[Avodah] Medrashim [was: Egel Zahav]

[Daniel M. Israel]

On Jul 15, 2012, at 8:41 PM, <T613K at aol.com> <T613K at aol.com> wrote:
> My own policy is not to ask questions about one medrash based on a different medrash or on contradictory divrei Chazal, but to keep them separate.

I don't know about policy, but it is clear that there are midrashim that contradict each other.  OTOH, there is also clear precedent for trying to harmonize midrashim.  Knowing which is which is the tricky part.

However, we can't completely rule out a question just because it is based on a two separate midrashim.
>  
> OK but there's an obscure medrash that when Pinchas stabbed Zimri and Kosbi, a miracle happened and they did not die until after he left the tent -- because otherwise he, being a kohen, would not have even been allowed to kill them!  A kohen can't purposely make himself tamei meis. 
>  
> But that medrash depends on the assumption that Pinchas was /already/ a kohen when he stabbed Zimri and Kosbi -- because, if he wasn't already a kohen, what did he need this miracle for?!
>  
> You can't combine those two medrashim -- that he was already a kohen when he killed Zimri and Kosbi, or that he was only made a kohen afterwards as a reward for doing this deed.

Perhaps the tanna of the latter midrash doesn't agree with the shita given by Rashi on bris shalom.  OTOH, I think reconciling this is not so hard.  Perhaps HKBH made him a kohen immediately, even while he was still in the tent.

> So, to be practical about it, one year the rabbi can give a drasha about how the Jews wanted an eigel because that's the god they were familiar with from their stay in Egypt, and he can wind it up by saying that in every generation, Jews are drawn to various idols, be it JC, Marx, Freud, Gaia or whatnot.

Or Ayn Rand, or Milton Friedman.  "Idols" of this type can be found on both sides of the spectrum.

--
Daniel M. Israel
President, Kol BeRamah Torah Learning Center of Santa Fe
daniel at kolberamah.org





--
Daniel M. Israel
dmi1 at cornell.edu

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