Midrash
\nIn the book of Genesis, when the twins Jacob and Esau are fighting in her womb, Rebekah goes to ask God for some answers. The verb used for her quest is lidrosh, meaning \u201cto seek, to inquire, to search out.\u201d This same verb becomes the basis for the word \u201cmidrash.\u201d Midrash is a unique process of Jewish interpretation that includes both explanation of the Torah and creative legends or ideas that give new meaning to the Torah. Midrash tells what biblical texts say, notices what the texts do not say, and then adds to them. Through midrash, each word in the Bible can become a jumping-off point for a new story. Midrash allows Jewish tradition to keep on growing.
\nMidrash has been going on for thousands of years. The process of midrash developed, in part, because the Bible often uses few words to tell a story or explain a law. What did the serpent in the Garden of Eden look like? What was the name of Noah\u2019s wife? What was Abraham like as a child? How did Jacob feel when he wrestled the angel? Why were the Israelites commanded not to light a fire on the Sabbath? How are we to honor our parents? The Torah does not answer these questions, yet people who take the Torah seriously want answers. So we need a way of reading sacred text that allows them to provide answers where there are none.
\nHow does midrash work? Imagine a page with words written on it in black ink. The words are fixed and holy; they cannot change. Yet around the words are white spaces. In these white spaces, you can write your own thoughts and explanations. The words you scribble are inspired by the original words written in ink. Yet the words you write also reflect your own beliefs and feelings. They even may turn into creative stories based on what you have already read. Your \u201cadditions\u201d are interpretations, yet they are also completely new. They do not change the holy text, but if someone reads the text with your ideas next to it, the text will take on new meaning.
\nThis \u201cwhite margin\u201d way of interpreting the Torah and the Bible began in the Bible itself, but the Rabbis of the Talmud perfected the process we call midrash. The sages commented on every aspect of the Torah, assuming that every single word had secrets and stories in it. They believed each new generation of readers could find more of those secrets and stories. The Rabbis of the Talmud wanted to understand the words of the Bible as well as possible, but their interpretations changed as they themselves grew and changed. The Rabbis created midrash, interpretation, by asking questions of the biblical text, and then answering the questions they asked through parables and stories. By creating midrash, the sages and others produced the laws, ethics, and legends of the Jewish people. Later generations studied these midrashim and added their own ideas.
\nWe know many of the midrashim that ancient Jews wrote or told because they appear in the Talmud and in other written collections from the time of the Talmud and later (300\u20131000 c.e.). Midrash from this period is called \u201cclassical midrash.\u201d Yet the process of midrash is so compelling to Jews that they have gone on making midrash in every generation, right up to today. In Pirkei Avot, a collection of wise sayings of the sages, it is written: \u201cTurn the Torah and turn it again, for everything is in it.\u201d This means that when someone reads the Torah and has a new question, he or she can find an answer, or invent one, through midrash.
\nHow Midrash Works
\nLet\u2019s look at three examples of the way classical midrash asks questions and then offers creative answers.
\nExample 1
\nThe first example is a comment on Genesis 22:19, a verse at the very end of the story in which Abraham nearly offers his son Isaac as a sacrifice to God, but an angel intervenes at the last moment. The verse reads:
\nAbraham then returned to his servants, and they departed together for Beer-sheba; and Abraham stayed in Beer-sheba.
\nBereshit Rabbah, a collection of the sages\u2019 midrash from the time of the Talmud, comments on this text by saying:
\nWhere did Isaac go? He went to Shem to study Torah from him.
\nThis midrash asks the question, what happened to Isaac? Isaac was at the mountain and was nearly sacrificed, yet the Torah speaks about how Abraham and the servants go home, but does not mention Isaac. The midrash now must fill in the answer to that question. This midrash imagines that Isaac goes to one of his relatives, Shem, to study Torah.
\nWhat\u2019s interesting about this answer is that, of course, in the days of Abraham and Isaac there is no Torah to study; the giving of the Torah isn\u2019t going to happen for hundreds of years. Why did the Rabbis of the Talmud offer such a strange answer?
\nFirst, they themselves were Torah scholars and saw the study of Torah as fundamental to being Jewish, so naturally they imagined Abraham and Isaac, the first Jews, as Torah scholars. They used their midrash to personally identify with the characters in the Bible.
\nSecond, they wanted other Jews who read this midrash to care about Torah study, so they used Abraham and Isaac as role models for learning. They used their midrash to teach a moral lesson.
\nAnd third, the Rabbis of the Talmud imagined Torah not just as a document, but as a process. For them, it didn\u2019t matter that the written Torah was not given yet in the time of Isaac, just as it didn\u2019t matter to them that they themselves were living long after the Torah was given. The Rabbis used their midrash to show that the process of study and interpretation can happen in any generation. That process itself is Torah, no matter when it happens.
\n(Note that there can be more than one answer to a midrashic question. A different sage answers this same question about where Isaac is by saying that he went to visit his brother, Ishmael!)
\nExample 2
\nIn the Babylonian Talmud (Megillah 10b), the Rabbis are interpreting chapter 15 of the book of Exodus, known as the Song at the Sea. In this passage, the Israelites have just passed through the Sea of Reeds and escaped from Egypt, and they sing a song to celebrate. Meanwhile, the Egyptian warriors who chased them are drowning in the sea.
\nExodus 15 begins:
\nThen Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the Lord.
\nThe Talmud comments:
\nThe angels of the heavenly court wanted to sing, but the Holy One said:
\nMy creatures are drowning in the sea and you want to sing songs?
\nIn midrash, each word in the Torah is important. This midrash is an interpretation of the words \u201cMoses and the Israelites sang.\u201d Moses and the Israelites sing, this midrash suggests, but the angels do not sing, because God commands them not to sing. God is sad about the death of the Egyptians, even though they enslaved the Israelites, and so God asks the angels to keep quiet.
\nThis example shows another function of midrash: to express discomfort with the biblical text when it seems not to fit with contemporary values. In the biblical text, the Israelites are cheering while their enemies drown. The sages of the Talmud were uncomfortable with this rejoicing in the face of death. They used this midrash to imagine that God too was uncomfortable with the idea of singing as someone else drowns in the sea.
\nExample 3
\nMidrash is used to create traditions, customs, and laws. The Jews of the talmudic period also used midrash to create or clarify Jewish law on a particular subject. For example, the laws of the Sabbath are not spelled out in the Torah. Only a few general verses tell us about biblical Sabbath practices. Later Jewish scholars had to find a way to figure out what activities should be allowed, or forbidden, on the Sabbath. They used midrash to create their vision of the Sabbath.
\nFor example, Leviticus 19:30 reads:
\nYou shall keep My sabbaths and venerate My sanctuary: I am the Lord.
\nThe Babylonian Talmud (Yevamot 6a) asks:
\nIs it possible that the building of the sanctuary should be done on Shabbat?\u2026 Rather, the Torah says: \u201cYou shall keep my Sabbaths and venerate my sanctuary; I am the Lord.\u201d
\nTalmudic Rabbis imagined that because keeping the Sabbath was mentioned in the same verse with honoring the sanctuary, all activities done to build the sanctuary (weaving, dyeing, cutting wood, and so on) were forbidden on the Sabbath. This midrash helped them develop clear ideas about how the Sabbath should be celebrated. Many long passages in the Talmud are based on this one midrash.
\nIn each of these examples, a question is asked of the sacred text, usually a question to which the answer is not obvious from the text itself. Then an answer, or more than one answer, is offered. Midrash combines careful inspection of the words of the Bible with reason and imagination to create a fuller, richer understanding of Torah.
