Jewish Biblical Commentators Quotes

“The Renaissance, for which, the never to be forgotten Moors were responsible, both in the sciences and the arts, swept everything before it. France, nearest neighbor to the North, could not resist the Moorish revolutionary culture, to the potency of which the people of other European domains perforce succumbed.”
― William Rosenau, Jewish Biblical Commentators

“As Nachmanides championed the cause of Maimonides against his enemies, so he took up the cause of Alfazi, against Sarachya Halevi and Abraham Ben David, who attacked Alfazi's Talmudic productions.”
― William Rosenau, Jewish Biblical Commentators

“A younger brother of Samuel, Jacob ben Meir, known as Rabbenu Tam was also a Tosafist of marked scholarship and pronounced mental analysis. He was born in 1100 and died 1171. While an exegete of the Bible, he did not come up to his brother Samuel in this particular, but far surpassed him in Talmudic interpretation. Grammatical studies engaged his attention to such an extent that he entered the breach between Menahem ben Saruk and Dunash with a work called, Hakhraot (decisions) in which he protected Menahem against the onslaughts of his critic.”
― William Rosenau, Jewish Biblical Commentators

“It is needless to cite additional examples to illustrate the character of the interpretations, which Rashi was in the habit of giving. The few which have been furnished indicate how, in his work, the plain and the derived sense are mingled together in view of their equal importance in his eyes.”
― William Rosenau, Jewish Biblical Commentators

“The eighth verse of Genesis 1 reads: "And God called the expanse heaven." Rashi here endeavors to explain the word for heaven, Shamayim. He says that it may consist of the following: either the words Sa and Mayim, meaning "carrying water;” the words Sham and Mayim, meaning "there is water;” or the words Esh and Mayim, meaning “fire and water.”
― William Rosenau, Jewish Biblical Commentators

“Rashi was one of the champions of the theory, which sought to bring about a compromise between the Peshat and the Derash. He interspersed the Aggadic and Midrashic with the philological, a circumstance, which, in all likelihood, accounted for the popularity of his commentary. One can readily detect Rashi's indebtedness to the Targumim, the Talmud and the Masorah.”
― William Rosenau, Jewish Biblical Commentators

“makes no difference whether the translations in question are from the pens of Jews or non-Jews. In every single instance, where the non-Jew is responsible for the translation, the knowledge shown in the making of the translation was acquired from Jewish savants.”
― William Rosenau, Jewish Biblical Commentators

“When the Orthodox tradition of biblical knowledge is taken as a whole, which is not easily attainable, taking years and multiple teachers, it can clearly be seen that the Torah was composed by influence of divine origin, a position that stands in opposition to the common scholarly opinion that it is the garbled mess of a multitude of redactors.”
― William Rosenau, Jewish Biblical Commentators

“The legal codes, such as the Turim (“Rows” composed on the structure of the rows of stones on the Priestly Breastplate) and the Shulchan Arukh (“Prepared Table” presenting the code of Jewish law for everyday life), summarized the Biblical and rabbinical rules and regulations to be followed by the Jew, in the government of his conduct. Every literary effort was expended in the production of such works, which helped to familiarize Jews with ritualistic enactments, to promote ecclesiastical unity and solidarity, despite their world-wide dispersion, and to rescue them from a carefully planned annihilation.”
― William Rosenau, Jewish Biblical Commentators

“In view of the fact that Nachmanides helped to cultivate the Kabbalah, he became, as his commentary shows, a severe critic of Ibn Ezra, the outspoken opponent to the Jewish Medieval mysticism. It is Professor Schechter, who says of Nachmanides, when contrasting him with Maimonides, "If he was not a profound thinker like the author of the Guide of the Perplexed, he had that which is next best — he felt profoundly.”
― William Rosenau, Jewish Biblical Commentators

“Nor did he concern himself merely with the literary study of Scriptures. In his estimation, Hebrew grammar and rhetoric constituted the stones, and philosophy the mortar which had to be used in the construction of an enduring exegesis.”
― William Rosenau, Jewish Biblical Commentators

“In searching for the first Jewish Biblical exegete, we are led back to a time preceding by several centuries the close of the Biblical canon. Ezra called "an expert scribe in the law of Moses" may be regarded, as far as historical documentary evidence can be trusted, the father of Biblical Exegesis.”
― William Rosenau, Jewish Biblical Commentators