Rashi
Jarchi or Rashi
Jarchi or Rashi was a prominent Jewish biblical commentator on the Torah and biblical texts in France who lived from 1040 to 1105.
Gates of Sodom
Genesis 19 in reference to Lot at the gate of Sodom relates that some the Jews say there were five judges appointed by the "men of Sodom", and suggest that Lot was the chief justice of that world of Sodom. Others will say this contradicts Genesis 19:9.
War with the Amalech
Exodus 17 V8 "Then came Amalek"[1] The ancient enemy of the Israelites, who lives on as a metaphor for scoffing and doubt. A traditional commentator Rashi states concerning Amalek: "He came before all of them to make war with Israel".
The lash and the guilty
Deuteronomy 25 The next verse[2] seems to say that someone should be made to lie down and be beaten. Is that actually what God wanted the people to do to each other when there is simply a "controversy" and commonly translated cause, strife, controversy, even just plead, contend or debate?[3]
The phrase "shall cause him to lie down" is from the root word naphal [4] or NunPeiLamed but only appears once in this form as wə·hip·pî·lōw וְהִפִּיל֤וֹ or VavHeyPeiYodLamedVav
The phrase "to be beaten" is translated from the Hebrew word NunKafHey ^הכנ^ nakah[5] which appear some 500 times in the Bible in some 50 different forms. Here we see the word HeyKafVavTav hak-kō-wṯ הַכּ֖וֹת in the text which is considerably different than NunKafHey and only appears 4 times in the Old Testament.
The Jewish Bible translates the verses differently.[6] and the Rashi commentaries talk about Scripture teaches us, “and it shall be, if the guilty one has incurred [the penalty] of lashes…”.
But is this more of the vengeful heart of men falsely interpreting through sophistry the metaphor of the Hebrew language as seen with the Altars of Clay and Stone and the true nature of stoning?
Moses's Cushite
If Moses did take a second wife at that time there is no reason to be sure that Zipporah was still alive since she would have been in her sixties or older. Marriage in those days was often about survival.
Yalkut Shimoni[7] says that Moses fled from Egypt first to Cush where he married and became king. Later he moved to Midia where he married Zipporah. We see in Exodus 4:20 "Moses took his wife and his sons, and set them upon an ass, and he returned to the land of Egypt: and Moses took the rod of God in his hand."
The word wife in this text is singular. If there had been another Cush wife from 40 years earlier there is no reason to believe she was still alive and why don't we know her name?
The Rashi[8] interprets this verse as Zipporah and the Cushite woman was the same person. Rishi asserts that Zipporah was called "the Cushite" because of her beauty.
Others such as Ezekiel the Tragedian said that Zipporah and her father were only recent arrivals to Midia in a play dated to the second century BCE. (Exagoge 60-65).
The Himyarite Kingdom of Southern Arabia was described by Syrian writers of the fifth century as Cushites and Ethiopians. And we also know that the Beja people who inhabit the Sahara and Sudan claim descent from Cush and speak a Cushitic language. Eighteenth-century scholar Johann David Michaelis agrees with the idea that Cush was a term used to describe both sides of the Red Sea.
While every place in the Bible where polygamy was practiced there were severe consequences due to rivalry and jealousy. Moses was about giving birth to freedom where society provided the needs of the people through charity in time of want. This is what Christ was doing too with his Kingdom of God and no different than the message of John the Baptist.
It is only the Modern Christian, Jew, and Moslem who turn a blind eye[9] to their covetous practices and bite one another with an appetite for benefits and the dainties of rulers. Those masses who have become accustomed to living at the expense of others have returned the whole world to the bondage of Egypt so that the beasts of the world can go about devouring who they will.
Eating leeks and fish
Numbers 11:5 "We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick:" And what does it mean freely eat? Does it mean "We ate in Egypt free of charge?" How did the Egyptians give fish free of charge since they were not even giving them straw for free.[10]
Were they getting free fish or something free of charge?[11]
So what does “free of charge” mean?
Does it mean to be "Free from [the burden of] precepts."[12]
This free from precepts or principles is related to the idea that they were free "from sin".[13]
What could they do in Egypt that was not lawful to do under the Tablets of Moses?
In Egypt you could covet the benefits of Pharaoh, welfare that was a snare, the dainties of rulers, the one purse, the cauldron that became a flesh pots, even though rulers would put heavy burdens on the people in order to provide those benefits.
