Rebbe Nachman was apparently very liberal about parshanut. He allowed for twisting his words around
SO LONG AS THEY DID NOT TWIST THE SHULCHAN ARUCH *
Moshe Mendolsohnn espoused a similar philosophy of Orthopractic Faithfulness and a Liberal Belief system. However, Mendelsohnn failed in his time
More recently, I had a number of teachers who did follow this approach. They felt that academic investigation into Talmudic texts was academic Torah Lishmah so long as the SA was respected. Needless to say, many dispute this approach.
Some dispute from the Left and revise Halachah. Some dispute from the right and oppose liberties even in Drash and Parshanut
Note- When I speak of a Liberal Belief system, I do NOT mean to convey ZERO belief system. Even Mendelsohnn et. al subscribed to a set of minimal Belief Parameters. Certain Beliefs are simply axiomatic. I propose to drop Rambam's Emunot and embrace Axioms instead
Here are two, for example
1. The Exodus
2. The Election of Israel
The Torah takes these as axiomatic
Also, I do not believe that Torah is subservient to the political correctness of the day. Thus the "ism" du jour is not a reason to twist the Torah around, albeit that it may not be heretical to do so.
AISI - Liberal Parshanut ought to be a result of honest investigation, and not of conforming with secular mores.
Examples - Ibn Ezra and Rashbam set aside "Arami oveid Avi" as Lavan and see it as either Avraham Avinu or Yaakov Avinu.
The Sifrei - a midrash Halachah - ascribing this to Lavan is normative and thus we follow this in the Haggada
However, in Torah Lishma in the P'shat realm, we have latitude
Similarly Rashbam suggested to take the Torah literally when ascribing the sale of Yosef to the Yismaelim, as opposed to Rashi's take that the brother's did it.
* Sources
See "Crossing the Narrow Bridge" p. 107 and the sources cited there, namely
• "Rabbi. Nachman's Wisdom #267 "
• "Siach Sarfei Kodesh 1-131"
Shalom, RRW
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