{"id":83415,"date":"2020-11-14T23:51:56","date_gmt":"2020-11-14T21:51:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=83415"},"modified":"2020-11-14T23:51:56","modified_gmt":"2020-11-14T21:51:56","slug":"the-crux-of-biblical-exegesis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-crux-of-biblical-exegesis\/","title":{"rendered":"The Crux of Biblical Exegesis"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[],"acf":{"old_id":"83415","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34243,"related_cahpter":"612","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"By the age of 18, I had studied all six orders of the Mishnah, but it is only now that I have learned that no verse can be purged of its literal sense\u00a0","content":"

An otherwise ordinary verse in our chapter is cited as a prooftext in what is arguably the most crucial debate recorded in the Talmud concerning biblical exegesis.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Mishnah (Shabbat 63a) reports that the opinion of the Rabbis was that weapons of war cannot be transported into the public domain on Shabbat. It also reports that Rabbi Eliezer disagreed with their opinion and he permitted them to be carried just like items of jewelry. According to the Talmud, the Rabbis\u2019 argument is that since weapons will be nullified in the World to Come, they should be regarded as shameful rather than ornamental. Their proof comes from the verse that predicts that swords will be beaten into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks (Isaiah 2:4, Micah 4:3). On the other hand, Rabbi Eliezer argued that weapons are ornamental, citing Psalms 45:4: <\/span>\u201c<\/span>Gird your sword upon your thigh, O hero, in your splendor and glory.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Here is where the ensuing Amoraic discussion turns into a seminal argument for straightforward biblical exegesis (<\/span>peshat<\/span><\/em>). \u201cR. Kahana said to Mar b. R. Huna: But that verse is speaking of words of Torah!\u201d In other words, the verse is understood figuratively to represent a Torah scholar whose \u201cweapons\u201d are his scholarship. Ergo, it cannot serve R. Eliezer\u2019s purpose. To this, Mar b. R. Huna retorted: \u201cNo verse can be purged of its literal sense\u201d (<\/span>ein mikra yotzei miy\u2019dei p\u2019shuto<\/span><\/em>). In other words, even if the figurative meaning is well-nigh universally acknowledged\u2014as it appears to be in this case\u2014the literal sense of the verse cannot be denied.<\/span><\/p>\n

To which R. Kahana replied: \u201cBy the age of 18, I had studied all six orders [of the Mishnah]; but it is only now that I have learned that no verse can be purged of its literal sense.\u201d To this, the Talmud adds a didactic postscript: \u201cWhat does this [exchange] teach us? That one should commit [precedent] to memory, but subsequently one must analyze what one has learned.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The adage that so impressed R. Kahana, while appearing only three times in the Talmud, became the clarion call of rational, philologically based biblical exegesis in the Middle Ages and continues so today.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":false,"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"The Crux of Biblical Exegesis","main_caption":"By the age of 18, I had studied all six orders of the Mishnah, but it is only now that I have learned that no verse can be purged of its literal sense\u00a0","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","preview_embedded":"\r\n","preview_image":false,"preview_video":"","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":""},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"links":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83415"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83415"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83415\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83417,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83415\/revisions\/83417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}