The Contextual Exegesis of Rabbi Eliezer of Beaugency and the Climax of the Northern French Peshat Tradition

Abstract

In the history of biblical interpretation, the authority attributed to the rabbis by the traditional commentator has stood in frequent tension with his inclination toward exegetical independence. The eleventh-century commentaries of Rashi, consisting of a blend of original peshat interpretation and rabbinic midrash, reflect the early stages of this tension in Northern France, as the dictates of contextual and philological coherence vie for precedence with the often fanciful assertions of the rabbis. With the emergence of the commentaries of R. Joseph Kara and Rashbam in the ensuing decades, the Northern French exegetical school moved sharply in the direction of greater independence, as the constraints of rabbinic interpretation became loosened further. With this movement away from midrash, the peshat commentators of Northern France together with the philologically-minded exegetes of eleventhand twelfth-century Spain set a precedent that spawned an impressive variety of original exegetical achievements in both the medieval and modern periods.1 While scholars generally designate R. Joseph Bekhor Shor (mid-late twelfth century) as the last major figure of the French peshat school,2