Supplementing Rashi into Double Glosses: The Midrashic Hermeneutics of R. Moshe Gabbai's Eved Shlomo

Abstract

This paper presents the interpretive approach of Rabbi Moshe Gabbai (RMG), the 15th-century Sephardic author of Eved Shlomo, a supercommentary on Rashi. It focuses on his method of pairing Rashi’s midrashic glosses with peshat explanations, thereby generating what Sarah Kamin termed “double glosses,” which are commentary entries where both literal (peshat) and midrashic (derash) interpretations are provided for a single biblical phrase. Through this innovative methodology, which we term his “Midrashic Hermeneutics,” RMG systematically defended Rashi against contemporary critics who viewed his extensive use of midrash as problematic, demonstrating how a Sephardic scholar reconciled traditional midrashic commentary with the rationalist exegetical preferences of his cultural milieu.