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Have you heard of the PaRDeS? Coming from an ancient Persian word for an enclosed garden, the Hebrew word pardes means orchard. (The English word "paradise" comes to us from the same source.)
It can also refer to the unique method of Jewish Biblical explanation and interpretation set out in the following acronym:Peshat - the contextually plain meaning of the text.Remez - the often allegorical "hinting" towards deeper and hidden meanings.
Derash - the interpretive layer used to teach moral and legal lessons.
Sod - the "secret" and mystical meanings meant to reveal the nature of God.
Many believe that every verse of the Torah can be interpreted along each of these layers, so that each verse contains multitudes of eternal meanings. As you study the text of the Torah, keep in mind that every verse can be and has been interpreted according to each of these layers - and many more! You can love and appreciate all of them - or you can decide that just one is for you! There are commentators who prefer rationalist readings and ones who prefer mystical. There are ones who like to mix in as many as possible and ones who like to stick to what they know best.
See for yourself with these famous verses - the first in the Torah:
(א) בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית בָּרָ֣א אֱלֹהִ֑ים אֵ֥ת הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וְאֵ֥ת הָאָֽרֶץ׃ (ב) וְהָאָ֗רֶץ הָיְתָ֥ה תֹ֙הוּ֙ וָבֹ֔הוּ וְחֹ֖שֶׁךְ עַל־פְּנֵ֣י תְה֑וֹם וְר֣וּחַ אֱלֹהִ֔ים מְרַחֶ֖פֶת עַל־פְּנֵ֥י הַמָּֽיִם׃
(1) When God began to create heaven and earth— (2) the earth being unformed and void, with darkness over the surface of the deep and a wind from God sweeping over the water—
Let's start with a peshat interpretation from the Rashbam, a medieval commentator - one that looks at the narrative context of the verses and explains it the way that makes most sense according to that context:
וכי אתם סבורים שהעולם הזה כל הימים בנוי כמו שאתם רואים אותו עכשיו מלא כל טוב? לא היה כן, אלא "בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים" וגו', כלומר: בתחילת בריאת שמים וארץ, כלומר: בעת שנבראו כבר שמים העליונים והארץ, הן זמן מרובה הן זמן מועט, אז "וְהָאָרֶץ הָיְתָה"
"וְהָאָרֶץ הָיְתָה"– הבנויה כבר.
"הָיְתָה תֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ" – שלא היה בם שום דבר.
For what if you had thought that that this world had always existed just as you see it now, full of all good things? It wasn't so, but rather [it is written], "when God began to create..."
That is to say, [these verses explain] in the beginning of the creation of the heavens and the earth, or that is to say, at the time when the upper heavens and the earth had already been created, whether it was a long time ago for a short time ago, then "the earth was" — already created — "unformed and void" — that there was nothing in it.
The Rashbam is simply answering the question, "what do these verses mean? What is the point of these verses?" His answer makes perfect sense within the greater narrative of the creation story. It's a peshat layer of interpretation.
In other words: these verses exist to explain that while we might have assumed that the world always existed as we saw it, in reality there was a time before all the things on earth had been created.
Now let's move on to a remez level interpretation by the Daat Zkenim, medieval contemporaries of the Rashbam:
(א) ובתיבת בראשית יש ששה אותיות כנגד ימי המעשה. ובאותו פסוק יש בו שבעה תיבות, כנגד ימי השבוע. ובו כ"ח אותיות, כנגד כ"ח ימי החדש. ובפסוק זה יש ששה אלפין, כנגד ששה אלפי שני הוי עלמא, דכל אל"ף ואל"ף משמע אלף. ובפסוק שלאחריו והארץ, כתב ב' אלפי"ן, כנגד ב' אלפים ימות המשיח.
The word בראשית (Bereishit) has six letters, corresponding to the six days of work. In that verse, there are seven words, corresponding to the days of the week. And there are 28 letters, corresponding to the 28 days of the month. And in this verse there are six alephs, corresponding to the six thousand years of this world [before the Messianic age], as aleph has the meaning of a thousand (eleph).
