C.A.T. - PADRES (PARDES)

Pardes is a Hebrew word which is generally translated as garden, or orchard. However, Pardes is also an acronym which has a specific meaning in the area of Parshanut (exegesis). It refers to the idea that a pasuk can be explained on four different and distinct levels. Here is a general overview of these four levels of meaning:

·         Pshat - Literal Meaning

·         Remez - Hinted Mystical Meaning

·         Drash - Midrashic (Homiletical) Meaning

·         Sod - Secret (Mystical) Meaning

Kabbalists generally change the order Remez and Drash, and thus Pardes becomes Padres. (Not to be confused with a baseball team that is located in southern California.) The Parshanut moves from the most literal explanation of a pasuk, to a mystical secret (like tzimzum) which is almost completely divorced from the meaning of the pasuk. An oversimplification of the Padres model of parshanut is that a pasuk can be analyzed in four ways:

·         Pshat - What the pasuk actually says or means.

·         Drash - A moral lesson that can be learned from a single pasuk or a group of pesukim.

·         Remez - A mystical lesson that can be learned from the Gematria of a single word or a group of words.

·         Sod - A mystical concept that is based on one word, or even one letter.

As we continue to explore the concept of Padres in future posts, there will be a number of examples of the parshanut of Padres in action.

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