Quotes from William Rosenau

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.