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| Muslim Spain at around the eleventh century |
Introduction
Parshan and Darshan
are terms which usually describe a Torah commentator or exegete,
but who is the Sadran? The term Sadran means compiler or editor. This is not an expression one would expect to
find in the context of the Torah. This article, based extensively on the work
by Professor Richard Steiner[1]
from Yeshiva University explores instances where our classical texts make
reference to a Sadran. Interestingly, this is one of the most
peer-reviewed papers I have come upon in a long time.
Some of the texts originated in
Byzantium (Constantinople) and were discovered in the Cairo Geniza and
published by Nicholas de Lange. One is a midrashic commentary on Bereishit
and Shemot[2],
another is a peshat commentary by R. Reuel of Byzantium, on Ezekiel and the
Minor Prophets. Both texts are probably from the tenth or early eleventh
century and therefore pre-date Rashi (1040-1105). These different commentaries
have one thing in common, they both reference an elusive Sadran or biblical
‘editor’.
