Pardes (Jewish

exegesis)

"Pardes" refers to (types of) approaches

to biblical exegesis in rabbinic Judaism
or to interpretation of text in Torah study.
The term, sometimes also rendered
PaRDeS, is an acronym formed from the
initials of the following four approaches:

Peshat (‫" – ) ְפּ ָשׁט‬surface" ("straight")

or the literal (direct) meaning.[1]
 Remez (‫" – ) ֶר ֶמז‬hints" or the deep
(allegoric: hidden or symbolic)
meaning beyond just the literal sense.

Derash (‫ – ) ְדּ ַרשׁ‬from Hebrew darash:

"inquire" ("seek") – the comparative
(midrashic) meaning, as given through
similar occurrences.

Sod (‫( )סוֹד‬pronounced with a long O

as in 'lore') – "secret" ("mystery") or the
esoteric/mystical meaning, as given
through inspiration or revelation.

Each type of Pardes interpretation

examines the extended meaning of a
text. As a general rule, the extended
meaning never contradicts the base
meaning.[2] The Peshat means the plain
or contextual meaning of the text. Remez
is the allegorical meaning. Derash
includes the metaphorical meaning, and
Sod represents the hidden meaning.
There is often considerable overlap, for
example when legal understandings of a
verse are influenced by mystical
interpretations or when a "hint" is
determined by comparing a word with
other instances of the same word.

Some books such as Tolaat Yaakov,

divide Pardes into Peshat, Remez, Din
(law), and Sod. According to this
understanding, Derash is divided into the
homiletics, which are classified under
Remez, and legal interpretations, which
are classified under Din.

History of the term "pardes"

The use of "Pardes" as an acronym for
these four methods of interpretation
apparently first appears in the writings of
Moses de Leon in the late 13th century.[3]

In earlier works, the word "pardes" refers

either to the esoteric parts of the Torah[4]
(similar to "sod" in the acronym), or to all
Torah study (without differentiation into
different types of study).[5]

Context
Exoteric and esoteric in Sod …

Exoteric means that Scripture is read

in the context of the physical world,
human orientation, and human
notions. The first three exegetical
methods: Peshat-Simple, Remez-Hinted,
and Drush-Homiletic belong to the
exoteric "Nigleh-Revealed" part of
Torah embodied in mainstream
Rabbinic literature, such as the Talmud,
Midrash, and exoteric-type Jewish
commentaries on the Bible.
Esoteric means that the surface
meaning of Scripture, as with esoteric
texts in general, while it may also be
true, is not the real truth to which
Scripture refers. Instead, the surface
meaning hides/covers/conceals its
real intention. The real truth is the
secret hidden within the deceptive
covering. The fourth level of exegesis,
Sod-Secret, belongs to the esoteric
"Nistar-Hidden" interpretations of
Scripture found alternatively in Jewish
mysticism-Kabbalah or in Jewish
philosophy-Metaphysics. Religious
adherents of Kabbalah and of
Rationalism fought over their
alternative claims to know the esoteric
meaning. In Medieval Jewish
Rationalism, the hidden truth within
Scripture was human-centred Divine
transcendence philosophical depths.
 In Kabbalistic mysticism, it was God's
Persona-centred Divine immanence
emanations. Therefore, each tradition
interpreted classic Rabbinic references
to Pardes (legend), Maaseh
Bereishit/Maaseh Merkabah (Talmudic
passages about esotericism) and to
the connected 4-fold structure of
PaRDeS exegesis differently.

Both mystical and rational religious

Judaism, however, together rooted in
mainstream Rabbinic literature and
Mitzvot observance, accepted common
truth in Peshat, Remez, and Drush levels
of Judaism. In this way, Jewish religious
esotericism is inseparable from exoteric
Judaism. Their esoteric meanings did
not deny the truth of exotericism, but
rather reinforced the need for exoteric
Halacha Jewish law and practical
observance of the 613 Mitzvot as God's
plan in Creation.