What made the above commentary remez?
Two attributes of the commentary are common in the remez level of interpretation:
1. Allegory. Something in the text represents something else entirely. In this case, these words and letters stand in for the entire cycle of time set into place at creation.
2. Interpretation drawn from textual units like letters. While any layer of interpretation comes from the meanings of words, remez often uses "hints" that come from the letters themselves, divorced from the meanings of the words they create.
Let's move onto a well known derash by Rashi, the most famous of Torah commentators:
(א) בראשית. אָמַר רַבִּי יִצְחָק לֹֹֹֹֹא הָיָה צָרִיךְ לְהַתְחִיל אֶת הַתּוֹרָה אֶלָּא מֵהַחֹדֶשׁ הַזֶּה לָכֶם, שֶׁהִיא מִצְוָה רִאשׁוֹנָה שֶׁנִּצְטַוּוּ בָּהּ יִשׂרָאֵל, וּמַה טַּעַם פָּתַח בִּבְרֵאשִׁית? מִשׁוּם כֹּחַ מַעֲשָׂיו הִגִּיד לְעַמּוֹ לָתֵת לָהֶם נַחֲלַת גּוֹיִם (תהילים קי"א), שֶׁאִם יֹאמְרוּ אֻמּוֹת הָעוֹלָם לְיִשְׁרָאֵל לִסְטִים אַתֶּם, שֶׁכְּבַשְׁתֶּם אַרְצוֹת שִׁבְעָה גוֹיִם, הֵם אוֹמְרִים לָהֶם כָּל הָאָרֶץ שֶׁל הַקָּבָּ"ה הִיא, הוּא בְרָאָהּ וּנְתָנָהּ לַאֲשֶׁר יָשַׁר בְּעֵינָיו, בִּרְצוֹנוֹ נְתָנָהּ לָהֶם, וּבִרְצוֹנוֹ נְטָלָהּ מֵהֶם וּנְתָנָהּ לָנוּ:
(1) בראשית IN THE BEGINNING — Rabbi Isaac said: The Torah which is the Law book of Israel should have commenced with the verse (Exodus 12:2) “This month shall be unto you the first of the months” which is the first commandment given to Israel. What is the reason, then, that it commences with the account of the Creation? Because of the thought expressed in the text (Psalms 111:6) “He declared to His people the strength of His works (i.e. He gave an account of the work of Creation), in order that He might give them the heritage of the nations.” For should the peoples of the world say to Israel, “You are robbers, because you took by force the lands of the seven nations of Canaan”, Israel may reply to them, “All the earth belongs to the Holy One, blessed be He; He created it and gave it to whom He pleased. When He willed He gave it to them, and when He willed He took it from them and gave it to us.”
What makes this derash?
Derash can be difficult to categorize. At its base, it takes the text and turns it into a lesson, a story, or a legal example. Here we can see Rashi has something he wants to teach through the text: namely, that the Torah starts with the story of creation not because it was the first thing to happen narratively. So why does it start with creation? Because the Torah wants to make a point about the nature of the world: that all that is created belongs to God and God can deal with it as God wants.Lastly, we have the level of sod, or the "secret" reading of the text. Generally this involves the hidden names of God embedded in the text. In this case, those hidden names show how creation is dependent on the mystical emanations of God.
ואל הגבורה שם מ״ב, והוא היוצא מבראשית עד וב׳ של ובהו, מ״ב אותיות, והם שבע שמות כנגד שבע ספירות.
The Divine attribute of Gevurah (strength, strictness, and judgement) has the forty-two letter Name which comes out of [the verses] from In the beginning (Gen. 1:1) to the bet in bohu (“void”), [equaling] forty-two letters. They constitute seven Names corresponding to the seven sefirot.
The above text separates the words from any directly narrative meaning. Instead, it explores the letters themselves to find the hidden names of God living in the verses. As each name is related to a specific sort of Divine manifestation, mystics believe that studying the sod allows us glimpses into the nature of the Divine.
As you explore Sefaria's library of Jewish texts, don't forget to appreciate the orchard that has grown up around them!