\nSome Basic Midrashic Rules
\nThe sages were well aware that the sentences of Torah had a literal meaning. The Rabbis called this peshat, or the plain meaning of the text. They recognized and honored this literal meaning, saying: \u201cThe plain meaning of a scriptural verse should never be ignored.\u201d At the same time, they added a more interpretive, fanciful, symbolic meaning, which they called derash. It was at this second level of interpretation that midrash happened.
\nThe sages had great autonomy in making midrash, often proposing astonishing solutions to textual problems. For example, Genesis has two Creation stories, one (chapter 1) in which man and woman are created at the same time, and another (chapter 2) in which Adam is created first and Eve is created later. Rabbi Samuel bar Nachman explains this in the following way:
\nWhen the Holy One of Blessing created the first human being, it had two faces, and then God split it in two [so that it became a male creature and a female creature] (Bereshit Rabbah 8:1).
\nThis midrash, by asking questions about the difference between the two stories, comes up with a solution we would not have expected: first there was one androgynous creature, and then two creatures, male and female. (This story is based on a Greek story by Plato. The Rabbis did sometimes borrow legends from other cultures.)
\nNo creative idea was off-limits in making midrash. However, the sages did use some rules to help them interpret biblical stories. These rules allowed them to find answers to their questions even when the Bible did not offer any obvious clues.
\nRULE 1: LOOK AT WHAT IS NEABY
\nOne rule the Rabbis used is called semikhut parshiyot, or \u201cthe closeness of one section of Torah to another.\u201d If one tale in the Torah is unclear, another tale that appears before or after it is used to explain the first. For example, in Genesis 23, Sarah dies, but we are not told why or how she dies. How can the sages answer this question of how Sarah dies, with no information to go on?
\nImmediately before the story of Sarah\u2019s death, we are told of the binding and near-sacrifice of Isaac. One midrash from Va-yikra Rabbah concludes that Sarah dies because she hears about what nearly happened to Isaac. The shock is too much for her. This kind of midrash uses the rule of semikhut parshiyot to suggest that the Torah hints at why Sarah dies by putting the story of her death close to the story of her son\u2019s trauma.
\nRULE 2: JUST DESSERTS
\nAnother rule the sages used is called middah keneged middah, or \u201cmeasure for measure,\u201d and sometimes defined as \u201cpoetic justice.\u201d The Talmud assumes that events in the Torah about a person\u2019s life (good or bad) happen because that person has done something to deserve them.
\nFor example, the Patriarch Jacob serves his uncle Laban for seven years in order to marry Laban\u2019s daughter Rachel. On his wedding night, Laban tricks Jacob and gives him Rachel\u2019s elder sister Leah as a bride. In the morning, as light dawns, Jacob realizes that he has been with Leah all night. Yet the Torah does not tell us what Jacob and Leah say to one another. Bereshit Rabbah imagines that Jacob says, \u201cDeceiver and daughter of a deceiver! All night I called you Rachel and you answered me!\u201d Leah responds, \u201cIs there a teacher without students? Didn\u2019t your father call you Esau, and you answered him?\u201d Leah is invoking the principle of middah keneged middah.
\nAnother example is in Exodus 7:20, where Moses and Aaron tell Pharaoh that a plague of blood will come upon Egypt because Pharaoh has enslaved the Israelites. Yet only one person strikes the river: \u201che lifted up his rod and struck the water.\u201d Who does the striking? Is it Moses or Aaron?
\nA midrash in Shemot Rabbah says that it must have been Aaron who struck the Nile River to turn it into blood. Why? Because the Nile once saved Moses\u2019s life, when he was a baby floating in a basket. It is fitting (middah keneged middah) for Moses not to strike the Nile at the time of the Exodus, for the Nile did not strike Moses when he was an infant. And so this is an explanation for why Moses steps aside when the plague of blood begins.
\nRULE 3: SIGNS FOR THE FUTURE
\nAnother idea the sages used often when making midrash is known as ma\u2019aseh avot siman le-vanim, \u201cthe actions of the ancestors are a sign for the children.\u201d This means that actions that happen in the Bible can be a sign of events that will happen later in history. For example, take the beautiful scene in which a dove brings an olive branch to Noah to let him know that dry land has appeared and the Flood is over. Midrash Tanhuma, a 12th- to 14th-century commentary, says the following:
\nThe Holy One of Blessing said: Just as the dove brought light to the world, so you, who are compared to a dove in Scripture, brought olive oil and lighted a lamp before me.
\nThe dove\u2019s taking of an olive branch signifies that the Jews will one day light a lamp filled with olive oil, a menorah, in the Temple.
\nThe sages also used this principle when discussing the quarrel between Esau and Jacob. These two brothers, sons of Isaac and Rebekah, fight over their inheritance. Jacob has to run away from his home because of the conflict, but eventually wins the inheritance. Many midrashim see this conflict as a sign of later conflicts to come between Romans and Jews, and between Christians and Jews, and tell stories of Jacob\u2019s spiritual superiority to Esau, even though Esau is stronger.
\nMidrash can have a contemporary political meaning. In this kind of midrash, a story told about the Bible reflects how someone feels about a situation that is happening to them at the moment. The sages, oppressed by Roman or Christian authorities, used stories about Jacob and Esau to express their conviction that one day they would come out on top.
\nRULE 4: NAMES TELL THE STORY
\nWhen interpreting the Bible, the Rabbis also liked to use the meaning of people\u2019s names to add to the story. This principle is sometimes called k\u2019shmo kein hu, \u201ca person is like his name.\u201d For example, at the beginning of the book of Exodus, two midwives named Shifrah and Puah save Israelite children from Pharaoh, they refuse to kill the children at Pharaoh\u2019s command. In a collection called Shemot Rabbah, the sages say that Shifrah is Yocheved, Moses\u2019s mother, and Puah is Miriam, Moses\u2019s sister:
\nYocheved is called Shifrah because she cleans up [meshaperet] the child when it is born \u2026 and Miriam is called Puah because she blows [po\u2018ah] into the child\u2019s mouth when others say it has been born dead [and brings it to life again].
\nHere, we learn more about Yocheved and Miriam. They are not just members of an illustrious family, but expert and caring midwives. Midrashim like this one help give personality characteristics to biblical characters by using the meaning of names.
\nRULE 5: NO BEFORE OR AFTER IN THE TORAH
\nA basic rule of the midrash is that time does not matter in the Torah: ain mukdam u\u2019meuchar ba-Torah, \u201cthere is no early or late in the Torah.\u201d For example, Genesis tells us that Abraham dies before Jacob and Esau are born. However, a midrash looks at the relative ages of Abraham, Jacob, and Esau and insists that Abraham lived many years while Jacob and Esau were alive. In fact, this midrash tells us that the meal of lentils that Jacob serves to Esau is actually a mourning meal for their grandfather Abraham. The midrash lends power to Jacob and Esau\u2019s confrontation by putting their conversation about lentil stew in an intense emotional context: their grandfather has just died.
\nIn midrash, any two events in Torah can be related. The stone Jacob uses as a pillow can become the cornerstone of the Temple, and Jacob\u2019s wily uncle Laban can be the same person as the wily prophet Balaam, who appears hundreds of years later. The text of the Bible becomes fluid, able to move through time.
\nRULE 6: CONNECTING THE VERSES
\nThe classical midrash is often written in a style where two verses in the Bible are linked to one another even if they appear to have nothing to do with one another. The rest of the midrash then tries to prove how those verses are linked. Leaps of logic, intuition, and imagination help connect the verses to one another. Here, too, every part of Torah can link to every other part.
