[Avodah] Rashi's Cedars

[Micha Berger]

I was asked a couple of questions about Rashi's discussion of the
qerashim. I couldn't find anything, so I'm appealing for help.

1a- On 26:27, Rashi tells us that when the Torah tells us that each qeresh
was 10 amos tall, it teaches us that the Mishkan was 10 amost tall.

1b- Then in the next Rashi, he does us the favor of multiplying the
1-1/2 amah width of a qeresh by 20 to let us know that the north and
south walls of the Mishkan were 30 amos long.

What is he adding?

Here I had what I considered weak answers, but just to share them:

a- Perhaps Rashi is leading in to a discussion of the yadayim of the
qerashim and the adanim. He is telling us that the qerashim fit all the
way through the adanim to the ground, and thus the height of the Mishkan
was the height of each qeresh.

b- Because the corners are non-trivial, whether they are among the 20 or
not, perhaps someone would misunderstand and so Rashi does the explaining.



2- Someone emailed me the observation that Rashi on 25:5 and 26:15 mentions
the medrash that the wood was the product of Yaaqov's foresight to being
arazim down.

a- Why the redundancy?

b- In 25:5 he gives his motivation, "ume'iayin hayu lahem bamidbar?"
and in 26:15 he does as well "... mahu *ha*qerashim?" Isn't it rare
for Rashi to explicitly say what problem he is revolving?

c- Why does Rashi mention in the first that he is quoting "Rabbi Tanchuma"
but not in the second? OTOH, he says in the second comment that this is
what R' Shelomo bar Yehudah haBavli wrote about in his piut, but not in
the first?



3- About the same Rashis, in the same email: Why does the medrash speak
in the generic term, "arazim" when the pesuqim call them more specifically
"shitim"?
 
Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             "I hear, then I forget; I see, then I remember;
micha at aishdas.org        I do, then I understand." - Confucius
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