[Avodah] Judges 18:30

[Jay F. Shachter]

>
> A more interesting question: Since Moshe presumably had no
> particular use for his riches, and therefore would have left a nice
> inheritance for his children beyond whatever allotment they would
> have received in one of the Levi'im cities, how did his grandson
> Yonasan become so poor that he went to work for Micha (the bad one,
> not the navi)?
>

The uncited reference is to the Midrash on Judges 18:30.  The question
reminds me of another question.  There are Midrashim on Genesis 23:2
and on Genesis 24:1 that Avraham had a daughter.  This woman would
have been a half-sister to Yitzxaq.  A ben-Noax is allowed to marry
his half-sister from his father.  Why, then, did Avraham send his
unnamed servant all the way back to Mesopotamia, to bring back, for
his son, a woman who was the child of idolaters?  Plus, how would they
even talk to each other?  The woman would not be able to speak the
language of the Hebrew-speaking Canaanites which was no doubt
Yitzhaq's native language.  Wouldn't it have been so much better in so
many ways for Yitzxaq to marry his half-sister?

The answer, of course, is that Avraham didn't want his son to marry a
midrash.  He wanted him to marry a real woman.

The above-cited question has the same answer.  That Moshe got rich
from tablet dust is a midrash.  That Moshe had a grandson who became a
priest of idolatry is a midrash.  I like these midrashim, I
particularly like the second one, but I don't have to believe that
either one of them is true.  I certainly don't have to believe that
both of them are true, and I cannot believe that midrashim are all
true, because they contradict each other.  Surely this is not the
first time you have noticed contradictions between two midrashim.  So
why are you even asking the question?

                        Jay F. ("Yaakov") Shachter
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