\nFor example, the collection known as Midrash Tanhuma begins by interpreting the very first verse in Torah: \u201cIn the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.\u201d Midrash Tanhuma connects this verse to a different verse from the book of Proverbs: \u201cGod has founded the earth with wisdom.\u201d After linking these two verses, the midrash goes on to say that the \u201cbeginning\u201d at the start of Genesis is really a code word for \u201cwisdom,\u201d or Torah, and that the Holy One used Torah to create the world:
\nThe Holy One consulted with Torah and created the world.
\nHow was this Torah written? In black fire on white fire.
\nThis extraordinary midrash imagines Torah, not as words in a book, but as a vast force of wisdom, present at the dawn of Creation. Torah helps build the world. The midrashist, by telling new legends about the Torah, is revealing new secrets of Creation.
\nChain Midrash
\nSometimes one midrash becomes so popular that it is repeated over and over again, from ancient through medieval, mystical, modern, and contemporary times. As this midrash becomes famous, more stories are told using that midrash. A single story becomes many linked stories, all using the same midrashic idea. This is sometimes called a chain midrash.
\nOne chain midrash is the story of Serach, daughter of Asher. Serach, granddaughter of Jacob, is mentioned in only a few genealogies. There are no biblical stories about her. However, Midrash ha-Gadol, a 13th-century collection from Yemen, imagines a story about her. When Joseph\u2019s brothers come home from Egypt, they have discovered that their brother Joseph, whom they sold into slavery, is alive. They are afraid this news will shock their father, Jacob, who has grieved for Joseph for many years. So they ask young Serach to tell him. She waits until her grandfather is praying and sings the news to him. Jacob is so grateful to hear the news that he gives Serach a blessing that she will never die.
\nBecause of this extraordinary blessing, Serach lives through the slavery in Egypt and is there when the children of Jacob promise to bring Joseph\u2019s bones with them from Egypt when they are freed. Hundreds of years later, it comes time for the Hebrews to leave, and Serach is the only one who knows where Joseph\u2019s bones are. Midrash Tanhuma, a 12th-century collection, says the following:
\nHow did Moses know where Joseph\u2019s grave was to be found? They say that only Serach daughter of Asher had survived from that generation, and that she revealed to Moses where Joseph\u2019s grave was located. The Egyptians had made a metal coffin for him and then sunk it into the Nile. Moses went to the bank of the Nile \u2026 and called out, \u201cJoseph, Joseph, the time has come for the Holy One of Blessing to redeem his children. The Shekhinah and Israel and the clouds of glory await you. If you will reveal yourself, good, but if not, we shall be free of your vow.\u201d Whereupon Joseph\u2019s coffin floated to the surface.
\nNotice that Serach has now been used to answer two midrashic questions: how Jacob was told that Joseph was alive, and how Moses knew where to find the bones of Joseph. Midrashists often find it elegant to use the same solution for two or more problems in the Torah. Following this rule, interpreters were able to explain why, before the Exodus, the enslaved Hebrews believed that Moses had come to save them. Serach, the oldest member of the community, was able to identify Moses as a true redeemer, because she remembered that her father had told her what the redeemer would say when he arrived.
\nThe existence of chain midrash shows how Jews read and told midrashic stories and then added to them. In fact, much of the midrashic tradition is not only commentary on the Torah but also commentary on other commentary. It is hard to trace the origin of any particular midrash because each legend or idea has been passed on through so many people and so many generations.
\nMedieval and Mystical Midrash
\nIn a sense, Jewish history is one tremendous chain midrash. The role of midrash in interpreting Torah and in creating Judaism is so powerful that Jews have gone on doing midrash in every era of Jewish history. The time of classical midrash eventually ended, but the medieval years were also a very fruitful time for midrash. Great commentators arose to retell midrashim and invent new ones. New approaches to creating midrash arose, and old midrashim were also gathered and retold.
\nFor example, Rashi (a scholar of 11th-century France) is considered one of the greatest interpreters of the Bible. Rashi was skilled at identifying the peshat (literal meaning) of a verse by using grammar and common sense, yet he was also skilled at quoting midrashic stories of the sages in short, clear sentences. Rashi retold many complex midrashic tales in ways that are easy to understand. For example, Rashi wrote about the first commandment given on Mount Sinai, the first of the Ten Commandments:
\nI the Lord am your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, the house of bondage.
\nRashi said:
\nAt the shore of the Sea, God was revealed as a strong warrior, and here [on Sinai] God is revealed as an old man full of mercy.\u2026 Even though I change appearance, do not say that there are two powers in heaven, for I am the one who brought you out of Egypt.
\nIn very few words, Rashi explained that God appears in different forms throughout the Bible, yet is still the same Deity. Rashi also invited us to imagine the confusion of the Israelites, who saw God making war on Egypt and are now asked to believe that God is kind and merciful. They may ask, \u201cWhy does God appear differently at different times if God is One?\u201d By retelling a midrash, Rashi encapsulated a major dilemma of faith in a single comment.
\nEach interpreter in the Middle Ages has a special way of looking at text. Maimonides (12th-century Spain) quoted midrashim that emphasize ethics and law, rather than miraculous events. Nachmanides (13th-century Spain), on the other hand, often used mystical teachings in his comments. Ibn Ezra (12th-century Spain) often contradicted earlier midrash if he found it too fanciful. For example, a midrash from the time of the Talmud claims that Abraham\u2019s third wife, Keturah, is the same person as his first wife, Hagar, but she has two different names. Ibn Ezra flatly said that according to the text, this is not true. His dislike of certain kinds of midrash was honest, if unusual in Jewish history.
\nMedieval midrash sometimes take the form of a kind of novel. Sefer ha-Yashar, a 12th-century novel-like retelling of the tale of Joseph, contains many midrashim put together in story form. And collections like the Yalkut Shimoni from 13th-century Germany put together midrashim from many sources and embellish them into larger stories.
\nThe rise of mysticism among Jews started a whole new variety of midrash. The Zohar, a 12th-century mystical work from Spain, expresses the idea that every verse of the Torah holds a secret meaning in which the different biblical characters represent different aspects of God. For example, consider the following biblical text about the Garden of Eden:
\nThe Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and placed there the man whom He had formed.
\nThe Zohar (25b) does not see this verse as being about a real garden. To the Zohar, the \u201cgarden\u201d where the human will live is the Shekhinah, the feminine indwelling presence of God. No matter where they go, humans will be connected to this indwelling presence. This kind of mystical midrash continued to be popular through the 17th-century in Sefad, a city in the Land of Israel where Kabbalah thrived.
\nIn the early modern period, a kind of midrash arose that represented a different way of thinking. These midrashim were written by rabbis of the Hasidic movement, European Jews who believed in a spiritual, joyful approach to life. Commentaries like the Sefat Emet (Rabbi Yehudah Leib Alter, 19th-century Poland) and the Mei ha-Shiloach (Rabbi Mordechai Yosef of Isbitza, 19th-century Poland) look at events in the Torah as stories about one\u2019s inner life. For example, they might look at the conflict between the Israelite people and the tribe of Amalek (an enemy tribe who fought the Israelites) and see it as a story about the conflict between the inclination to do right and the inclination to do wrong. Or, the story of Jacob\u2019s ladder might be seen as a symbol of a soul\u2019s connection to heaven and earth. This midrashic style, which focuses on how Torah can teach about a person\u2019s inner self, helped create what we know today as modern midrash.
