The Magnitude and Implications of Rabbinic Interpretive Methods

Much has been published about the rabbinic midrashic interpretive system, but I believe that we may still discover new aspects concerning the sophisticated philosophy behind the system. The rabbis converted the concrete principle behind many significant Torah rules into an abstract legal rationale. For example, they replaced the concrete injunctions of the Torah "to rest from work" on the Sabbath with various legal abstractions, such as whether one has created something on Sabbath or not. Digging a pit is forbidden because one has created a structure, but doing it in order to use the excavated earth for covering something is not deemed so. Legal concepts, such as the contribution of a shared meal to neighbours created a devise to permit items to be moved from one domain to another. This sublimation offered them an effective system to interpret the Torah decrees both in more severe and more lenient manners, maintaining at the same time their theoretical formal adherence to the sacred immutable texts. In contrast to the modern attitude that permits to read into classic texts the reader’s response, without considering the author’s intent, the rabbis contended that their interpretation corresponds to the divine intent, even if the text did not mention it, or even bluntly contradicted it. Concurrently, the system stimulated the profound and constant study of the Torah to reveal its hidden intellectual and spiritual treasures.