- ↑ 0600 ףנַאֲ ‘anaph (Aramaic) an-af’ corresponding to 0639 (only in the pl. as a sing.); n m; [BDB-1081b] {See TWOT on 2590} AV-face 1, visage 1; 2
- 1) face, nose
- ↑ V2 Hebrew OT: WLC (Consonants Only)
- והיה אם־בן הכות הרשע והפילו השפט והכהו לפניו כדי רשעתו במספר׃
- ↑ 07379 ^ביר^ ReishYodBeit (rîḇ רִיב֙) riyb \@reeb\@ or ^בר^ rib \@reeb\@ from 07378; n m; AV-cause 24, strife 16, controversy 13, contention 2, misc 7; 62
- 1) strife, controversy, dispute
- 1a) strife, quarrel
- 1b) dispute, controversy, case at law
- 1) strife, controversy, dispute
- ↑ 05307 ^לפנ^ naphal \@naw-fal’\@ a primitive root; v; {See TWOT on 1392} AV-fail 318, fall down 25, cast 18, cast down 9, fall away 5, divide 5, overthrow 5, present 5, lay 3, rot 3, accepted 2, lie down 2, inferior 2, lighted 2, lost 2, misc 22; 434
- 1) to fall, lie, be cast down, fail
- 1a) (Qal)
- 1a1) to fall
- 1a2) to fall (of violent death)
- 1a3) to fall prostrate, prostrate oneself before
- 1a4) to fall upon, attack, desert, fall away to, go away to, fall into the hand of
- 1a5) to fall short, fail, fall out, turn out, result
- 1a6) to settle, waste away, be offered, be inferior to
- 1a7) to lie, lie prostrate
- 1b) (Hiphil)
- 1b1) to cause to fall, fell, throw down, knock out, lay prostrate
- 1b2) to overthrow
- 1b3) to make the lot fall, assign by lot, apportion by lot
- 1b4) to let drop, cause to fail (fig.)
- 1b5) to cause to fall
- 1c) (Hithpael)
- 1c1) to throw or prostrate oneself, throw oneself upon
- 1c2) to lie prostrate, prostrate oneself
- 1d) (Pilel) to fall
- 1a) (Qal)
- 1) to fall, lie, be cast down, fail
- ↑ 05221 ^הכנ^ nakah \@naw-kaw’\@ a primitive root NunKafHey; v; {See TWOT on 1364} AV-smite 348, slay 92, kill 20, beat 9, slaughter 5, stricken 3, given 3, wounded 3, strike 2, stripes 2, misc 13; 500
- 1) to strike, smite, hit, beat, slay, kill
- 1a) (Niphal) to be stricken or smitten
- 1b) (Pual) to be stricken or smitten
- 1c) (Hiphil)
- 1c1) to smite, strike, beat, scourge, clap, applaud, give a thrust
- 1c2) to smite, kill, slay (man or beast)
- 1c3) to smite, attack, attack and destroy, conquer, subjugate, ravage
- 1c4) to smite, chastise, send judgment upon, punish, destroy
- 1d) (Hophal) to be smitten
- 1d1) to receive a blow
- 1d2) to be wounded
- 1d3) to be beaten
- 1d4) to be (fatally) smitten, be killed, be slain
- 1d5) to be attacked and captured
- 1d6) to be smitten (with disease)
- 1d7) to be blighted (of plants)
- 1) to strike, smite, hit, beat, slay, kill
- ↑ Devarim - Deuteronomy - Chapter 25 of the Jews see this first three verses translated "1. If there is a quarrel between men, and they approach the tribunal, and they [the judges] judge them, and they acquit the innocent one and condemn the guilty one 2 and it shall be, if the guilty one has incurred [the penalty of] lashes, that the judge shall make him lean over and flog him in front of him, commensurate with his crime, in number.3 He shall flog him with forty [lashes]; he shall not exceed, lest he give him a much more severe flogging than these [forty lashes], and your brother will be degraded before your eyes.
- ↑ The Yalkut Shimoni, or simply Yalkut is a compilation of older interpretations and explanations of Biblical passages, arranged according to the sequence of those portions of the Bible to which they referred.
- ↑ Rashi was the author of rabbinic commentary on the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) and the Talmud. Rashi script is a semi-cursive typeface for the Hebrew alphabet which is customarily used for printing his commentaries, and others'.
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs nameddarkened - ↑ “Straw shall not be given to you” (Exodus 5:18)?
- ↑ Numbers 11:5 "We remember the fish that we ate in Egypt free of charge, the cucumbers, the watermelons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic." Shlomo Yitzchaki known by the acronym Rashi was a medieval French rabbi and author of a comprehensive commentary on the Talmud and commentary on the Tanakh.
- ↑ — [Sifrei Beha’alothecha 1:42:5]
- ↑ Numbers 11:5 "We remember the fish which we had to eat in Mizraim freely, without (being restricted by prohibitory) precept, the cucumbers and melons, the leeks, onions, and potherbs." Targum an ancient Aramaic paraphrase or interpretation of the Hebrew Bible