\nModern Midrash
\nAs Jews entered the modern period, yet another kind of midrash evolved. While the sages and medieval rabbis were full of imagination, they saw their midrash as part of a process of Torah interpretation. They would never have thought of themselves as \u201cmaking something up.\u201d While some modern Jews continue retelling and reinventing older midrash, others create midrash that is meant to be creative; it is separate from the Bible and even questions or criticizes the Bible. This individualism is what makes modern midrash unique.
\nThe poet Yehuda Amichai, one of the foremost poets of Israel, is a wise and irreverent midrashist who uses biblical characters and stories in his poems in unexpected ways. In one of his many poems on the Binding of Isaac, published in the book Open Closed Open, Amichai writes in a verse from the \u201cThe Bible and You, and Other Midrashim\u201d section:
\nAbraham had three sons, not just two:
\nYishmael, Yitzchak, and Yivkeh.\u2026
\nYishmael was saved by his mother Hagar,
\nan angel saved Yitzchak,
\nbut Yivkeh was not saved by anyone.
\nIn this midrash, Amichai imagines that Abraham had three sons and that the youngest son (the one not mentioned in the Bible) was offered up on Mount Moriah in place of Isaac. In Amichai\u2019s version of the Bible, there was no ram; an actual child was killed. This bold move allows Amichai to express his anger at the wars and religious battles that sacrifice children and his rage at those who want to cover up this reality with stories of divine rescue. Amichai uses this midrashic method to express a critique of his tradition and his modern reality.
\nMalka Heifetz Tussman, a Yiddish poet, writes a midrash on the creation of Eve called \u201cWater without Sound,\u201d (from Howard Schwartz, Voices within the Ark: The Modern Jewish Poets). She looks out her window at a canal shaped like a rib and imagines the sea has torn a rib from its side and commanded it to acknowledge the sea\u2019s superiority. Tussman expresses sadness at the fate of this silent canal and thus critiques the assumption that Eve is an inferior being. Dan Pagis, a Holocaust survivor, also imagines Eve. In his brief and stunning poem, \u201cScrawled in Pencil on a Sealed Railway Car\u201d (an English version can be found in David Curzon, ed., Modern Poems on the Bible), Eve is in a cattle car with her son Abel. She is looking for her son Cain, who has apparently joined the oppressors. Like Tussman, through the vehicle of midrash Pagis expresses his anger about how humans hurt one another.
\nModern midrash has a great deal in common with ancient midrash in that it builds on other midrash as well as biblical text. In her poem \u201cThe Songs of Miriam\u201d (in Rebecca Schwartz, ed. All the Women Followed Her), Alicia Ostriker, an American poet and critic, writes of Miriam the prophet: \u201cYou who remember my music, you will feel me under your footsoles like cool ground water under porous stone\u2014follow me, follow my drum.\u201d Ostriker is alluding to an ancient midrash in which a well of water follows the prophet Miriam through the desert. This well quenches the thirst of the Israelites, who are walking through the desert on their way to the Land of Israel. Ostriker uses this old midrash connecting Miriam to water, and she imagines the voice of Miriam and the sound of her drum as \u201cunderground,\u201d since Miriam\u2019s voice is not often present in the biblical text. Yet the flowing watery songs of Miriam lead the people toward freedom.
\nJewish writers in all languages have written midrash, and non-Jewish writers have also created midrash. Modern midrash can come in a variety of forms: novels, poetry, dance, painting, sculpture, drama. Visual artists can depict biblical texts in ways that offer new meaning, from the dreamscapes of Chagall to the work of contemporary abstract painters, sculptors, or mask-makers. All of these techniques continue to add to the rich treasury of midrash.
\nWhat Type of Midrash Is It?
\n\u201cMidrash\u201d is a Hebrew word deriving from the root word d-r-sh, meaning \u201cto explain.\u201d It refers to a method of interpreting a biblical text. The term \u201cmidrash\u201d also can refer to a compilation of midrashic teachings on the Bible.
\nThere are two types of midrash: halakhah and aggadah. When a midrash is about Jewish law or practice, it is called midrash halakhah. When it tells a story or a parable, or interprets a narrative in the Bible in some fashion\u2014in prose, poetry, song, art, drama, or another artistic expression\u2014it is called midrash aggadah. Aggadah means \u201ctelling\u201d in Hebrew, and any midrash that is not halakhah is considered aggadah.
\nBoth kinds were at first preserved only orally; but they began to be written down in the 2nd century, and the practice continues to this day.
\nConclusion: A Story without an End
\nHow close does a midrash have to remain to the text to be considered a midrash? It is difficult to answer that question. Some would say novels like Anita Diamant\u2019s The Red Tent are in the tradition of midrash, while others believe only classical midrashim by the sages really \u201ccount.\u201d How a person defines midrash will help to define what kind of Jew he or she chooses to be. Yet all Jewish sects and traditions honor midrash in some way.
\nMidrash is like the nervous system of the Jewish people. It allows people to respond to Torah in real time, out of the events and emotions of their own lives. Midrash does not force us to read sacred text one way; it opens us to read sacred text in many ways. This is why the sages say, \u201cThere are seventy faces of Torah.\u201d Through midrash, readers of the Bible in every generation can add their thoughts and ideas to the text and experience moments of new understanding.
\nJill Hammer
\nSampling of Important Works of Midrash
\nInterpretations of Jewish law and practice and legends and stories from the Bible, creative interpretation of sacred text, can be found in a variety of works spanning more than 2,000 years.
\nSome interpretive works, like those from the apocryphal books Jubilees and Judith, were written after the Bible but before the time of the Talmud. Bereshit Rabbah and others were written around the time of the Talmud, and there are those from medieval times, like Yalkut Shimoni and Midrash Tanhuma. The kabbalists of Spain wrote midrash, too, as did the Hasidim in the 18th and 19th centuries. There are many modern works as well, created by poets, prose writers, artists, and scholars of our own age.
\nAll in all, there are thousands of works of midrash; here is a sampling of some of the most noteworthy of them.
\nANCIENT WORKS
\nMekhilta de-Rabbi Ishmael. A collection of halakhic (legal) midrashim that interprets the legal sections of the book of Exodus (chapters 12\u201323, 31, 35). Mekhilta de-Rabbi Ishmael: A Critical Edition, trans. by Jacob Z. Lauterbach (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2004).
\nLATE ANTIQUITY\/EARLY MEDIEVAL WORKS
\nMidrash ha-Gadol. According to many, the crowning glory of the legendary works of Yemenite Jewry. It is the most extensive midrash on the entire Torah; it was probably compiled during the 13th and 14th centuries by R. David ben Amram. It is not available in English; the only complete version is Midrash ha-Gadol (Hebrew), by Rabbi David ben Amram Adani, 10 vols. (Mossad HaRav Kook, 2004). However, Praise Her Works: Conversations with Biblical Women, ed. by Penina Adelman (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2005) is a collection of midrash based loosely on this early work.
\nMidrash Rabbah. A collection of Rabbinic interpretive commentaries on the Torah and the Five Scrolls (Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther), dating from 400 to 1000 c.e. Midrash Rabbah: Genesis I, II, & III, ed. by Rabbi Dr. H. Freedman and Maurice Simon, trans. by S. M. Lehrman (Brooklyn: Soncino Press, 1951);
\nMidrash Rabbah: Exodus, ed. by Rabbi Dr. H. Freedman and Maurice Simon, trans. S. M. Lehrman (Brooklyn, Soncino Press, 1951). Midrash Devarim Rabah, Oxford MS. no. 147 (Yahorimin, 1964). Golden Bells and Pomegranates: Studies in Midrash Leviticus Rabbah, by Burton L. Visotzky (Tubingen, Germany: Paul Mohr Verlag, 2003). Midrash Rabbah: Esther, ed. Rabbi Dr. H. Freedman and Maurice Simon, trans. S. M. Lehrman (Brooklyn: Soncino Press, 1951).
