خلفيـّة تطوّر تفاسير التوراة في اليمن

The Yemenite Midrashim on the Pentateuch are probably the most important literary works of medieval Yemenite Jewry, reflecting its way of life and its approach to Torah study. Most of these Midrashim are devoted to the five books of Torah but there are also others, dealing with the haftaroth and the Five Scrolls.
The Torah Midrashim written in Yemen belong to two distinct periods: those compiled mainly between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries, and those compiled between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, which differ in fundamental ways. Whereas the former concentrate on peshat (the plain meaning of the text), Aggadah and Halakha, the latter incline toward remez (the symbolic understanding of Scripture), Kabbala (Jewish mysticism), and esoteric biblical exegeses; Whereas the former is derived from ancient sources written in Hebrew and Arabic, with their authors allowing themselves use of non-Jewish sources, the latter relied solely on Hebrew sources; The former is written in a mixture of Hebrew and Arabic, based on rabbinic writings and on the teachings of great medieval Halakhists such as R. Saadia Gaon and Maimonides, while the latter are written almost solely in Hebrew and based mainly on esoteric, symbolic, allegorical, and kabbalistic elements.
Some Midrashim, however, can clearly be placed in an intermediate
transition phase between the classic and the new periods. Their typical feature is that the peshat interpretation and the one based on esoteric, symbolic, and kabbalistic sources are found side by side. Their language is a mixture of Hebrew and Arabic in varying measures with Talmudic homilies, explanations by Babylonian Geonim and by Spanish scholars sharing the same page with Gematria (numerology) and Kabbalah.
The Yemenite Midrashim also show the development of teaching methods and sources studied, from dealing with the sayings of Talmud Sages until relying on Jewish mysticism, from learning the apparent textual interpretation to the "people of the secret", and from dealing with issues of grammar and language to abbreviations and symbols.
The study of the Yemenite Midrashim not only teaches us the development of the interpretation of the Torah among the Jews of Yemen, but also teaches us the history of Jewish education in Yemen, and this study represents another building block for learning about the Jewish community in Yemen throughout history.