The present refers to a one-time activity being done now;  
•	The habitual present refers to a habit of mine - for example, it might mean that I eat apples instead of oranges for breakfast. Or it might mean that when I snack I eat apples. It refers to an activity that periodically recurs. This activity refers to things done in both the past, present and future. We call it the habitual present because a habit is a prototype of something done in the past, present and future.

Notice how in English each tense has its own distinct form corresponding to that meaning. English is a rich language with 14 tenses. We refer to the form of a verb as its conjugation. 

So a grammarian would say that in English each tense has its own distinct conjugation by which the grammarian would mean that for each intention of meaning - past, present, future, etc. - there is one specific form that you should use.

By contrast, Hebrew only has 2 conjugational forms: the past and future conjugation. When speaking biblical Hebrew one has to use these conjugations not for one meaning but for many possible meanings.

Rashi in several places teaches us that the future conjugation can be used 
•	To indicate a meaning of future activity, or
•	To indicate a meaning of a present habitual activity.
Similarly, Rashi in several places teaches us that the past conjugation can be used 
•	To indicate a meaning of past activity, or
•	To indicate a meaning of a present habitual activity.

Rashi further explains: A habitual present refers to possible activities in both the past and future and consequently either the past or future conjugation can be used to indicate it.

This can be confusing, especially to an English reader, since the reader must figure out himself what the author intended. There is no one-to-one correspondence between meaning and form. But that is the way the Hebrew language is.

It is interesting that this multi-use of conjugations is often not taught in Hebrew Grades chools and university Hebrew courses. Thus even those proficient in Hebrew grammar may not be aware of this principle.

In order to understand this important principle we list several examples from the current and other Parshahs. In these examples we have underlined the translation of the literal future conjugation which is parenthetically inserted; the actual translation follows Rashi using a habitual present. In the first example we explain the Rashi in detail while in the other examples we suffice with the translation.

Example 1: (Gn18-19)
For I [God] will let him [Abraham] know in order that he commands [literally, he will command ] his children after him, [so that] they will guard the way of God to do justice and charity.

The Hebrew Ye-Tza-Veh, has the form of the future conjugation. Hence the translations improperly translate this as he will command  with a future meaning.

Not so! The intent of the sentence is not a one-time command but rather an ongoing parent-child relationship. It really refers to a habit of teaching rather than a one-time future activity. Here the future conjugation means and refers to the habitual present. To capture this nuance we would translate the verse as follows: For I [God] will let him [Abraham] know in order that he commands his children after him, [so that] they will guard the way of God to do justice and charity.

Example 2: (Gn29-02)
And he [Jacob] looked, and saw a well in the field, and, lo, there were three flocks of sheep lying by it; for from that well they watered [literally: they will water ] the flocks; and a great stone was upon the well’s mouth.

Example 3,4: (Gn29-03)
And all the flocks gather there [literally gathered there]; [so that] they [can] roll [literally: so that they rolled] the stone from the well’s mouth, and water [literally: watered] the sheep, and put the stone again upon the well’s mouth in his place.

Examples 5,6 (Ex19-15:16)
When they [the Jewish people] will have an issue [a legal matter that needs resolution], he [the litigant] came to me 

I have translated the above sentence according to the Hebrew conjugations used. (the underlined future and past words) Here is the same sentence with identical meaning translated not according to biblical usage but rather according to proper English usage.

When they [the Jewish people]  have an issue [a legal matter that needs resolution], he [the litigant] comes to me 

The technical description here the conditional habitual present. The activity in the verse
•	Is not something that occurred at one point in the past or future
•	Is not something that occurs frequently but rather
•	Is something - coming to Moses - that happens when there is a legal issue.

Although the Rashi is technical, even experienced users of Hebrew may not notice the fluctuating future and past conjugations. This is simply a matter of style. By translating into proper English we capture the meaning of the verse and Rashi's contribution.

Examples 7 (Ex33-07)
When they [the Jewish people] will have an issue [a legal matter that needs resolution], he [the litigant] came to me 

And Moses will take the tent and plant it outside the campground;...
so that any seeker of God will go to the Tent outside the camp

I have translated the above sentence according to the Hebrew conjugations used. (the underlined future and past words) Here is the same sentence with identical meaning translated not according to biblical usage but rather according to proper English usage.

And Moses takes the tent and plants it outside the campground;...
so that any seeker of God goes to the Tent outside the camp 
 
APPENDIX
THE 10 RASHI RULE CATEGORIES / THE 30 RASHI RULES
Copyright 2001, Rashiyomi Inc., Dr Hendel President, www.Rashiyomi.com/rules-01.htm
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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
===============================================================
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.
==============================================================
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  
==============================================================  
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
==============================================================  
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