Read not…but… / Do not read this but…

Do not read the text this way…but rather that way… A method of interpretation used to infuse new meaning into what is written by making a small change in the vowels or letters, so that an original interpretation is added alongside the plain meaning of the original text.

("And this is what Hannah said (I Samuel 2:2): 'There is none holy as the Lord, for there is none beside You, neither is there any rock like our God.' – What does it mean, 'There is no rock like our God'? There is no artist like our God. What does it mean, 'for there is none beside You'? Rabbi Yehuda bar Menasya said: Do not read 'for there is none beside You' but 'for there is no wearing out of You'; for the ways of the Holy One, blessed be He, are not like the ways of flesh and blood. The works of flesh and blood wear out their maker, but the Holy One, blessed be He, wears out His works." – Berakhot 10a. Also: "The interpretive method to which the Sages have become accustomed, with the phrase 'Do not read this, but that' – this is the way of the Sages, the way of poetic style, to offer allegories about good traits... They attached it to Scripture so that it would be remembered... not that their intention was to explain the verses this way and remove them from their simple meaning." – Introduction of Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Chajes to Ein Yaakov)

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