Peshat: The Reinvention of Reading During the Twelfth Century Renaissance
Part of the learning series, You Say You Want a Revolution: Jewish Encounters with Radical Change
With Dr Robbie Harris, Professor of Bible and Ancient Semitic Languages
Beginning in the 9th century in the Arabic-speaking Sephardic world and continuing through the 12th century in northern France, Jewish scholars introduced a new approach to reading the Bible. Alongside the traditional Rabbinic midrashim that had guided Jewish understanding for generations, they began writing plain-sense commentaries known as peshat. Reading the Bible was never the same!
In this session, Dr. Robbie Harris explores why this shift happened, and we dip our toes in some of these bold new biblical commentaries.
About the Series
What does revolution look like in Jewish life—spiritual, social, technological, or political? This fall, join JTS scholars for a provocative webinar series exploring transformative moments across Jewish history. From the emergence of monotheism to the Russian Revolution, from handwritten manuscripts to digital frontiers, from summer camps to the Talmud, we’ll consider how Jews have sparked, resisted, and reimagined change. Each session invites reflection on what revolution means—then and now.