The mystical view of esoteric Sod-Secret

as the elite doctrines of Kabbalah also
gave conceptual context to Peshat,
Remez, and Drush: in the mystical
unfolding of the spiritual Four Worlds,
each realm corresponds to a level in
PaRDeS. God's immanence is found at
successively descending levels of reality.
Torah descends from on High, while man
ascends the levels of PaRDeS exegesis
in Torah from Below. In this sense,
ascending the four levels of
interpretation reveals greater divinity in
Torah; the exoteric and esoteric are
linked in a continuous chain. While
rationalists read Rabbinic Aggadah
legends metaphorically, kabbalists read
them as allusions to Kabbalah.

Halacha and Aggadah in Peshat,

Remez, Drush
…

Within mainstream exoteric classic

Rabbinic literature, such as the Talmud
and Midrashim, Halacha is Jewish legal
discussion and ruling, while Aggadah is
Jewish theological/narrative discussion.
As two approaches in exoteric Judaism,
so Peshat-Simple, Remez-Hinted and
Drush-Homiletic exegeses methods,
which work exoterically, can be used in
either Halachic or Aggadic contexts.

Examples

Peshat …

In Genesis 1:1 …

Genesis 1:1 is often translated as "In the

beginning God created the heavens and
the earth." However, Rashi comments, "If
you come to interpret it according to its
peshat, interpret it thus: In the beginning
of creation of heavens and earth."[6]
According to Rashi's linguistic analysis,
the word "bereishit" does not actually
mean "In the beginning", but rather "In the
beginning of..."[7]

Remez …

In Genesis 1:1 - commandments …

The first word of Genesis 1:1 is

"Bereishit" ("in the beginning [of]").
According to the Vilna Gaon, all 613
commandments are hinted to in this
word. For example, the Vilna Gaon says,
the commandment of pidyon haben is
hinted via the phrase "Ben Rishon
Acharei Shloshim Yom Tifdeh" ("a first
son, after 30 days should be redeemed"),
and the acronym of the first letters of this
phrase is "Breishit".[7]

In Genesis 1:1 - eschatology …

In Jewish thought, the Year 6000 idea

relates the 6 days of Creation (followed
by the Sabbath) to 6000 years the world
is expected to exist (before a 1000-year
messianic era). The first 2000 "hidden"
years began at Creation and lasted until
Abraham. The next 2000 years "of
revelation" include Israelite Patriarchs,
the Giving of the Torah at Sinai, and the
two Temples in Jerusalem. The final
2000 years, of preparation for the Jewish
Messiah, are balanced between Divine
concealment and revelation.
Genesis 1:1 is said to hint to this idea.
The verse contains seven (Hebrew)
words, and each of the words except
Hashamayim ("Heavens") contains the
letter Aleph (the first letter of the Hebrew
alphabet, with a gematria value of 1). The
name "Aleph" hints at its etymological
variants "Aluph" ("Chief/Ruler",
representing the one God) and "Eleph"
("One Thousand", representing 1,000
years). Hebrew word roots generally
contain three consonant letters. Of the
six words in the verse containing Aleph:
in the first two Aleph is positioned as
third letter (concealed God in the first
2,000 years), in the next two Aleph is
positioned as first letter (revealed God in
the middle 2,000 years), in the last two
Aleph is positioned as second letter
(balance between concealed and
revealed God in the last 2,000 years).[8]

Laws of witnesses …

In the following exchange, the Talmud

differentiates between explicit and hinted
sources for the laws of conspiring
witnesses (edim zomemim):

