Rashi, Biblical Interpretation, and Latin Learning in Medieval Europe
A New Perspective on an Exegetical Revolution

A new look at Rashi's innovative commentary that sheds unique light on medieval Jewish and Christian learning and Bible interpretation.

Mordechai Z. Cohen (Author)

9781108470292, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 29 April 2021

350 pages
15 x 23 x 2 cm, 0.62 kg

'… Cohen's handsomely produced book [is] a highly informative, extremely fastidious exploration of important developments in biblical scholarship in the central Middle Ages and their complex intra- and interreligious interlacings.' Eric Lawee, Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies

In this volume, Mordechai Z. Cohen explores the interpretive methods of Rashi of Troyes (1040–1105), the most influential Jewish Bible commentator of all time. By elucidating the 'plain sense' (peshat) of Scripture, together with critically selected midrashic interpretations, Rashi created an approach that was revolutionary in the talmudically-oriented Ashkenazic milieu. Cohen contextualizes Rashi's commentaries by examining influences from other centers of Jewish learning in Muslim Spain and Byzantine lands. He also opens new scholarly paths by comparing Rashi's methods with trends in Latin learning reflected in the Psalms commentary of his older contemporary, Saint Bruno the Carthusian (1030–1101). Drawing upon the Latin tradition of enarratio poetarum ('interpreting the poets'), Bruno applied a grammatical interpretive method and incorporated patristic commentary selectively, a parallel that Cohen uses to illuminate Rashi's exegetical values. Cohen thereby brings to light the novel literary conceptions manifested by Rashi and his key students, Josef Qara and Rashbam.

Dedication
Acknowledgements
List of abbreviations
Introduction
1. A new program of Peshat ('plain sense' exegesis)
2. 'Settling' the words of scripture using Midrash
3: St Bruno on psalms – precedent for Rashi?
3: St Bruno on psalms – precedent for Rashi?
4. Comparison to the Andalusian exegetical school
5. Comparison to the Byzantine exegetical school
6. Rashi's literary sensibilities and Latin Grammatica
7. Rashi's notion of 'the poet' (ha-meshorer) in Latin context
8. Joseph Qara and Rashbam: Peshat legacy in Northern France
9. Literary sensibilities of Peshat within a Latin context
Bibliography
General index
Index of scriptural references
Index of rabbinic sources.

Subject Areas: Judaism [HRJ], Biblical commentaries [HRCG1], Biblical studies & exegesis [HRCG], Comparative religion [HRAC]