From the Commentary of Rabbi Samuel1

CHAPTER SIX

PESHA AND HALAKHAH

His explanation accords with the preceding verses, the way of the world, and secular wisdom. (The above is) from the commentary of Rabbi Samuel1

1. Jewish Maskilim or Christian Adversaries: Rashbam and the Expertise of the Human World

1.1. Introduction It is widely known that Rashbam repeatedly refers to explanations that חכמת דרך) ’conform to the ‘way of the world’ or to ‘human knowledge However, when it comes to the question of how 2.(ארץ ;דבדי בני אדם these terms should be understood and translated, interpretive certain- ties are dashed. Does Rashbam call an interpretation leﬁ derekh erets in the sense of the ‘natural ways of the world,’ comprising a meaning of a verse ‘secundum physicam’ as in the case of Exod. 14:21?3 Does derekh erets denote social knowledge and class-consciousness as expounded in Gen. 37:2 (the sons of Leah versus the sons of the concubines),4 or is it simply a reference to medical and anthropological knowledge as in Gen. 34:25 (the weakness of a human body three days after an operation, in this case: circumcision)?5 ‘Human knowledge,’ thus, seems to encompass more than plain ‘common sense,’ even though

הרי פירושו לפי הפסוקים שלמעלה ודרך ארץ ודבר חכמה מיסוד רבי שמואל 1 הפשטות המתחדשים: קטעים חדשים מפירוש התורה“ ,edited in Moshe Sokolow) .(Ale Sefer 11 [1984]: 72–80, 78–79 ”,לרשב"ם—כ"י 2 See in particular Touitou, Exegesis in Perpetual Motion, 139–146. 3 Compare ibid., 286 [English Table of Contents] and ibid., 143. 4 See above Chapter Four, 4.3. 'דרך ארץ' כאן פירושו—חוקי הטבע :See Touitou, Exegesis in Perpetual Motion, 141 5 .האנושי 196 chapter six we have seen that Rashbam’s comments here and there support such a suggestion.6 With regard to the question of the meaning of okhmat divrei benei adam ‘human knowledge’ we should take into account the fact that Rashbam constantly turns to an exceptional type of audience, the maskilim, who, likewise, seem to represent not only (rabbinic) akhamim ‘wise men’ (or even women?), but otherwise erudite and critical readers. On the other hand, we are faced with the striking fact that Rashbam’s suggestions for an interpretation lefi derekh erets are at times intended to rebut the interpretations of the so-called minim (as in the phrase teshuvat ha-minim), a term that is mostly, but, as we shall see, not necessarily taken as a synonym for (Christian) heretics.7 We shall first turn to two hermeneutical renderings of lefi derekh erets that frame Rashbam’s commentary on the legal parts of the book of Exodus, i.e., ch. 25–40. Rashbam’s introduction to Exod. 21 (Par. Mishpatim) reads as follows: Let those who know reason know and understand that, my purpose, as I have already explained [in my commentary on the book of ] Genesis, is not to explicate halakhic rules, even though they are [the Torah’s] essential part, since the aggadot as well as the halakhot are derived from superfluities in the biblical verses. One can find some of these in the explanations of our teacher Solomon, my mother’s father [Rashi]—may the memory of the righteous be a blessing! But I have come only to elucidate the pesha¢ [i.e., the narrative flow] of the verses,8 and, thereby, will explain the laws and the halakhic rules according to the way of the world. Nevertheless, the halakhic rules are the essence [of the Torah] as our rabbis have already said: ‘halakhah uproots [the plain meaning of ] the biblical text.’9

6 Compare e.g., his comments on Lev. 11:3. 7 Compare Rashbam on Lev. 11:34; 19:19; Deut. 22:6. 8 Here, Rashbam obviously takes up Rashi’s phraseology in his commentary on Gen. 3:8. (שמ‘ כא, הקדמה) ידעו ויבינו יודעי שכל כי לא באתי לפרש הלכות אעפ"י שהם 9 עיקר כמו שפירשתי בבראשית כי מיתור המקראות נשמעין ההגדות וההלכות, ומקצתן ימצאו בפירושי רבינו שלמה אבי אמי זצ"ל, ואני לפרש פשוטן של מקראות באתי. ואפרש הדינין וההלכות לפי דרך ארץ. ואעפ"כ ההלכות עיקר כמו שאמרו רבותינו for the last sentence see bSot 16a: The quotation in the Talmud—הלכה עוקרת משנה In three places) the halakhah crushes the scriptural text)‘ הלכה עוקבת מקרא reads under heel’; see already the Rosin, Der Pentateuch-Commentar des Samuel ben Meir, 113n3; see Lockshin, Rashbam’s Commentary משנה instead of מקרא on the probable reading of on Exodus, Translation, 226n4.