Ulla says: From where in the Torah is a

hint of the law of conspiring
witnesses?
Why should such a hint exist? For it is
stated explicitly "You do to them what
they conspired to do to the
accused."![9]
Rather, from where in the Torah is a
hint that conspiring witnesses receive
a whipping [if they cannot be punished
by doing to them as they conspired]?
As it says, "They shall vindicate the
righteous one and convict the evil one.
And if the evil one is deserving of
lashes..."[10] Should [the fact] that they
"vindicate the righteous one"
[automatically mean] "they convict the
evil one, and if the evil one is deserving
of lashes"? [In many cases, vindicating
the righteous party of a dispute does
not mean that the evil party receives
 lashes.] Rather, [these verses are
talking about a case where] witnesses
convicted the righteous one, and other
witnesses came and vindicated the
original righteous one, and made [the
first set of witnesses] into evil ones; [in
that case], "if the evil one is deserving
of lashes".[11]

Derash (Midrash) …

In Genesis 1:1 …

Rashi comments that the Hebrew word

Bereishit ("In the beginning") can be
homiletically understood to mean "Due to
the first", where "first" (reishit) is a word
used elsewhere to refer to the Torah and
to the Jewish people. Thus, one may say
that the world was created for the sake
of Torah and the Jewish people.[7]

The number of mitzvot …

Rabbi Simlai deduced that the Torah's

commandments are 613 in number.
Deuteronomy 33:4 states that "Moses
commanded us the Torah". The gematria
of "Torah" is 611. Adding to them the first
two of the Ten Commandments (which
were given to the Jews not via Moses but
rather directly by God, which is known
because only these two commandments
are written in the first person singular),
the total is 613.[12]
Sod …

In Maimonides …

In Guide for the Perplexed, Maimonides

declares his intention to conceal from
the average reader his explanations of
Sod. Later on in the book, Maimonides
mentions Divine secrets within Torah:

"Adam and Eve were at first

created as one being, having
their backs united: they were
then separated, and one half
was removed and brought
before Adam as Eve." Note how
clearly it has been stated that
Adam and Eve were two in
some respects, and yet they
remained one, according to the
words, "Bone of my bones, and
flesh of my flesh" (Gen. ii. 23).
The unity of the two is proved
by the fact that both have the
same name, for she is called
ishah (woman), because she
was taken out of ish (man),
also by the words, "And shall
cleave unto his wife, and they
shall be one flesh" (ii. 24). How
great is the ignorance of those
who do not see that all this
 necessarily includes some
[other] idea [besides the literal
meaning of the words].[13]
In Kabbalah …

Kabbalah does not read Scripture as

analogy, but as theosophical symbols of
dynamic processes in the Supernal
Divinity. According to this, Creation was
enacted through the letters of the
Hebrew language, particularly Divine
Names. The Midrash describes God
"looking into the Torah to Create the
World", which Kabbalah extended into a
linguistic mysticism. United with the
Infinite Divine, the text of the Torah
becomes one long Name of God, or
alternatively, God's revealed Being as
represented in this World. Kabbalists
endeavoured to perceive the unlimited
Divinity in the Torah of the Tree of life,
through the exoteric Torah of the Tree of
Knowledge, the two representing
transcendent and immanent revelations
of God in the Sephirot, uniting Tiferet
("The Holy One Blessed Be He") and
Malkuth (Feminine Shekhinah).

The teachings of Isaac Luria, which form

the basis of modern esoteric Kabbalah,
read the mythological doctrine of
Shevirat HaKeilim ("Shattering of the
vessels in God's Persona) from the
account of the Edomite Kings of Genesis
36:31 and I Chronicles 1:43:

"These are the kings who

reigned in the land of Edom
before there reigned any king
over the children of Israel..."

