[Avodah] Diberah Torah

[Michael Makovi]

> "When the notion of non-literalism was attributed to
> Chazal's use of
> the phrase and R' Yishma'els side of the machloqes, I
> spoke up. That's
> anachronistic conflation of two uses of an idiom."
>
> (End of excerpt of MIcha Berger)
>
> But the Rambam, for instance, said that this is the
> meaning of what Chazal said. For example, Moreh
> Nevuchim (1:26):
>
> I therefore conclude that [the rishonim understood
> that] the essential meaning of the Chazal is a broad
> one that includes the one used by the rishonim. Rabbi
> Yishmael was just applying one of its implications.
>
> Zvi Lampel

Also, I recall somewhere in Shabbat perek seven that when one Rabbi
drashes a few pesukim, but the other side isn't asked to drash the
same pesukim to fit his shita, Tosafot does the job for the Gemara.

For one of the pesukim, Tosafot says we can simply say the Torah
speaks in the language of man, and the pasuk isn't there to be
drashed, but instead it is there for an ordinary literary purpose.

Evidently, then, Tosafot understands this dictum to mean that the
Torah sometimes includes a pasuk or parsha for the same reason as any
human would.

Mikha'el Makovi