The Malbim and nineteenth-century linguistic exegesis

Rabbi Meir Leibush ben Jehiel Michel Wisser (1809–1879), known by the acronym Malbim, was a rabbi in Romania and Russia and an influential exegete. His biblical commentary rests on the principle that there are no true synonyms in the Torah and that halakhic Midrash flows from the precise sense of language. His work also sought to defend tradition against the Reform.