[Avodah] What is Midrash?

[Rich, Joel]

Interesting start to a series
 
Shiur #1: What is Midrash?
by Dr.  Moshe Simon-Shoshan
 
www.vbm-torah.org/archive/midrash69/01midrash.htm
 
 
I was particularly struck by the following and wonder what it means
today:
 
 
Underlying all of these rabbinic reading strategies is a common
underlying assumption about the biblical texts, and perhaps texts in
general, that is quite different from modern conventional wisdom.  We
tend to think of texts as containing specific meanings.  The act of
reading a text is then the process of decoding this meaning and
revealing it to ourselves and others.  The rabbis do not understand the
process of reading the Bible in this way.  For them the text contains
only the potential for meaning.  In their view, in reading the biblical
text we actually generate meaning from out of the raw material that is
the Bible.  In principle any given verse can produce infinite meaning.
Indeed, Chazal tend to seek as much meaning as possible from each and
every verse.  This does not of course mean that the biblical text may
mean anything we want it to.  Quite the contrary, only rabbis who are
trained in the traditions and ways of Midrash know the proper way to
"grow" the meaning of the text.  
 
 
KT
Joel Rich
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