\nPesikta de-Rav Kahana. A central and classic text of midrashic literature, commenting on the Torah readings of all the major festivals and special Sabbaths of the Jewish year. Because this collection of midrashim relates to the destruction and redemption of Jerusalem, it can be said that Pesikta is one of the most \u201cIsrael-focused\u201d midrashic works. Before 1832, no manuscript or text of the Pesikta was known. Pesikta de-Rab Kahana, trans. William G. Braude and Israel Kapstein (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2002).
\nSefer ha-Yashar. A 12th-century Jewish commentary from Muslim Spain. Known also as Toledot Adam and Dibre ha-Yamim be-Aruk, it concerns itself with the history of the Jews from the time of Adam to the Judges. Sefer HaYashar: The Book of the Righteous, trans. Seymour J. Cohen (Jersey City, NJ: Ktav Publishing House, 1973). Sefer Ha-Yashar or The Book of Jasher, trans. J. H. Parry (Providence, RI: Providence University, 2007). Sefer Ha-Yashar or The Book of Jasher, trans. M. M. Noah (Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing, 2007).
\nYalkut Shimoni. An anthology of midrashim to the entire Bible, compiled from more than 50 works. The first part (963 sections) deals with the Torah; the second part (1,085 sections) covers the Prophets and the Writings. The author is thought to be Shimon ha-Darshan, who lived in Frankfurt in the 13th century. L\u2019kutei Bosar L\u2019kutei: An Anthology of Interpretations and Interpreting Comments on Midrash Rabba, Midrash Tanchuma Yalkut Shimoni, trans. Rabbi Shmuel Alte (Nanuet, NY: Philipp Feldheim, 1971).
\nLATE MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN WORKS
\nMei ha-Shiloach (Rabbi Mordechai Yosef of Isbitza). Commentary written by a 19th-century Hasidic rabbi of Poland, known for his creative, compassionate, and mystical commentary. The Living Waters: The Mei HaShiloach, 2 vols. trans. Betalel Philip Edwards (Northdale, NJ: Jason Aronson, 2000).
\nSefat Emet (Rabbi Yehudah Leib Alter). A 19th-century Hasidic master from Poland, known for a mystical and psychologically aware approach to Torah. The Language of Truth: The Torah Commentary of Sefat Emet, by Arthur Green (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1998).
\nShulchan Aruch. A 16th-century law code of Joseph Caro, a Jewish legal scholar of Spain, accompanied by commentary by the Ashkenazic authority Moses Isserles. Code of Jewish Law (Kitzur Shulhan Aruh): A Compilation of Jewish Laws and Customs, by Solomon Ganzfried, trans. Hyman E. Goldin (New York: Hebrew Publishing Co., 1963).
\nMODERN WORKS
\nThe Book of Legends. A translation of Sefer ha-Aggadah, a 1991 anthology of Rabbinic tales and parables collected by Hayim Nahman Bialik and Yehoshua Hana Ravinsky. The Book of Legends, trans. William G. Braude (New York: Schocken, 1992).
\nLegends of the Jews. The classic collection of midrashim about the major characters and events of the Bible, gathered by Ginzberg from around the world and retold by him. Originally published in seven volumes from 1909 through 1938, it was republished in 2003 in two volumes with a new, extensive index. Legends of the Jews, by Louis Ginzberg (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1909\u20131938; 2003).
\nThe Nakedness of the Fathers. Ostriker employs a mix of poetry, essays, and literary criticism to formulate midrash from the perspective of the contemporary Jewish woman. The Nakedness of the Fathers: Biblical Visions and Revisions, by Alicia Suskin Ostriker (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1994).
\nSisters at Sinai. Hammer has created a collection of midrashim by rewriting biblical stories from the perspective of their female protagonists. In her commentary at the back, Hammer explains how she came to write each story and explains its connection to biblical and rabbinic sources. Sisters at Sinai: New Tales of Biblical Women, by Jill Hammer (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2001).
\nSummaries of the Books of the Bible
\nGenesis
\nTITLE: \u201cGenesis\u201d is a Greek word signifying \u201corigin\u201d or \u201cbeginning.\u201d In Hebrew the book is called \u201cBereshit\u201d (in the beginning). As the first book of the Bible, it sets the precedent of taking its title from the first significant word in the text itself, bereshit.
\nCONTENTS: Genesis is a book about beginnings. It outlines the origins of the universe and of humankind, and it wrestles with the nature of the relationship between God\u2019s creation and God. The book begins with an account of the creation, the exile of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, and the early history of humankind. This first part of Genesis contains these stories: the initial covenant with humankind; the intrusion of sin through the account of the first murder (of Abel by his brother Cain); the Flood, with which God threatens to eradicate the \u201cmistake\u201d of creating humans, because they have proved themselves capable of great evil; a second covenant (with Noah), wherein God vows to never again flood the world; the repeopling of the earth from Noah\u2019s lineage; and the confusion of tongues at the Tower of Babel, concluding with the genealogy of Shem down to Terah and Abraham.
\nThe next segment of Genesis contains the special history of the patriarchs, the ancestors of the Jewish people. Here Abraham is the prominent figure, and the history of his call from God is recorded, along with detailed accounts from the Patriarchal era: tales of Abram and Sarai in Egypt (before their names are changed by God to Abraham and Sarah); the covenant between God and Abram; internal family conflict between Sarai and her handmaid, Hagar, who flees from maltreatment at home and returns at God\u2019s request to \u201cfather\u201d Ishmael; the surprising conception, birth, and circumcision of Isaac; God\u2019s decision to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, despite Abraham\u2019s resistance; and Abraham\u2019s offering of Isaac on an altar to God (the Akedah, the Binding of Isaac), which is interrupted and halted by an angel of God at the last moment.
\nThese are then followed by stories of Isaac, Rebekah, and their children Jacob and Esau. One of the most well known of these stories is that of Jacob, Leah, and Rachel: Rebekah sends her son Jacob to live with his uncle Laban, who later tricks him into marrying his daughter Leah instead of Rachel, the daughter he desires. Jacob strikes a deal with Laban to work for seven additional years to earn Rachel\u2019s hand in marriage. And so Jacob marries Leah and Rachel and also fathers twelve sons, who become the Twelve Tribes of Israel. (See \u201cThe Twelve Tribes of Israel,\u201d on p. 182) The dramas that unfold in the lives of Jacob\u2019s children\u2014of Joseph and his brothers, and of Dinah\u2014ultimately lead to the emigration of Jacob and his family to Egypt. Later chapters tell the history of Jacob and Joseph, to the death of Joseph in Egypt.
\nGenesis tells the story of the creation of the world, and then it follows one family across the generations, weaving the narrative through space and time until the family\u2019s descendants dwell in Egypt, thereby setting the stage for the narrative to come, in the successive biblical books.
\nSetting the Foundation for the Religion of Israel
\nThe theme of Creation, important as it is, serves merely as an introduction to Genesis\u2019s central motif: God\u2019s role in history. The opening chapters are a prologue to the historical drama that begins in chapter 12. They serve to set forth the worldviews and values of the civilization of the Bible, the pillars on which the religion of Israel rests. They provide us with the fountainhead of ideas and concepts from which all future developments spring: the divinely ordained history and destiny of Israel, the nature of God, the nature of humankind as created by God, and the relationships between the two.
