The pioneering nature of Rashi’s peshat program was duly noted by Rashbam, who describes how earlier interpreters focused exclusively on midrash, whereas his grandfather “endeavored to interpret the peshat of Scripture.” In the same breath, though, he adds: “I, Samuel, son of his son-in-law Meir (of blessed memory), debated with him personally, and he admitted to me that if he had the opportunity, he would have to write new commentaries according to the peshat interpretations that newly emerge (ha-mitḥaddeshim) every day.”1 Rashi recognized that he had not yet completed the work that needed to be done to perfect the peshat method, and acknowledged the remarkable advances in this revolutionary endeavor in his own day. It is likely that new peshat interpretations were raised orally within Rashi’s circle – and that he was referring to them in the comment cited by Rashbam. Indeed, some such interpretations were incorporated into the text of Rashi’s commentaries, as noted in earlier chapters of this study. But the most remarkable manifestation of the progress of the peshat method was in the separate commentaries penned by Joseph Qara and Rashbam.