The Rule of Peshat: Jewish Constructions of the Plain Sense of Scripture and Their Christian and Muslim Contexts, 900–1270 by Mordechai Z. Cohen, and: Rashi, Biblical Interpretation, and Latin Learning in Medieval Europe: A New Perspective on an Exegetical Revolution by Mordechai Z. Cohen (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Rule of Peshat: Jewish Constructions of the Plain Sense of Scripture and Their Christian and Muslim Contexts, 900–1270 by Mordechai Z. Cohen, and: Rashi, Biblical Interpretation, and Latin Learning in Medieval Europe: A New Perspective on an Exegetical Revolution by Mordechai Z. Cohen Robert A. Harris Mordechai Z. Cohen. The Rule of Peshat: Jewish Constructions of the Plain Sense of Scripture and Their Christian and Muslim Contexts, 900–1270. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2020. 496 pp. [End Page 456] Mordechai Z. Cohen. Rashi, Biblical Interpretation, and Latin Learning in Medieval Europe: A New Perspective on an Exegetical Revolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021. 350 pp. With these two publications, Mordechai Cohen has managed to break new ground and, particularly with The Rule of Peshat, has provided most useful studies for anyone interested in the history of medieval biblical exegesis. The “rule” that Cohen addresses in The Rule of Peshat is that “a (Scriptural) verse never escapes from the hands of its plain meaning,” an ancient rabbinic dictum1 but one that the medievals applied in a range of meanings that the book investigates. The words “plain meaning” render the elusive ancient rabbinic term פשוטו, which, like its medieval successor, פשט, was never defined either in antiquity or the medieval period.2 Cohen has written eight chapters in The Rule of Peshat, each devoted to an individual exegete or school, and in each of them he analyzes the degree to which those commentators have incorporated the rule in their exegesis. Following an introduction in which he traces the emergence of peshat from its antecedents in ancient midrash, Cohen includes chapters on Geonim and Karaites; the Andalusian school; Rashi; R. Joseph Kara and Rashbam; the Byzantine tradition; Abraham Ibn Ezra; Maimonides; and Naḥmanides. In The Rule of Peshat, Cohen distinguishes his approach from the older scholarly view that finds a “continuous peshat-derash dichotomy from antiquity to the modern era”; instead, he argues for a dynamic view of peshat that each peshat exegete developed on his own and/or in light of exegetes who preceded him. Briefly, Cohen examines the means through which medieval exegetes transformed an ancient, barely recognized observation into the fundamental rule for much of their biblical exegesis. Cohen points out that for early pashtanim such as Saʿadiah, the rule was firm—but yielded to rabbinic devotion to Oral Torah that was determinant in case of conflict between peshat and Halakhah. However, later exegetes strengthened the rule, which led to peshat being considered of coequal value with midrash, even with respect to biblical verses that nominally addressed matters of Halakhah. Ultimately, Cohen claims that for some exegetes, the rule requires the exegete to recognize peshat as the “exclusive hermeneutical authority,” even with the attendant problems to which this claim might lead.3 This is not the place to consider the degree to which Rashi ought be regarded as a pashtan. The undeniable truth that the vast preponderance of Rashi’s Torah commentary is rooted in midrash notwithstanding, Cohen treats Rashi’s engagement [End Page 457] with the concept of peshuto shel mikraʾ in both books. While it is patently obvious to this reviewer that Rashi clearly articulates his commitment to both peshat and derash in service of the explication of Scripture’s language,4 Cohen provides a fairly level-headed discussion of the issues. Minimally, Cohen illustrates the means through which Rashi related to the rule in accounting for the sequence and arrangement of the biblical text, and does so within the context of Rashi’s contemporary Christian world.5 Among the northern French exegetes who followed Rashi, Cohen devotes a chapter to R. Joseph Kara and Rashbam.6 However, most of the rest of the book is devoted to exegetes who operated in the Mediterranean world, from Byzantium to Spain, in particular R. Abraham ibn Ezra, Maimonides, and Naḥmanides. Unfortunately, despite thorough discussions throughout, the volume suddenly ends without a summary chapter in which the author might have offered a general reflection about the “rise and fall” of peshat in the medieval world. Nonetheless, Cohen’s study will prove to be an indispensable tool for anyone interested in the study of medieval...