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Moshe haDarshan (circa early 11th century) (Hebrew:משה הדרשן, trans. "Moses the preacher") waschief of the yeshiva ofNarbonne, and perhaps the founder ofJewishexegetical studies inFrance. Along withRashi, his writings are often cited as the first extant writings inZarphatic, the Judæo-French language.
According toAbraham Zacuto,[1] Moses was descended from a Narbonne family distinguished for its erudition; his great-grandfather, Abun, his grandfather, Moses ben Abun, and his father, Jacob ben Moses ben Abun (called "ha-Navi"), all having been presidents of the Narbonneyeshivah. Moses himself held this position, and after his death it was occupied by his brother Levi.[2]
Though Moshe ha-Darshan was considered a rabbinical authority,[3] he owes his reputation principally to the fact that together withTobiah ben Eliezer he was the most prominent representative of midrashic-symbolicBible exegesis (derash) in the 11th century. His work on theBible, probably sometimes calledYesod, and known only by quotations found mostly inRashi's Bible commentaries, which quote him 19 times, and twice in his Talmud commentary -Ketubot 75b andNiddah 19a), contained extracts from earlieraggadic works as well asmidrashic explanations of his own.
Probably the non-preservation of the work was due to an excess of the foreign element in its composition, causing it to be regarded with disfavor. Moreover, as has recently been ascertained byA. Epstein, it was not a systematically arranged work, but merely a collection of notes made by Moses. For this reason, apparently, it did not have a fixed title, and therefore it is quoted under various names by different authors.[4]
The MidrashBereshit Rabbah Major orBereshit Rabbati, known through quotations byRaymund Martin in hisPugio Fidei, has many aggadot andaggadic ideas which recall very strongly Moses ha-Darshan's teachings; it is claimed byZunz[5] that the midrash was actually the work of Moses.A. Epstein, however, is of the opinion that the final compiler of the midrash, certainly not Moses ha-Darshan, took from theYesod whatever he considered appropriate for his purpose, especially from Moses' midrashic interpretation of theGenesis creation myth.[6]
In a similar way theYesod influenced the MidrashBamidbar Rabbah and theMidrash Tadshe, which later, in a aggadic-symbolic manner, endeavors to show the parallelism between the world, mankind, and theTabernacle.[7] Concerning the Midrash Tadshe, Epstein goes so far as to assume that Moses ha-Darshan was its author.[8] Moses ha-Darshan explained some obscure expressions in certainpiyyuṭim.[9] He is credited also with a midrash on theTen Commandments and with a "viddui".
Moses' son was Judah ha-Darshan ben Moses. Probably the Joseph he-Ḥasid mentioned inSamuel ben Jacob ibn Jama's additions to theArukh ofNathan ben Jehiel[10] was a son of Judah ha-Darshan. Nathan ben Jehiel was certainly a student of Moses, whose explanations of Talmudical words and passages he cites.Abraham Zacuto[11] ascribes to Moses three more pupils:Moses Anaw,Moses ben Joseph ben Merwan ha-Levi, andAbraham ben Isaac of Narbonne (author of theSefer ha-Eshkol). A. Epstein credits Moses with another pupil, a certain R. Shemaiah, who is quoted sometimes in Bereshit Rabbah Rabbati and inNumbers Rabbah as explaining sayings of Moses ha-Darshan's.[12] He also suggests[12] the identity of this Shemaiah withShemaiah of Soissons, author of a midrash on Parashat Terumah,[13] whosecosmological conceptions seem to have been influenced by Moses ha-Darshan.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Wilhelm Bacher;Max Schloessinger (1901–1906)."Moses ha-Darshan". InSinger, Isidore; et al. (eds.).The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.
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