\nWe learn in these early chapters that the God of Genesis is the wholly self-sufficient One, absolutely independent of nature, the supreme Sovereign of the world, who is providentially involved in human affairs\u2014Lord of history. And the human being in Genesis\u2014the pinnacle of Creation\u2014is a creature of infinite preciousness who enjoys a unique relationship with God. Humankind is endowed with free will and, consequently, is also charged with moral responsibility and inescapable accountability. Moreover, the human race constitutes a single family whose ultimate destiny is determined by God. This universal opening serves as the background for the rest of the book of Genesis and, indeed, for the remainder of the Bible.
\nAdapted from Nahum M. Sarna, JPS Torah Commentary: Genesis.
\nOF SPECIAL SIGNIFICANCE: Unlike many other early Creation stories, the biblical story of Creation in Genesis is strikingly monotheistic. The Bible opens with an impressive presentation of the fundamental religious truth: that all of creation owes its existence to the One God. This is undoubtedly the most significant revolution recorded in the biblical narrative. Abraham is chosen as the Patriarch and his family lineage is traced in these stories because later Rabbinic tradition says he is the world\u2019s first monotheist.<\/p>\n
Beginning of the book of Genesis (Bereshit), Pentateuch, Berlin, 1933. The Soncino Gesellschaft der Freunde des j\u00fcdischen Buches was a society of Jewish bibliophiles in Germany dedicated to producing Jewish and Hebrew books that met the highest typographical standards. This Pentateuch was part of the society\u2019s attempt to publish a new Hebrew Bible featuring a new Hebrew font. Type designer Markus Behmer based the font on Gershom Cohen\u2019s 1526 Prague haggadah. However, the society never had the chance to publish the Bible in full, as this Pentateuch was one of the last legally printed Hebrew books under the Third Reich before the Nuremburg Laws went into effect. In 1937, the Gesellschaft was liquidated by the Nazis, and the unique type in its Pentateuch was never used again. (Courtesy of The Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary.)
\nGenesis, in its breadth and depth, embraces the world and the entire human race, while showing the ways in which God is revealed to the first ancestors of the Jewish nation. By outlining the specific stories of the individuals of Abraham\u2019s family and the dynamics of their lives, it is possible to attain deep insight into universal psychological and sociological human truths. Herein lies the beauty of Genesis: in the very particularity of this family and their struggles is the universality of every family\u2019s story.
\nThis opening book of the Bible presents us with God, who is supreme, above all else. And it presents us with human beings, who have a special relationship with God; they are endowed with free will, but also with moral responsibility and accountability to God.
\nExodus
\nTITLE: \u201cExodus\u201d is derived from the Greek word signifying \u201cdeparture\u201d or \u201cgoing out,\u201d referring to the descendants of Abraham \u201cgoing out\u201d from bondage in Egypt to the Promised Land. The Hebrew title, \u201cSefer ve\u2019elah shemot,\u201d which means \u201cthe book of \u2018And these are the names,\u2019 \u201d is based on the opening words of the book. This is often shortened to Shemot, or \u201cNames.\u201d
\nCONTENTS: Exodus gives an account of the early history of Israel as a nation, one that was enslaved, redeemed, set apart, and then dedicated to following God\u2019s commandments. The four major themes\u2014liberation, law, covenant, and the presence of God\u2014provide a structure that is meant to maintain an ongoing relationship between God and Israel.
\nThe events in Exodus extend from the birth of Moses to the construction of the Tabernacle. The first chapters give an account of the oppression of the Israelites in Egypt, the early life of Moses and his call to be the deliverer of Israel, the Ten Plagues, the liberation from slavery, the passage through the Sea of Reeds, the journey to Mount Sinai, the arrival at Sinai, the construction of the Golden Calf in Moses\u2019s long absence on the mountain, and finally, the preparations for receiving the Law (the Decalogue, or Ten Commandments).
\nExodus then turns to matters of law: the promulgation of the Law; and the ratification of the covenant between the Israelites and God, with commandments and guidelines to dictate values and behavior sanctioned by God. These commandments include the Mosaic Covenant\u2014both absolute commands such as the Ten Commandments, which are given without explanation or justification, and more conditional laws, with the rationale for them.
\nThe Decalogue, or Ten Commandments
\nThe Decalogue, in Exodus 20:2\u201314 is the only collection of laws that, according to biblical tradition, God revealed to Israel without an intermediary, and this helps account for its significance within biblical and later religious traditions.
\nThe usual name for these laws, \u201cthe Ten Commandments,\u201d is not found in the Bible and is inaccurate. The first statement in the Decalogue reads: \u201cI the Lord am your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, the house of bondage\u201d (20:2); this is not a commandment but an utterance or statement. The term \u201cDecalogue,\u201d from the Greek deca (10) logos (words), is more appropriate.
\nBoth of the commonly used terms, \u201cDecalogue\u201d and \u201cTen Commandments,\u201d follow the tradition of Exodus and Deuteronomy in that this text is divided into 10 sections. This most likely reflects a notion of 10 as a number expressing perfection. Yet the Decalogue comprises as many as 13 separate statements:
\n1. (v. 2) I the Lord am your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt \u2026
\n2. (v. 3) You shall have no other gods besides Me.
\n3. (v. 4) You shall not make for yourself a sculptured image.\u2026
\n4. (v. 5) You shall not bow down to them or serve them.
\n5. (v. 7) You shall not swear falsely by the name of the Lord your God \u2026
\n6. (v. 8) Remember the sabbath day and keep it holy
\n7. (v. 12) Honor your father and your mother \u2026
\n8. (v. 13) You shall not murder.
\n9. (v. 13) You shall not commit adultery.
\n10. (v. 13) You shall not steal.
\n11. (v. 13) You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
\n12. (v. 14) You shall not covet your neighbor\u2019s house:
\n13. (v. 14) You shall not covet your neighbor\u2019s wife \u2026
\nThe version in Deuteronomy 5 differs from that in Exodus 20 in both small and large ways. For example, a totally different reason is given in Deuteronomy for why the Sabbath should be observed, and that text introduces the Sabbath injunction using a different verb, as may be seen from the following juxtaposition:
\nExodus 20:8\u201311
\nDeuteronomy 5:12\u201315
\nRemember the sabbath day and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your God: you shall not do any work\u2014you, your son or daughter, your male or female slave, or your cattle, or the stranger who is within your settlements. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth and sea, and all that is in them, and He rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and hallowed it.
\nObserve the sabbath day and keep it holy, as the Lord your God has commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your God; you shall not do any work\u2014you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your ox or your ass, or any of your cattle, or the stranger in your settlements, so that your male and female slave may rest as you do. Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt and the Lord your God freed you from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the sabbath day.
\nAdapted from Marc Zvi Brettler, How to Read the Bible.
\nThe latter part of Exodus gives the orders for making the Tabernacle, for the consecration of the family of Aaron to the Priesthood, and for making their vestments. It also records the sin and punishment of the Israelites for making the Golden Calf.
\nThe Tabernacle
\nAfter Moses received the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai, the Israelites built a portable shrine for their worship, the Tabernacle, or Tent of Meeting, with Aaron and his family as priests. The shrine was a tent, its construction and appearance given to Moses in a vision on Mount Sinai (Exod. 25\u201340). Constructed with great care from precious materials, it held a sacrificial altar and many ritually important objects. Within the Tabernacle was a smaller, curtained enclosure, the Holy of Holies. This enclosure, which was entered only on Yom Kippur by the High Priest, housed the Ark of the Covenant and the tablets of the Ten Commandments.