In Kabbalah, based on exoteric Midrash,

the Hebrew Patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac
and Jacob, embody the sephirot of
Chesed-Kindness, Gevurah-Strength and
Tiferet-Beauty. Kindness and Judgement
are polar forces and Beauty harmonises.
The imbalances emerged in Ishmael and
Esau, while the harmony fathered the 12
tribes of Israel. Ishmael and Esau are
considered the spiritual roots of the
Nations, deriving from the initial
unrectified spiritual Realm of Tohu-
Chaos, whose pristine Divine potential
was too high to be contained in
Existence, shattering its vessels which
fell down into exile. The Israelites relate
to the lower Realm of Tikun-Rectification.
The Messianic Era for all people will
embody both advantages of the high
lights of Tohu in the rectified vessels of
Tikun, when "all Nations will ascend the
mountain of God".[14] Edom, the progeny
of Esau, corresponds to unrectified
Gevurah-Strength, the waste of which
vitalises the kelipot shells. Gevurah is the
constricting force in Creation, allowing
independent Existence, but also causing
the initial vessels of Tohu to act
independently and shatter. The Edomite
Kings who reigned before any king in
Israel, while also being historical people
according to Peshat, in Kabbalah both
embody and symbolise the vessels of
Tohu that shattered. The verses name
eight kings, the breakages in the eight
emotional sephirot from Daat to Malchut.
Death is the lights-souls reascending and
the vessel fragments falling, animated by
remnant sparks of light. Of the eighth
king, only Genesis says he died, as
Malchut remained partially intact. The
sparks of holiness animate Creation
down to Material Existence. In the
highest World Atziluth, the general root-
sparks number 288, read out by gematria
from Genesis 1:2–3:

And the Earth was chaos and

void (the World of Tohu), with
darkness upon the face of the
deep. And the Spirit of God
hovered (‫מרחפת‬-"Merachepet",
the sparks animating the
fragments externally) over the
face of the waters. And God
said, Let there be light..(the
World of Tikun, allowing stable
reception of Divine revelation)
"Merachepet" divides into 288 (‫)רפח‬
sparks animating within the ‫מת‬-"dead"-
fallen fragments.

Association with paradise

The Pardes system is often regarded as
mystically linked to the word pardes
(Hebrew ‫)פּ ְר ֵדּס‬,
ָ meaning orchard.
"Pardes" is etymologically related to the
English word "paradise", and the Quranic
Firdaus (Arabic ‫)ﻓﺮدَ وس‬
ِ among various
other forms, in that they all share a
common origin in an Old Iranian root,
attested in the Avestan language as
pairi.daêza-.[15] It occurs only three times
in the Tanakh.[16] In the first of these
passages it means "garden"; in the
second and third, "park." In the
apocalypses and in the Talmud, the word
is used of the Garden of Eden and its
heavenly prototype.[17] From this usage,
comes Christianity's denotation of
Paradise as the abode of the
blessed.[18][19]

Pardes and other Jewish

interpretive approaches

Pardes and Chabad exegesis …

In a discourse Menachem Mendel

Schneerson, the Lubavitch Rebbe, asks
where Hasidic thought fits in with Pardes
exegesis.[20] Habad is the intellectualist
school in Hasidic Judaism, translating
the mystical faith of General-Hasidism
and the movement's founder into
intellectual articulation. The works of the
last Habad leader focus on uniting the
different aspects of traditional Jewish
thought, exoteric and esoteric, through
the Hasidic explanation. The four levels
of Pardes in Kabbalah articulate the Four
spiritual Worlds and the four soul levels
in Action, Emotion, Understanding and
Wisdom. In the discourse he describes
General-Hasidism relating through faith
to the essence of the soul, the Torah, and
God (Hasidic focus on Divine
Omnipresence perceived by the soul's
essence). In esoteric Kabbalistic
terminology this relates to the fifth
(highest) primary World of Adam
Kadmon, and the above-conscious fifth
(highest) soul level of Will (internal
aspect: soul-root "Delight"), called in
Kabbalah "Yehida-Unity". He describes
Habad thought articulating in intellectual
grasp the essence-fifth level of Torah
exegesis, Hasidut-Yehida not listed above
the four levels of PaRDeS because as
essence it is not limited to a particular
form. Peshat, Remez, Drush and Sod are
constrained by their limited disciplines:
from Peshat describing material
perception to Sod-Kabbalah limited to the
esoteric supernal emanations of God. As
essence, Hasidic thought, investigated
intellectually in Habad, both transcends
all four levels of Pardes in its own
exegetical explanation, and permeates
within the four. Yechida-Essence is
revealed through the four levels of
Pardes, but not constrained by them. The
particular exegeses of PaRDeS become
connected together in light of the Hasidic
exegesis. In this way, the discourse
describes Kabbalah, which gains
psychological understanding through
Hasidism, being actually a limited
esoteric commentary on Hasidism's
Yehida-Essence. Kabbalah remains
transcendent, while Hasidic thought
emphasises action, as the Atzmut
essence of God receives its only true
revelation in the ultimate Material
purpose to Creation, the Omnipresent
Divinity related to in Hasidic thought.

