As a research project I’d like to compare and contrast two Jewish thinkers and their views on one Biblical text. So what two thinkers would be good to focus on and what text would the two argue about?
Sounds like a very interesting project. To be honest, it kind of depends on the scope of the project you are working on. There are numerous commentators you could choose from, but some pairs lend themselves more to be “compared”.Here are a couple of ideas:
a) Maimonides and Nachmanidies — they have some fascinating arguments. However, if your goal is specifically textual comparisons, this would be a more difficult project since Maimonides did not write a commentary on the Bible per se. Thus, the leg work, so to speak, would be more difficult.
b) Nachmanidies and Rashi — this pair seems like a very logical choice for textual comparison sake. They both have very popular and well known commentaries on the Bible (which are available in English) and oftentimes Nachmanidies quotes Rashi, so the leg work is much simpler. Of course, the actual analysis depends on the time and effort you desire.
Be well,
Rabbi Yoel Spotts