\nThe term \u201ctabernacle\u201d is a translation of the Hebrew word mishkan, \u201cdwelling place.\u201d It was thought to be a literal dwelling place of God. During the Israelites\u2019 40 years of wandering, a cloud signaling the presence of God formed over the Tabernacle, disappearing when it was time to move to the next encampment. Then the Israelites dismantled the Tabernacle and reconstructed it in the center of the next camp, under the relocated divine cloud. When the Israelites reached Canaan, they gave the Tabernacle a more permanent residence in Shiloh.
\nOF SPECIAL SIGNIFICANCE: \u201cLet My people go!\u201d is a well-known and oft-quoted verse from Exodus. The second half of this same verse is, \u201cthat they may worship Me\u201d (7:26, 8:16, 10:3), thereby providing a reason for the slaves\u2019 liberation from bondage. The Israelites\u2019 liberation from Egypt is followed by the introduction of covenantal law, which is meant to create a context for an abiding presence of God. The explicitly stated purpose of liberation is for the people to live in covenantal relationship with God. This special relationship and centuries of celebrating the Passover holiday provide a way to see alternative possibilities in the world\u2014for oppressed peoples to imagine their own potential for freedom and the possibility that God hears their cries for liberation. Therefore, the covenantal relationship is, in fact, revolutionary in that it creates a world in which divine authority supersedes all other systems of authority.
\nOther themes and values elucidated in the narratives of Exodus are the management of anger (epitomized in Moses\u2019s punishment by God); defeating Amalek, the archenemy of the Israelite people; Jethro\u2019s advice to Moses to delegate leadership to decentralize the power and responsibility and to make leadership more manageable for Moses; the Revelation at Mount Sinai, including the giving of the Ten Commandments; the rebellion against God in the Israelites\u2019 construction of the Golden Calf at the foot of the mountain; and finally, instructions for constructing the Tabernacle.
\nIn this series of events lies a deep spiritual appreciation for loyalty, forgiveness, and rebuilding a relationship after a violation of trust. God\u2019s giving the instructions for building a Tabernacle immediately following the people\u2019s abhorrent building of an idol provides an example of the way in which God understands the psychology of the people and their need for a physical representation of the Divine, so that they might worship God in a sanctified and acceptable manner within the bounds of the holy relationship.
\nLeviticus
\nTITLE: Like many of the biblical books, the name \u201cLeviticus\u201d is taken from the Greek, literally meaning \u201cthings pertaining to the Levites,\u201d because much of the book is concerned with the priests themselves (who formed part of the tribe of Levi) and priestly matters. In Hebrew, the term \u201cPriestly Law\u201d is often used to describe the book, as it consists mainly of laws for the priests.
\nCONTENTS: Leviticus contains many laws: those concerning the different kinds of sacrifices; the consecration of Aaron and his sons; the punishment of two of them, Nadab and Abihu, for offering \u201calien fire\u201d (10:1); laws concerning clean and unclean foods, personal purity, and leprosy; the ordinance for the Day of Atonement; and the laws of holiness. Emphasis is placed on holiness as a quality distinguishing Israel, demanded of Israel by God, and regulating the Israelite\u2019s life. Of particular concern are the slaughter of animals; unlawful marriages and lusts; the priests; sacred times, seasons, and festivals; the lights of the sanctuary; the episode concerning a blasphemer and his punishment; the sabbatical year and the jubilee. It concludes with promises and warnings (also called \u201cblessings and curses\u201d), involving vows, tithes, and offerings to God.
\nOF SPECIAL SIGNIFICANCE: Leviticus is distinctive in that it completely excludes historical narrative, with the exception of the sections relating to the consecration of the priests, the death of Nadab and Abihu, and the stoning of the blasphemer. It relates the history of only one month (the first month of the second year of the Exodus), and all the events in the whole book take place at Sinai. The book also outlines the sacrificial system, explaining the burnt offering, meal\/grain offering, well-being offering, and the purification offering. Leviticus establishes this sacrificial system as the sanctified manner in which the community can access God: to communicate repentance or thanksgiving, to purify oneself after a transgression, and to maintain the purity of the community as a whole. The book also explains the way in which the priest is consecrated through anointment as a rite of passage, as well as the rules regarding the dietary laws, rituals after childbirth and purification after contracting the \u201cscale disease.\u201d The Holiness Code, which lists punishments and spells out requirements for the Israelites to remain \u201choly,\u201d is found here.
\nNumbers
\nTITLE: The name \u201cNumbers\u201d is likely derived from the Greek translation, the Septuagint, which named the book after the census taking in the first chapters of Numbers and again at the end of the wanderings of the Israelites. The book covers a period of 38 years and 3 months, from the completion of the giving of the Law until the 5th month of the 40th year.
\nThe Hebrew name is \u201cBe-midbar,\u201d or \u201cin the desert,\u201d taken from the fifth Hebrew word in the first chapter of the book. It refers to the setting of the book, as the Israelites leave behind the slavery of Egypt and journey through the desert wilderness toward the Promised Land, Canaan.
\nCONTENTS: Numbers begins by describing the last days at Sinai: the first census; the arrangement of the army; the service of the Priestly Levites; various additional laws; and a description of the cloudy pillar, a symbol of God\u2019s ever presence. The book then proceeds to describe the Israelites\u2019 travels from Sinai to the borders of Canaan, including the appeal of Moses to Hobab; the burning at Taberah; the giving of the quails; the murmuring of Aaron and Miriam against their brother, Moses; Miriam\u2019s subsequent skin disease (often identified as leprosy); the sending of the spies, their report, and the murmuring of the people; and, finally, the rash attack on the Canaanites and their response.
\nThe third section of Numbers outlines the 38 years of wandering: various laws are given; the rebellion of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram and their punishment are described; and the dues payable to the Levites are proscribed, followed by an explanation of the way defilement by the dead is to be handled. The book ends with the description of the last year of the Israelites\u2019 journey: the death of Miriam; the sin of Moses and Aaron; the circuit around Edom; the death of Aaron; the conquest of the Amorites; the episode of Balaam; the sin of Baalpeor and its consequences; the second census; laws of inheritance, offerings, and vows; the war against the Midianites; settlement of Gad, Reuben, and Manasseh; a summary of the places that the Israelites stopped during their 40 years of wandering through the desert; levitical cities and cities of refuge (where individuals convicted of crimes and expelled from the community are sent) are all outlined.
\nOF SPECIAL SIGNIFICANCE: Numbers is unique in that it is the record of the formation of a holy community dedicated to the service of God with a covenant initiated at Sinai.
\nThe celebration of Passover is recorded in the book, as is the subsequent preparation for the walk through the wilderness. Much of this first generation\u2019s time in the wilderness is marked by conflict, dissent against the leadership, and death. The threats are real, and they come from both internal and external sources.
\nAlso of note in Numbers is the stark candor of the reporter. The writer freely exposes the faults not only of the people but also of Aaron and Miriam. The author extols the generosity of Moses, his meekness, and his self-effacement, but also records his tendency to despondency and the weaknesses that prevented him from entering the Promised Land.
\nDeuteronomy
\nTITLE: \u201cDeuteronomy\u201d comes from the Greek and signifies \u201crepetition of the Law.\u201d The first giving, most notably the Decalogue, is in Exodus (see \u201cThe Decalogue, or Ten Commandments,\u201d on p. 173). In Hebrew, Deuteronomy is known as \u201cDevarim,\u201d which means \u201cthese are the words,\u201d the opening phrase of the book.
