Q&A: On the Plain Meaning and Homiletic Interpretation
On the Plain Meaning and Homiletic Interpretation
Question
Hello Rabbi, I have a question that has been bothering me for a long time. Many times the Sages interpret verses and derive various Jewish laws that do not seem to be the plain meaning of the text—for example, “You shall not cook a kid in its mother’s milk,” which is written 3 times, and the Sages expound one verse for eating, one for cooking, and one for deriving benefit. My question is: if that is what the Torah meant, why was it not written in the Torah, “Do not cook a kid in milk,” “Do not eat a kid in milk,” “Do not derive benefit from meat and milk”? And of course that is only an example, and there are many such cases. I would be happy to receive an answer.
Answer
We have a tradition that no verse departs from its plain meaning, and the implication is that every verse has several interpretations, among them one according to the plain sense and one according to the homiletic interpretation. The Vilna Gaon explains (see Rabbi Menashe of Ilya’s introduction to his book on the Masorah) that if they had written directly in the verse the homiletic formulation (as you suggested), we would have had only the homiletic meaning and would have lost the plain meaning. When the Torah writes a verse in a certain way, its intention is that we learn it both by way of the plain sense and by way of homiletic interpretation. Its intent is to tell us that we should interpret the verse in a double way, and take both interpretations into account.
On this matter, see several examples in the series of three articles by David Henshke in HaMa’ayan 5737–38, and also Rabbi Weitman’s response there. Also see my book The Spirit of the Law, in the second part.
Discussion on Answer
Where did you see such a statement in what I wrote here? By the way, the Vilna Gaon writes that the interpretive re-readings and the “something is missing here” formulations are homiletic interpretation on the Mishnah.
I didn’t know that you can also make a homiletic interpretation out of what the Sages say.