Pardes and modern exegesis …

The Pardes exegesis system flows from

traditional belief in the text as Divine
revelation; Mosaic authorship in regard to
the Torah, prophetic inspirations in the
rest of Tanakh, and belief in Oral Torah
transmission. Modern Jewish
denominations differ over the validity of
applying modern historical-critical
exegetical methods to Scripture. Haredi
Judaism regards the Oral Torah texts as
revelation, and can apply Pardes method
to read classic Rabbinic literature.
Modern Orthodox Judaism is open to
historical critical study of Rabbinic
literature and some application to the
later Biblical canon. Additionally, some
Modern Orthodox scholars have looked
at Biblical Criticism on the Torah,
incorporating some of its views within
traditional belief in Mosaic revelation.[21]

Beginning with Samuel David Luzzatto in

the nineteenth century, there has been an
approach to understanding the Torah
that finds statements in classical Jewish
commentaries on the Bible that would
allow acceptance of revelation, and still
use Lower Criticism.[22] Comments of
Rashbam, Ibn Ezra, Ibn Caspi, Judah Ha-
Hasid, and Abravenel have been used in
this historical-philological form of
Peshat.[22]

In the 20th Century, the Conservative

Judaism philosopher-theologian
Abraham Joshua Heschel, while
accepting modern scholarship, saw
existentialist revelation and Divine
encounter as the foundation of legitimate
Bible interpretation. His 1962
masterwork, Torah min HaShamayim
BeAspaklariya shel HaDorot (English:
Torah from Heaven in the Light of the
Generations) is a study of classical
rabbinic theology and aggadah (spiritual
thought), as opposed to halakha (Jewish
law) in revealing the Divinity of Torah
study. It explores the views of the Rabbis
in the Talmud, Midrash and among the
philosophical and mystical traditions,
about the nature of Torah, the revelation
of God to mankind, prophecy, and the
ways that Jews have used scriptural
exegesis to expand and understand
these core Jewish texts in a living, fluid
spiritual exegesis.[23]

Similar concepts in other

religions
The Pardes typology has some
similarities to the contemporary Christian
fourfold allegorical scheme.

Ja'far al-Sadiq (the last caliph before the

schism of Sunni and Shia Islam)
asserted that the Quran has four levels of
interpretation similar to that of the
Pardes: “The Book of God has four
things: literal expression (‘ibāra), allusion
(ishāra), subtleties (laṭā’if), and deepest
realities (ḥaqā’iq). The literal expression
is for the common folk (‘awāmm), the
allusion is for the elite (khawāṣṣ), the
subtleties are for the friends of God
(awliyā’), and the deepest realities are for
the prophets (anbiyā’)." [24]
See also
Pardes (legend)
Pesher
Jewish commentaries on the Bible
Rabbinic literature
Talmudical hermeneutics
Midrash
Kabbalah
Four Worlds
Jewish mystical exegesis
Allegory in the Middle Ages
Principle of charity