\nCONTENTS: Deuteronomy consists mainly of three addresses given by Moses in the 40th year of the Exodus and the last year of his life. Of the three addresses, the first is introductory, reminding the people of their deliverance from bondage, of God\u2019s guidance and protection in their wanderings, and their frequent ingratitude. It closes with a warning from the past and an exhortation to follow God\u2019s teachings, to secure the inheritance of the Land, which is now within reach.
\nThe second address, starting with the Decalogue, consists of a speech from Moses, introducing the importance of the Ten Commandments and the sacred covenant with God, seemingly retroactively, reminding them of the promises they already made at Horeb to follow God\u2019s teachings. This address is followed by the laws in three main groups: those concerning religion, the administration of justice, and private and social rights. It concludes with teachings commonly known as \u201cthe blessings and the curses,\u201d which are said to be consequences of behaviors either sanctioned or prohibited by God.
\nAt the close of these addresses there is an account of the delivery of the Law to the Levites, a song sung by Moses, the final benediction of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, and the closing scenes of Moses\u2019s life.
\nTo some extent, Deuteronomy is a restatement of previously given written law, with an important difference: the law here requires all sacrifices to be offered, not at many places, as previously assumed, but at one place only\u2014in the Promised Land that the Israelites are about to inherit.
\nOF SPECIAL SIGNIFICANCE: Though a book of law, Deuteronomy is penetrated throughout by a religious and ethical spirit dominated by the fundamental belief in the unity of God and the conviction of the consequent necessity of the Israelites\u2019 wholehearted devotion to the Divine. In Deuteronomy, it is stated for the first time that no other god exists, and that only the Lord has performed divine deeds. This is epitomized by the central prayer in Judaism, the Shema, in chapter 6, and demonstrated by Moses when he recounts the Exodus and the events at Mount Sinai.
\nThis is the book from which stems the belief that God made a covenant with Israel at Sinai, with the Torah embodying the terms of that covenant. Thus the people\u2019s continuity is staked not on worship, but on obedience to covenantal law. In fact, half of the laws laid out in Deuteronomy are followed by explanations that are meant to inspire obedience by demonstrating how each law is logical, just, or beneficial. And the Israelites are also told of the harsh consequences for disobedience. When Moses recounts how an entire generation perished wandering in the desert on the journey from Mount Sinai to the Promised Land, he does so to demonstrate the consequences of Israel\u2019s faithlessness.
\nHowever, worship itself is deemphasized and circumscribed in Deuteronomy. Sacrifices, festivals, and purification rites are limited to the central sanctuary in the religious capital, making it difficult for most Jews, who did not live near the central sanctuary, to engage in these practices. The Temple itself is no longer viewed as the dwelling place of God. While the Promised Land remains important in Deuteronomy, it is the law that allows Judaism to thrive as a living religion, independent of a fixed geographical location.
\nLoyalty to the Lord
\nThe main theme of Deuteronomy is the ardent and exclusive loyalty that Israel owes the Lord, as expressed in 6:4\u20135: \u201cHear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.\u201d
\nMoses constantly exhorts Israel to worship the Lord alone and to shun pagan occult practices. No other book demands such a vehement campaign to prevent Israelites from worshiping other gods: it prescribes execution for Israelites who do so, or even advocate doing so; it requires the destruction of the native Canaanites, to prevent them from influencing Israel to adapt their gods and abhorrent practices, such as ritual murder; and it warns that worshiping other gods will lead to Israel\u2019s destruction and exile. In times of war, as a corollary of loyalty, Israel must trust God completely and face the enemy without hesitation.
\nFrom Jeffrey H. Tigay, JPS Torah Commentary: Deuteronomy.
\nMoses addresses the people for the last time before his death; they must become acclimated to new leadership, as Moses will not be permitted to travel with them into the Promised Land. Throughout Deuteronomy, military campaigns are waged and laws reiterated so that the people are prepared to enter the Holy Land as a holy people. The Ten Commandments are restated, Moses\u2019s final instructions and warnings. The Deuteronomic law code is explained, including laws dealing with the purity and unity of monotheistic worship; the sanctification of time; transitions in public leadership and shifts in authority; and matters of life and death, general conduct, and gratitude. It is here that many of the basic tenets of Jewish observance are given: the yearly festivals, ritual objects\u2014the mezuzah, tefillin (prayer boxes or phylacteries), and tzitzit (prayer shawl fringes)\u2014and the Shema. At the end of the book, Moses sings a last song, offers blessings, and then dies.
\nJoshua
\nTITLE: The name \u201cJoshua\u201d (Hebrew for \u201cGod is salvation\u201d) was substituted by Moses for Joshua\u2019s earlier name, \u201cHoshea,\u201d on the occasion of sending out the 12 spies (Num. 13:16). Just why this name change was made is unknown, but a midrash explains that the addition of the letter yud (rendered in English as \u201cj\u201d), which has a numerical value of 10, is said to foreshadow Joshua standing against 10 of the other spies. Joshua was born in Egypt while the Israelites were slaves there. He first appears as a military captain at Rephidim during the attack of the Amalekites. He is Moses\u2019s attendant at the giving of the Law and is later sent to spy out the land of Canaan for the tribe of Ephraim. When Moses dies, Joshua is appointed by God as Moses\u2019s successor and leader of the people, settling the Israelites in Canaan.
\nCONTENTS: The book of Joshua is predominantly concerned with the conquest of Canaan by the Israelites and the partitioning of the land among the tribes. (See \u201cThe Twelve Tribes of Israel,\u201d on p. 182) Once this is accomplished, Joshua bids farewell to the people and dies. (The general impression in this book is that the Israelites, acting together under Joshua, conquered all of Canaan within a period of a few years. However, there are hints within the text that the conquest and occupation of Canaan by the Israelites were a more gradual process and not altogether due to the actions of a united people.) The narrative tells how Joshua leads the Israelites across the Jordan River into the Promised Land, after wandering for 40 years from Egypt, since the Exodus. Then there are detailed descriptions of how the land is divided up between the tribes, incorporating boundaries and cities. Joshua\u2019s final speech to all the tribes assembled at Shechem, followed by a short epilogue, closes the book.
\nOF SPECIAL SIGNIFICANCE: The conquest of Canaan is in many ways the long-anticipated climax of the previous biblical narratives, the conclusion of the early Israelite experience. After a full generation of Israelites have died (those who were once enslaved in Egypt), God delivers on the ancient promise to their ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob for a land of their own. This book provides a triumphant end to the liberation of the Israelites from slavery, delivering them to their promised destination under the divine guidance of God, through Joshua.
\nGroupings of the Prophetic Books
\nThe biblical books of the Prophets, or Nevi\u2019im, are sometimes grouped into categories:
\nFormer Prophets\u2014The books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings are the historical narratives of the early days of the Land of Israel.
\nLatter Prophets\u2014The books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel are mostly in poetic style and are filled with prophecies about how sinners will be punished and with calls for redemption.
\nMajor Prophets\u2014The books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, and Daniel are so named because of their length, not their importance.
\nMinor Prophets\u2014The books of Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi are called minor because they are shorter in length than the Major Prophets.
\nThe book also serves to illustrate the transition of leadership from Moses to Joshua, thereby signifying that God remains the true leader, regardless of the specific identity of the human being enacting God\u2019s will. Joshua shows the people that life after Moses is possible and that their redemption from Egypt led them to this place and time.
\nJudges<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n