More Discussions for this daf
1. Getting things through prayer 2. Dovid Hamelech and the Harp 3. The speed of the angels
4. Chamor No'er 5. Shema after Tefilla 6. Bedai
7. Moshe and Pharaoh's astrologers 8. Ge'ulah Samuch la'Tefilah 9. Eliyahu in 4 Flights; Rav Elazar bar Avina
10. The Logic of Rebbi Yehoshua ben Levi 11. Rashi 12. Bushah & Kelimah
13. Verse proving David was not embarrassed 14. Ashrei 15. Rashi
16. Ashrei 17. Saying Shema before Shemoneh Esreh 18. Lulei
19. "Lulei" 20. Unneccessary repetition 21. Semichat Ge'ulah l'Tefilah
22. Interpretation of "BeShachbecha" 23. בחצות הלילה 24. הרקיע
25. King David dealing with Halachic issues
DAF DISCUSSIONS - BERACHOS 4

Moshe Luchins asked:

Rashi discusses the dots on the word luleh. Various rishonim & achronim (See Mahrsah & Sifsei Chachmim) discuss what is pshat in Rashi. A professor checked the Allepo codex for me & said that all the letters are dotted on top and on the bottom. Based on that how does one understand Rashi? Thank you.

Moshe Luchins, Passaic, NJ

The Kollel replies:

The dots "diminish" the simple understanding of the word; i.e. they tell us that this word is somewhat lacking from its literal meaning. Here, the meaning of the word "Lulei," which seems to be saying that David ha'Melech was sure that he would see the "good of Hash-m," is lessened by the dots. The dots imply that David was not really so sure that he would see the good of Hash-m. (This is also the intention of Rashi in Bava Metzia 87a, DH Limda).

Tosfos in Bava Metzia (ibid. DH Lama), though, tells us a rule about dots (from Bereishis Rabah), "In words that have more dotted letters than non-dotted letters, we expound the dots." However, this is not applicable when the entire word is dotted. When the whole word is dotted, we just lessen the force of the word, as Rashi explained. (This answers the question of the Maharsha in Berachos here.)

Mordecai Kornfeld