Essential Midrash

And the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and He breathed into his nostrils the soul of life, and man became a living soul.  Genesis 2:7 Chabad

Formed – Let’s consider the crucial role of midrash in Jewish thought.  We can do this by taking an example for Genesis Rabbah.  Here is Genesis 2:7 in Hebrew:

וַיִּ֩יצֶר֩ יְהֹוָ֨ה אֱלֹהִ֜ים אֶת־הָֽאָדָ֗ם עָפָר֙ מִן־הָ֣אֲדָמָ֔ה וַיִּפַּ֥ח בְּאַפָּ֖יו נִשְׁמַ֣ת חַיִּ֑ים וַיְהִ֥י הָֽאָדָ֖ם לְנֶ֥פֶשׁ חַיָּֽה

I have highlighted the opening word because it becomes the reason for a midrashic explanation.

The Hebrew word for ‘forming’ is, in connexion [sic] with the formation of man, spelled exceptionally וײצר with two ‘י‘, which is not its proper spelling. This is to be taken as a hint that man was formed out of two elements–spirit and matter. This is also manifested in man’s life. His material part has need of matter to sustain him, and of the other laws of nature; he grows, flourishes, decays and dies. But, on the other hand, he resembles spiritual beings by walking upright, by his power of speech and thought, and by being able in some degree to see behind him without need of turning his head round; which facility is given to man alone and not to the lower animals.–Gen. Rabba 14.[1]

If this Hebrew word is misspelled, there must be an explanation other than a mistake.  After all, if the text is transmitted by God, there can be no mistakes.  Therefore, it is incumbent upon men to discover the hidden meaning behind what only appears to be a mistake.  Midrash is the method for doing just this.

Schiffman offers insight into the role of midrash:

“Judaism in ancient times regarded the Torah as having been produced by divine revelation.  Every aspect of its text and its diction, therefore, taught some lesson of divine law.  Seen in this way and in this spirit, the torah was able to serve as the basis for the ever-expanding interpretative traditions that constituted the manifold approaches to Judaism . . .”[2]

“But the Torah had one deficiency as a legal text.  There were apparent contradictions and inconsistencies between the legal rulings in its various sections.  Now something new was called for.  How were the contradictions between the laws on the same subject to be handled?  How were the multiple presentations of the same material to be understood?  The duplications in the Torah begged to be interpreted.  Thus was born the method which later Hebrew termed midrash.  Essentially, the exegetical (interpretative) technique of midrash can be defined as the explanation of one biblical passage in the light of another.  In its earliest forms midrash dealt with matters of Jewish law, what the rabbis later called halakhah.”[3]

“ . . . the term midrash designates both an exegetical method and a collection of literary materials based on midrashic exegesis.”[4]

What does this mean for us?  If we want to understand how Judaism deals with the Torah, we cannot overlook the essential role of midrash.  This is the major sin of Christian commentators.  Imagining that the text of the Bible can be separated from the Jewish/Hebrew culture that created it, Christians ignore that role of midrash.  This is perhaps the deepest form of anti-Judaism because it suggests that the word of God was only accidentally given to the Jews and can therefore be dissected from Jewish culture without harm to the original text.  Only a very few scholars, and virtually no Christian clergy that I know, employ Jewish midrash in their attempts to understand the Bible.  What a mistake!

Topical Index: midrash, Schiffman, Genesis Rabbah, Genesis 2:7

[1] https://sacred-texts.com/jud/tmm/tmm07.htm

[2] Lawrence H. Schiffman, From Text to Tradition: A History of Second Temple & Rabbinic Judaism (Ktav Publishing House, 1991), p. 27.

[3] Ibid., p. 47.

[4] Ibid., p. 48.