I have heard that there are four levels of meaning at which the Torah is interpreted and understood. Could you tell me about these four levels?

Thank you very much for your question. You are correct that there are four levels of meaning in our Torah that are discussed by our Talmudic Rabbis. They actually gave these four stages an acronym of PARD”ES, which literally means “orchard”. In a Kabbalistic sense the Torah is compared to an orchard in which the further you enter the closer you come to revealing it’s ultimate truths and secrets.

I’ll briefly discuss the four levels;

1. Pshat - the simple straightforward meaning of the words of the Torah. Included in this is the actual Written Torah, and the true interpretation of it’s words as passed down to us through the generations in the Oral Torah from Moses at Sinai.

2. Remez - symbolism. One of the levels in which the Torah may be understood is that its actual Pshat is symbolic of other things. An example of this would be our Rabbis teaching’s of Shir HaShirim, the Song Of Songs. Although a perusal based on Pshat indicates that it is a love song between a young man and his lover, our Rabbis teach us that it is actually symbolic of the relationship between G-d and Israel. There are many other such examples that can be found.

3. Drush - homiletic exposition. This refers to the things that are derived from the text in a homiletic manner, such as extra words or letters in the written text, and juxtaposition of various words and verses. There are 13 rules that have been handed down to us in the Oral Torah which must be used in this type of Torah study, it can not be done independently.

4. Sod - secrets. This generally refers to the Kabbalistic teachings. I wish I could give you a better explanation of this level, but unfortunately I have not yet reached this level and have no understanding of it’s actual meaning.

Take care,
Rabbi Aaron Tendler