Q&A: Interpretations of the Sages
Interpretations of the Sages
Question
Hello Rabbi,
I can never manage to understand the interpretive readings of the Sages.
They aren't really open to criticism; it's always unclear how the Sages decided to derive a teaching דווקא from this word and not another.
In short, I don't understand the interpretive tools of the Sages—what are they based on?
I've already heard from several great Torah scholars that they are complete ignoramuses when it comes to these interpretations.
Do you have some kind of explanation?
Answer
This is too general a question, and I can't answer it here. Beyond that, many interpretations are not clear to me either. But quite a few have received reasonably good explanations. I mainly dealt with interpretations through the thirteen hermeneutical principles, but many others have dealt with the more general interpretations (for example, Rabbi Shilat's books on the order of the tractates, which explain each and every interpretation and its logic. It's worth studying them).