Midrash Medrish Schmidrash

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Midrash… or as we sometimes say: ‘Medrish’

Medrish, we are told, deals with discontinuity. What does that mean? Well, the Torah in particular and the Hebrew Bible all together is written in a pretty laconic style. For example, we read in the narrative of Cain and Abel; “Cain said to Abel, his brother. And it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and slew him.” (Gen. 4:8) Nu? What was said? This is the discontinuity with which Medrish deals.

Fine. So. What is Medrish? And who says that what is in the Medrish is what was? These are questions that are asked frequently around here and they deserve and answer. But certainly this is a topic which could involve study for months… or years. Maybe to be continued in another lifetime.

So we will simply look at a couple of examples and they will, perhaps, help us to understand just what a Midrash is and on what basis is has “validity”. The Temple has been destroyed now for the second time. Our forefathers are in distress. They are experiencing discontinuity first hand – and we in the third person. These dramatic events found response in Medrish. In this instance it is rather in the form of Aggadah (story, if you will) – but also in a Halakhic form also.

After the Temple was torn asunder, the Jews turned to the rabbis for hope and for consolation. From this we received Lamentations Rabbah. Here is an example:

“This I recall to mind, therefore I have hope.” __Lam. 3:21

R. Abba ben Kahana said; this may be likened to a king who married a lady and wrote her a large ketubah: “so many state-apartments I am preparing for you, so many jewels I am preparing for you, and so much silver and gold I give you.”

The king (then) left her and went to a distant land for many years. Her neighbots used to vex her saying, “Your husband has deserted you. Come and be married to another man.” She wept and sighed, but when she went into her room and read her ketubah she would be consoled. After many years the king returned to her and said; “I am astonished that you waited for me…” She replied, “My lord king, if it hadnot been for the ketubah you wrote… surely my neighbors would have won me over.”

So the nations of the world taunt Israel and say, “Your G-d has no need of you; He has deserted you… com to us and we shall appoint commanders and leaders of every sort for you.” Israel enters the synagogues and houses of study and reads the Torah, “I will look with favor upon you… and I shall not spurn you.” (Lev. 26:9~11) and they are consoled.

And so, in the future the Holy One, blessed be He will say to Israel, “I am astonished that you waited for me all these years.” And Israel will say, “If it had not been for the Torah which you gave us… the nations of the world would have led us astray.” Therefore it is stated, “This do I recall and therefore I have hope.” (Lam. 3:21)

This then is an example of a medrashic text that the rabbis spun in response to the calamity of the Temple’s destruction. G-d seems to have deserted Israel, but when He returns, G-d will be astonished by our adherence to His teachings. Here the rabbis attempt to bridge the chasm between faith and despair through the Medrish. The stories attempt to make sense out of history. Is there a Medrish to deal with the Shoah? Yes. Several. Not all written by rabbis. Not all successful. But we need to ask: successful to whom? Israel? The author? Select individuals? And they are still being written.

The Medrish then provides-

Y Motivations

Y Meanings

Y Resolving confusions

Y New ideas… [without getting ahead of ourselves: we read the Torah each time with different eyes, needs, desires, hopes]

You ask; how did they do it?

We can never be certain if the rabbis were aware that they were “changing” Torah with their medrish. (Or not)

It is certain that they say that laws were being reformulated and, perhaps, they knew that ideas and values were being changed as well, but the assumption in rabbinic thought is always that new interpretations is implied by Torah itself! The rabbis’ idea is that they were uncovering what is already there!

Here is, perhaps, the key point: to the rabbis the torah was (is) an eternally relevant book because it was written (dictated, inspired – it does not matter) by a perfect Author, an Author who intended it to be eternal!

Surely, it is said, that G-d could foresee the need for new interpretations (all interpretations therefore) already in the Torah’s text. Therefore when HaShem gave us the Written Torah at Mount Sinai, He also gave us Oral Torah – the interpretations of Jews down through time. You might say that Medrish was already in His mind when Torah was conceived. “Turn it and turn it again, for everything is contained therein.” [Or: “There is nothing new under the sun.”]

Let me then posit a question for you. What is a sermon? Is it not a form of Medrash? Do we not lean on those who have taught us and the words that we have read, to develop our own ideas (new!! ideas) about the parshat? Of course. We have Homiletical Medrish and Exegetical Medrishim and Narrative Medrish. All fodder for sermons. In a sense, we continue to develop new (!!) Medrish every time we deliver a sermon, discuss a portion of Torah text, give a d’var, or in any other way discuss our understandings of what Torah means to us today.

This is only the tip of the iceberg. Go study, study; Isaac Heinemann’s “Creative Historiography” and “Creative Philology”. Happy hunting.

Based on “Back to the Sources”, by Barry W. Holtz Summit Books, NY, NY 1984