Mordechai Z. Cohen's Books

Opening the Gates of Interpretation

Maimonides' Biblical Hermeneutics in Light of His Geonic-Andalusian Heritage and Muslim Milieu

By: Mordechai Z. Cohen

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Opening the Gates of Interpretation

Maimonides' Biblical Hermeneutics in Light of His Geonic-Andalusian Heritage and Muslim Milieu

By: Mordechai Z. Cohen

The biblical hermeneutics of the illustrious philosopher-talmudist Moses Maimonides (1138-1204) has long been underappreciated, and viewed in isolation from the celebrated philological schools of “plain sense” (peshat) Jewish Bible exegesis. Aiming to redress this imbalance, this study identifies Maimonides’ substantial contributions to that interpretive movement, assessing its achievements in cultural context. Like others in the rationalist Geonic-Andalusian school, Maimonides’ understanding of Scripture was informed by Arabic learning. Drawing upon Greco-Arabic logic, poetics, politics, physics and metaphysics, as well as Muslim jurisprudence, he devised sophisticated new approaches to key issues that occupied other exegetes, including a variety of interpretive cruxes, the reconciliation of Scripture with reason, a legal hermeneutics for deriving halakhah (Jewish law) from Scripture, and the nature of interpretation itself. "It is a valuable contribution to the entire study of medieval biblical exegesis and will undoubtedly serve as the basis of all subsequent discussions of Maimonides' hermeneutics." Daniel J. Lasker, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

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596

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BRILL

Published Date

ISBN 10

9004210067

ISBN 13

9789004210066

Rashi, Biblical Interpretation, and Latin Learning in Medieval Europe

A New Perspective on an Exegetical Revolution

By: Mordechai Z. Cohen

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Rashi, Biblical Interpretation, and Latin Learning in Medieval Europe

A New Perspective on an Exegetical Revolution

By: Mordechai Z. Cohen

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

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323

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Cambridge University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1108470297

ISBN 13

9781108470292

The Rule of Peshat

Jewish Constructions of the Plain Sense of Scripture and Their Christian and Muslim Contexts, 900-1270

By: Mordechai Z. Cohen

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The Rule of Peshat

Jewish Constructions of the Plain Sense of Scripture and Their Christian and Muslim Contexts, 900-1270

By: Mordechai Z. Cohen

An exploration of the theoretical underpinnings of the philological method of Jewish Bible interpretation known as peshat Within the rich tradition of Jewish biblical interpretation, few concepts are as vital as peshat, often rendered as the "plain sense" of Scripture. Generally contrasted with midrash—the creative and at times fanciful mode of reading put forth by the rabbis of Late Antiquity—peshat came to connote the systematic, philological-contextual, and historically sensitive analysis of the Hebrew Bible, coupled with an appreciation of the text's literary quality. In The Rule of "Peshat," Mordechai Z. Cohen explores the historical, geographical, and theoretical underpinnings of peshat as it emerged between 900 and 1270. Adopting a comparative approach that explores Jewish interactions with Muslim and Christian learning, Cohen sheds new light on the key turns in the vibrant medieval tradition of Jewish Bible interpretation. Beginning in the tenth century, Jews in the Middle East drew upon Arabic linguistics and Qur'anic study to open new avenues of philological-literary exegesis. This Judeo-Arabic school later moved westward, flourishing in al-Andalus in the eleventh century. At the same time, a revolutionary peshat school was pioneered in northern France by the Ashkenazic scholar Rashi and his circle of students, whose methods are illuminated by contemporaneous trends in Latinate learning in the Cathedral Schools of France. Cohen goes on to explore the heretofore little-known Byzantine Jewish exegetical tradition, basing his examination on recently discovered eleventh-century commentaries and their offshoots in southern Italy in the twelfth century. Lastly, this study focuses on three pivotal figures who represent the culmination of the medieval Jewish exegetical tradition: Abraham Ibn Ezra, Moses Maimonides, and Moses Nahmanides. Cohen weaves together disparate Jewish disciplines and external cultural influences through chapters that trace the increasing force acquired by the peshat model until it could be characterized, finally, as the "rule of peshat": the central, defining feature of Jewish hermeneutics into the modern period.

