פשוטו של מקרא

 

Shabbos 63a                   What’s Pshat? ר' כהנא said, “ When I was eighteen years I completed the  whole Shas and I didn’t know that the פסוק doesn’t leave the Pshat (אין המקרא יוצא מידי פשוטו) until now. It. is very difficult to understand how an eighteen year Yeshiva Bachur who completed  all of Shas isn’t aware that the פסוקים are meant to be understood as פשוט פשט.   The Chasam Sofer  (תורת משה פ' בשלח ד"ה קצת מדרוש) writes that the original מסורה was to teach first the children only דרוש and not פשט. Even though this system doesn’t seem right, this was the מסורה  of previous generations. ( The Ch.S. has a lengthy explanation of why it was done so) It would seem that the opponents of the ספר פשוטו של מקרא would like to reintroduce the long since forgotten מסורה and even take it further by holding back even adults from פשוטו של מקרא