[Avodah] Taking Midrashim Literally (was Consumer Alert: Minhog Scams On The Rise!)

[Zev Sero]

On 23/06/2011 9:15 AM, Prof. Levine wrote:
> Midrashim need not be taken literally.

Of course not *all* medrashim *need* to be taken literally.  But clearly
many of them *are* meant literally, and certainly one who refuses ever
to believe the literal meaning of a medrash is a kofer in the whole torah.
Does anyone doubt, for instance, that Nimrod really did throw Avraham
Avinu into a fire?  Or that the Aron carried its bearers over the Yarden?
Can one imagine a frum Jew who refuses to believe these stories, merely
because they appear in midroshim?  And really, why would anyone doubt these
things?  I understand doubting that the Rabba Bar Bar Chana stories really
happened as described; I think very few people believe they did.  But since
when does that mean that there is a general rule that all midrashim are
literally false?  How did it come about that there are people with such a
krum philosophy?  What sort of yiddishkeit is that?  No one story in a
medrash is an ikkar in emunah; but that the body of medrash should be
suspect, and treated as fairy tales?!  Who ever heard of such a thing?

In any event, the medroshim I cited were definitely believed by Chazal
and the rishonim to be literally true, and are cited in *halacha* for
their literal content, and thus I don't believe it's a valid option to
reject them.

-- 
Zev Sero                      The trouble with socialism is that you
zev at sero.name                 eventually run out of other people’s money
                                                      - Margaret Thatcher