Torah leaders confronting the Enlightenment were forced to develop innovative and original approaches to preserving and transmitting the mesorah. Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch’s groundbreaking commentary on Chumash stands out.
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As the Enlightenment brought down ghetto walls all over central Europe that had kept the Jews isolated from the world around them many began to discard their Judaism and assimilate into the surrounding environment. Although in Eastern Europe the Jews couldn’t fully assimilate into gentile society different forces most notably the Haskalah succeeded in distancing many Jews from Torah observance.
Among those who abandoned Torah observance were some who felt that Chazal’s interpretation of the mitzvos was not based on the Written Torah. To counteract this trend in the mid-to-late 19th century several new and highly original commentaries on Chumash appeared. Although they were very different from each other in important ways each aimed to explain the Written Torah in the spirit of Chazal. Among these were:
• Hakesav V’hakabbalah by Rav Yaakov Tzvi Mecklenburg the rav of Koenigsberg Prussia and a disciple of Rav Akiva Eiger. He carefully analyzes the root meanings and grammar of the words of the Chumash to provide a clear interpretation of the pesukim and respond to attacks on Chazal’s received understanding of Torah;
• The commentaries of Rav Meir Leibush ben Yechiel Michel known by his acronym Malbim to Tanach. A brilliant talmid chacham and a warrior against the Haskalah he served as the rav of many different Eastern European communities. His first work a commentary on Sefer Yeshayahu included an introduction in which he elucidated the principles that formed the basis for his commentary to Tanach as a whole such as that no two words in Tanach Hebrew have precisely the same meaning and that there are no repeated phrases or clauses in Tanach. His works on Vayikra and Devarim are original commentaries to the Sifra and Sifrei demonstrating how Chazal proved the correct halachic interpretation of each verse.
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