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424

Publisher

University of Pennsylvania Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0812297016

ISBN 13

9780812297010

Three Approaches to Biblical Metaphor

From Abraham Ibn Ezra and Maimonides to David Kimhi

By: Mordechai Z. Cohen

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Three Approaches to Biblical Metaphor

From Abraham Ibn Ezra and Maimonides to David Kimhi

By: Mordechai Z. Cohen

This volume explores how the poetic technique of biblical metaphor was analyzed within the Jewish exegetical tradition that developed in Muslim Spain during the Golden Age of Hebrew poetry and was then transplanted to a Christian milieu. Abraham Ibn Ezra and Maimonides applied concepts from Arabic poetics, hermeneutics and logic to define metaphor and interpret it within their philological-literary readings of Scripture. David Kimhi integrated their methodologies with the midrashic creativity and sensitivity to nuance typical of his native Provence to create a new literary interpretive system that highlights the expressiveness of metaphor. This study is important for readers interested in metaphor, the Bible as literature, the history of biblical interpretation and the inter-relation between Arabic and Hebrew learning.

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395

Publisher

BRILL

Published Date

ISBN 10

9004493816

ISBN 13

9789004493810

Sequential Analysis

A Guide for Behavioral Researchers

By: John Mordechai Gottman,Anup Kumar Roy

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Sequential Analysis

A Guide for Behavioral Researchers

By: John Mordechai Gottman,Anup Kumar Roy

In the observational study of social systems, the major conceptual innovation of the last century was General Systems Theory. Yet the General Systems Theory conceptions of interacting social systems were doomed to remain at the prescientific level of metaphor until a set of statistical techniques were developed and applied.

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288

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Cambridge University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0521346657

ISBN 13

9780521346658

The Rule of Peshat

Jewish Constructions of the Plain Sense of Scripture and Their Christian and Muslim Contexts, 900-1270

By: Mordechai Z. Cohen

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The Rule of Peshat

Jewish Constructions of the Plain Sense of Scripture and Their Christian and Muslim Contexts, 900-1270

By: Mordechai Z. Cohen

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Page Count

424

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University of Pennsylvania Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0812252128

ISBN 13

9780812252125

Rashi, Biblical Interpretation, and Latin Learning in Medieval Europe

A New Perspective on an Exegetical Revolution

By: Mordechai Z. Cohen

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Rashi, Biblical Interpretation, and Latin Learning in Medieval Europe

A New Perspective on an Exegetical Revolution

By: Mordechai Z. Cohen

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.

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323

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Cambridge University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1108609023

ISBN 13

9781108609029

Opening the Gates of Interpretation

Maimonides' Biblical Hermeneutics in Light of His Geonic-Andalusian Heritage and Muslim Milieu

By: Mordechai Z. Cohen

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Opening the Gates of Interpretation

Maimonides' Biblical Hermeneutics in Light of His Geonic-Andalusian Heritage and Muslim Milieu

By: Mordechai Z. Cohen

This study highlights the contributions of the great philosopher-talmudist Moses Maimonides to the rationalist, “plain sense” (peshat) tradition of Jewish Bible exegesis, assessing his place in the Geonic-Andalusian school and showing how he harnessed Greco-Arabic learning to open new hermeneutical possibilities.

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597

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BRILL

Published Date

ISBN 10

9004189327

ISBN 13

9789004189324

Three Approaches to Biblical Metaphor

From Abraham Ibn Ezra and Maimonides to David Kimhi

By: Mordechai Z. Cohen

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Three Approaches to Biblical Metaphor

From Abraham Ibn Ezra and Maimonides to David Kimhi

By: Mordechai Z. Cohen

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Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

395

Publisher

BRILL

Published Date

ISBN 10

9004493816

ISBN 13

9789004493810

Book's by Mordechai Z. Cohen

Opening the Gates of Interpretation

Opening the Gates of Interpretation

Rashi, Biblical Interpretation, and Latin Learning in Medieval Europe

Rashi, Biblical Interpretation, and Latin Learning in Medieval Europe

The Rule of Peshat

The Rule of Peshat

Three Approaches to Biblical Metaphor

Three Approaches to Biblical Metaphor

Sequential Analysis

Sequential Analysis

The Rule of Peshat

The Rule of Peshat

Rashi, Biblical Interpretation, and Latin Learning in Medieval Europe

Rashi, Biblical Interpretation, and Latin Learning in Medieval Europe

Opening the Gates of Interpretation

Opening the Gates of Interpretation

Three Approaches to Biblical Metaphor

Three Approaches to Biblical Metaphor

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