The Anthological Interpretation: The Emergence of Anthologies of Zohar Commentaries in the Seventeenth Century

Abstract

ANTHOLOGIES OF COMMENTARIES are a highly popular and widespread genre in Jewish literature. Most of the literary output of the talmudic period, the midrashic collections and the talmudic compilations, are essentially anthologies of interpretations. In medieval times, new genres of anthological and compilatory interpretations emerged: anthologies of midrashic interpretations to the Bible, such as Yalaul shim'oni and Midrash hagadol; compilatory commentaries to biblical texts, such as the commentary to Job attributed to R. Joseph Kara1 and the Torah commentary of Rabbi Hezekiah ben Rabbi Manoah (Sefer hizzekuni)? and the super-commentaries of Ba'alei Hatosafot to Rashi's Torah and Talmud commentaries.3 With the coming ofprint, the format of a text surrounded by several commentaries became prevalent. The first editions of talmudic tracts were accompanied by the commentaries of Rashi and the Tosafot, and the Biblia Rabbinica of 1525, edited by Jacob ben Hayyim, included at least two commentaries to each biblical compilation.4 Other commentaries were added to later editions of the Babylonian Talmud and the Biblia Rabbinica. The editors of compilatory and anthological commentaries offer a special exegetical attitude: instead of offering their own understanding of a text, they express their hermeneutic stance through selecting and editing previous commentaries to the text.5 Among such compilations, two major types can be discerned: compilatory commentaries that form

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