Concepts of Scripture in Nahmanides 143anthropological document, it must be understood and subsequently inter-
preted as a multilayered text. Linking all these levels together is the notion
that the Torah mirrors the very purpose and rhythms of the Jewish people,
from the creation of the universe until its future messianic fulfi llment.9 In
his comments to Moses’s Song at the Sea, for instance, Nahmanides writes,
Now this Song, which is for us eternally true and faithful, off ers an expla-
nation of all that will happen to us. It begins by mentioning the mercy [ha-
hesed] that the Holy One, blessed be He, bestowed upon us when he chose
us as his portion. It then mentions the favors that He did for us in the
wilderness, and how He bequeathed to us the lands of great and mighty
nations. . . . [Th e enemies of Israel] infl icted all these evils upon us out
of their hatred for the Holy One, blessed be He: because they do not hate
Israel for having made idols like theirs, but only because they do not per-
form deeds like they do. . . . Th ere is not in this Song any conditions of
repentance or worship [of God as a prerequisite for the coming redemp-
tion], but it is a testamentary document that the evils will come and that
we will endure them, and that He, blessed be He, will do with us “in furi-
ous rebukes” [Ez. 5:15] — but He will not destroy our memory. Rather, He
will return and get satisfaction10 and will punish our enemies with His sore
and great and strong sword [Is. 27:1], and forgive our sins for His Name’s sake
[Psalm 79:9].11Reminiscent of the Torah as a whole, Moses’s Song contains information
about both the distant past and future redemption. Because the Torah func-
tions, on one of its many levels, as a blueprint for the unfolding of Israel’s
history, this means that levels or meanings hidden to previous generations
become apparent only to the gaze of later ones.12 Revealing the connection
between Israel and God, the Torah also refl ects, according to Nahmanides,
the history of God himself by providing the skilled reader with insights
into the inner dynamics of the Godhead. For this reason, the Bible must
be read, and read again, as a constant source of wisdom, both old and new,
that is grounded in the interpretive frameworks of the great works of the
Jewish past. And it is for this reason that Nahmanides holds that the To-
rah cannot be exhausted by one interpretive lens and instead must be read
both with extreme care and with an inclusive hermeneutic. It is necessary
to read scripture in order to uncover its multiple layers of meanings and to
try and ascertain how these layers connect with one another.