Pardes (Hebrew: פרד״ס) is a Kabbalistic theory of Biblical exegesis first advanced by Moses de León,[1] adapting the popular "fourfold" method of medieval Christianity.

Some books, such the Tolaat Yaakov of Meir ben Ezekiel ibn Gabbai, divide Pardes into Peshat, Remez, Din (law), and Sod.

"[11][12] The original printings of the Zohar contain a slightly different version, possibly from before de Leon thought of the mnemonic: "In the words of the bible are its peshata and derasha and remez and gematriyot and razzin.

Their esoteric meanings did not deny the truth of exotericism, but rather reinforced the need for exoteric Halacha Jewish law and practical observance of the 613 Mitzvot as God's plan in Creation.

In this sense, ascending the four levels of interpretation reveals greater divinity in Torah; the exoteric and esoteric are linked in a continuous chain.

The unity of the two is proved by the fact that both have the same name, for she is called ishah (woman), because she was taken out of ish (man), also by the words, "And shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh" (ii.

So also Adam “separated the fruit physically and in thought”: the Bereshit Rabbah teaches that wine is the fruit of knowledge… Shabbat is the highest day of Creation and this day is the connection and unity between God and the Jew: Kiddush is the sanctification about which the spiritual salvation can be lived as messianic taste before the final redemption, that is the tikkun of messianic era.

The Midrash describes God "looking into the Torah to Create the World", which Kabbalah extended into a linguistic mysticism.

[citation needed] The teachings of Isaac Luria, which form the basis of modern esoteric Kabbalah, read the mythological doctrine of Shevirat HaKeilim ("Shattering of the vessels in God's Persona) from the account of the Edomite Kings of Genesis 36:31 and I Chronicles 1:43: "These are the kings who reigned in the land of Edom before there reigned any king over the children of Israel..." In Kabbalah, based on exoteric Midrash, the Hebrew Patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, embody the sephirot of Chesed-Kindness, Gevurah-Strength and Tiferet-Beauty.

The Messianic Era for all people will embody both advantages of the high lights of Tohu in the rectified vessels of Tikun, when "all Nations will ascend the mountain of God".

And the Spirit of God hovered (מרחפת-"Merachepet", the sparks animating the fragments externally) over the face of the waters.

And God said, Let there be light..(the World of Tikun, allowing stable reception of Divine revelation) "Merachepet" divides into 288 (רפח) sparks animating within the מת-"dead"-fallen fragments.

"Pardes" is etymologically related to the English word "paradise", and the Quranic Firdaus (Arabic فِردَوس) among various other forms, in that they all share a common origin in an Old Iranian root, attested in the Avestan language as pairi.daêza-.

[26][27] In a discourse, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavitch Rebbe, asks where Hasidic thought fits in with Pardes exegesis.

As essence, Hasidic thought, investigated intellectually in Habad, both transcends all four levels of Pardes in its own exegetical explanation, and permeates within the four.

Haredi Judaism regards the Oral Torah texts as revelation, and can apply Pardes method to read classic Rabbinic literature.

Modern Orthodox Judaism is open to historical critical study of Rabbinic literature and some application to the later Biblical canon.

Additionally, some Modern Orthodox scholars have looked at Biblical Criticism on the Torah, incorporating some of its views within traditional belief in Mosaic revelation.

[29] Beginning with Samuel David Luzzatto in the nineteenth century, there has been an approach to understanding the Torah that finds statements in classical Jewish commentaries on the Bible that would allow acceptance of revelation, and still use Lower Criticism.

[30] In the 20th century, the Conservative Judaism philosopher-theologian Abraham Joshua Heschel, while accepting modern scholarship, saw existentialist revelation and Divine encounter as the foundation of legitimate Bible interpretation.

It explores the views of the Rabbis in the Talmud, Midrash and among the philosophical and mystical traditions, about the nature of Torah, the revelation of God to mankind, prophecy, and the ways that Jews have used scriptural exegesis to expand and understand these core Jewish texts in a living, fluid spiritual exegesis.