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Opening the Gates of Interpretation: Maimonides' Biblical Hermeneutics in Light of His Geonic-Andalusian Heritage and Muslim Milieu
By Mordechai Z. Cohen
(Leiden and Boston, 2011)
We were brought up in our early education with the expression in Rashi, ein mikra yotse mi-yedei peshuto, a biblical verse does not leave the realm of its peshat (Gen. 37:17, 15:10, Exod. 12:2). Rashi uses the expression le-fi peshuto or a variant of the word pe- shat 75 times in his commentary on the Tanakh as a meaning of the verse worthy of discussion in contradistinction to the derash (Gen. 1:4, 2:5, 9:7, 14:13, 14:15 etc.). We usually interpret this to mean 'a biblical verse never loses its plain literal meaning,' i.e. its peshat. The verse may have additional interpretations, but the peshat always remains as the meaning of the verse. Cohen's book is about Maimonides' definition of peshat based on his own writings, cultural setting, and Geonic-Sephardic tradition.
Talmudic Sources
Cohen provides a ver y thorough analysis of the Talmudic sources for the peshat principle.1 The Talmud speaks about the text itself without any indication of the primacy of peshat. The straightforward sense of peshat is just another interpretation among many applied to the text without any preference. One can speak about the text itself, i.e., the plain sense of the words in contrast to the Rabbinic interpretation, and at the same time not prefer either one as the primary meaning of the words. Peshat is the straightfor ward sense but it is not the primary meaning. Cohen concludes that in Talmudic usage peshat is the straightforward sense of Scripture without implying any idea that peshat is the primary meaning of the word or text either philologically or contextually or in agreement with Rabbinic interpretation.2
Geonic-Andalusian Tradition
The story of the development of the meaning of Peshat as we know it begins with R. Saadia Gaon (882-942). R. Saadia Gaon translated the Torah into Arabic and he made use of different methods that provide a license to translate the Torah more freely. Understanding these methods is key to making sense of the subject of the book under review here, namely the tradition that leads up to Maimonides' unique definition of peshat. The terms used for peshat...