A Talmudist’s Biblical Hermeneutics: A New Understanding of Maimonides’ Principle of Peshat Primacy.

Abstract

The clarification of Maimonides’ peshat model does more than simply demonstrate his connection to the celebrated peshat school of Jewish interpretation; it reveals how he shatters hermeneutical barriers and charts a bold, unique course within the revolutionary peshat movement. Other pashtanim, as a rule, avoided drawing halakhic conclusions from their novel exegetical methods. Maimonides, on the other hand, specifically formulates his principle of peshat primacy in order to shape a stratified system of halakhah anchored in “the texts of the Torah.” Fusing his exegetical sensibilities, his firm control of the vast sea of talmudic learning and a theoretical framework he constructed by appropriating concepts from Muslim jurisprudence, Maimonides creates an integrated legal hermeneutics that makes him a bright star within the constellation of great Jewish Bible interpreters. (from conclusion)