References
1. Peshat in the Jewish Encyclopedia
2. Rabinowitz, Louis (1963). "The
Talmudic Meaning of Peshat".
Tradition: A Journal of Orthodox
Thought. 6 (1) – via The Talmudic
Meaning of Peshat , The Lookstein
Center, Bar-Ilan University. Accessed
2020-09-15.
3. ‫ שו"ת לר' משה די ליאון‬,‫ר' משה די ליאון‬
‫ חקרי קבלה‬,‫ ישעיה תשבי‬,‫בענייני קבלה‬
64 '‫ עמ‬,‫ חלק א‬,‫ושלוחותיה‬
4. Babylonian Talmud Hagigah 14b ;
Mishneh Torah Hilchot Yesodei
Hatorah 4:13, 7:1; Mishneh Torah
Hilchot Talmud Torah 1:12, Moreh
Nevuchim 2:30
 5. Devarim Rabbah 7:4 ; see Saul
Lieberman, Tosefta Kifshuta on
Tosefta Hagigah 2:2
. Rashi, Breishit 1:1
7. https://ohr.edu/ask_db/ask_main.ph
p/163/Q2/
. This exegesis is an example of
Remez, but gains further meaning in
Sod by the Kabbalistic doctrine that
Creation was enacted through the
Hebrew letters of the Torah.
9. Deut 19:19
10. Deuteronomy 25:1–2
11. Makkos 2b
12. Talmud, Makkot 23b
13. Guide for the Perplexed, book 2
section 30
14. Isaiah 2:3
15. New Oxford American Dictionary
1 . Namely, in Song of Songs 4:13,
Ecclesiastes 2:5, and Nehemiah 2:8
17. Compare references in Weber's
Jüdische Theologie, 2d ed., 1897, pp.
344 et seq.
1 . Compare Luke 23:43; II Cor. 12:4; Rev
2:7.
19. Paradise in the Jewish Encyclopedia
20. On the Essence of Chasidus: A
Chasidic Discourse by Rabbi
Menachem M Schneerson, the
Lubavitcher Rebbe, Kehot
publications, reissued 2003. This is a
bi-lingual translation of the original
Hebrew Maamar Inyana Shel Toras
HaHasidus-The Concept of the Torah
of Hasidism, originally delivered
orally in 1965, then edited by the
Rebbe with footnotes
21. Modern Scholarship in the Study of
Torah: Contributions and Limitations
(The Orthodox Forum Series),
Shalom Carmy editor, Jason Aronson
publishers, 1996. Also Rabbi Dr.
Nathan Lopes Cardozo study: On
Bible Criticism and Its
Counterarguments 2006
22. Aggadic Man: The Poetry and
Rabbinic Thought of Abraham
Joshua Heschel Archived 2016-03-
04 at the Wayback Machine, Alan
Brill, Meorot Journal - A Forum of
Modern Orthodox Discourse 6:1,
2006. Pages 15–16
 23. An English translation by Gordon
Tucker is titled Heavenly Torah: As
Refracted Through the Generations
24. From Spiritual Gems: The Mystical
Qur’an Commentary ascribed to
Ja’far al-Sadiq as contained in
Sulami's Haqa’iq al-Tafsir (Louisville:
Fons Vitae, 2011), trans. Farhana
Mayer, p. 1

External links

Jewish Encyclopedia links …

Homiletics
Aqiva ben-Asher's Alphabet
Biblical Exegesis (see esp. section on
Pardes)
 Mekhilta
Miðrash Halakha
Talmud

Other links …

Pardes+Exegesis google search

Lamed Academy discussion on
PaRDeS
Survey of traditional Jewish views of
Aggadic vs. Halakhic exegeses
Abraham Joshua Heschel's "Aggadic
Man" as the basis of Judaism
A Messianic page that talks about
PaRDeS
Retrieved from
"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?
title=Pardes_(Jewish_exegesis)&oldid=10061396
40"

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