Midrash

Midrash (Hebrew: מִדְרָשׁ; pl. מִדְרָשִׁים midrashim or מִדְרָשׁוֹת‎ midrashot) is an expansive Jewish Biblical exegesis using a rabbinic mode of interpretation prominent in the Talmud.

Quotes

Genesis Rabbah

• The sun alone without the moon would have sufficed for all his purpose, but if he were alone, the primitive people might have had some plausible excuse for worshipping him. So the moon was added, and there is less reason for deifying either.
  • 6 (tr. Samuel Rapaport)

Exodus Rabbah

• He who lifts up his hand in a threatening manner against a fellow-man, though he may not actually strike him, is designated a wicked man.
  • 1 (tr. Samuel Rapaport)

• In calling his two sons by the names of Gershom and Eliezer, Moses, like Joseph and other righteous men, intended to have the fact of God's help constantly before him. Since his sons would be with him, and he would often address them or call them by name, he would remember his gratitude to God.
  • 1 (tr. Samuel Rapaport)

• Moses, before he left Egypt, succeeded in securing for the Israelites the observance of rest on the Sabbath, by pointing out to Pharaoh the necessity – in his own interest – of granting his slaves one day every week freedom from labour, and thereby invigorating them for the renewal of labour after their rest.
  • 1 (tr. Samuel Rapaport)

• There is no place without God's presence. Even in the bush He was present, and this was the lesson of God's omnipresence that Moses learnt when he was called out of the bush.
  • 2 (tr. Samuel Rapaport)

• The matron whom we find so often arguing with Rabbi José observed one day to that sage, 'My god is surely greater than yours. When your God appeared to Moses in the bush, Moses merely covered his face, whilst when my god (the serpent) made its appearance he could not stand his ground at all, but had to run away out of fear.' 'Not so, 'returned the Rabbi, 'for in order to be out of the power of your god it sufficed for Moses to step a few paces back, but whither could he have fled from the presence of Him who filleth the earth?'
  • 3 (tr. Samuel Rapaport)

• When praying on behalf of Pharaoh to remove the plague of hail from him, Moses went out of the town to do so (Exodus 9:20), because he would not pray in the midst of the idols and abominations that polluted the place and rendered it unfit for prayer to the throne of mercy. He went into the open, pure air of God to pray to God.
  • 12 (tr. Samuel Rapaport)

• For the purpose of effecting Israel's redemption God did not disdain to appear in a place where there were images of idols or other impurities.
  • 15 (tr. Samuel Rapaport)

• David advisedly calls one of his Psalms (Psalm 90) 'A prayer of Moses, the man of God,' and another Psalm (Psalm 102) he names 'A prayer of the afflicted,' to convey to us the truth that the prayer of the greatest and of the most humble of men, that of the richest and that of the poorest, of the slave and of the master, are equal before God.
  • 21 (tr. Samuel Rapaport)

• Prayers should be said in common, master and man mistress and maid, rich and poor together, for all are equal before God.
  • 21 (tr. Samuel Rapaport)

• If your hands are stained by dishonesty, your prayers will be polluted and impure, and an offence to Him to whom you direct them. Do not pray at all before you have your hands purified from every dishonest act.
  • 22 (tr. Samuel Rapaport)

• Man is the proudest of God's creatures, the eagle is the haughtiest amongst the birds, the ox amongst the cattle, and the lion amongst the beasts of the field. Hence it was the image of these four which Ezekiel saw in his vision on the throne of God.
  • 23 (tr. Samuel Rapaport)

• Every prophecy, afterwards uttered by various prophets, was handed over on Sinai at the time of the giving of the Decalogue, but was to be kept unproclaimed until each prophet had received the charge of proclaiming his respective prophecy
  • 28 (tr. Samuel Rapaport)

• I am the first and I am the last, and beside Me there is no God' (Isaiah 43:6) I am the first, I have no father; I am the last, I have no brother. Beside Me there is no God; I have no son.
  • 29 (tr. Samuel Rapaport)

• He who lives by usury in this world shall not live in the world to come.
  • 31 (tr. Samuel Rapaport)

• Repentance makes virtues almost of the very vices of the penitent sinner.
  • 31 (tr. Samuel Rapaport)

• Poverty is man's greatest affliction.
  • 31 (tr. Samuel Rapaport)

• The poor are styled 'God's own.'
  • 31 (tr. Samuel Rapaport)

• In giving his Torah to Israel, God is like a king who gives his only daughter in marriage, and makes it a condition with her husband that there shall always be a room kept for him in their house. If we wish to have the Torah, we must have God also. This is the meaning of the words 'Make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell therein.'
  • 33 (tr. Samuel Rapaport)

• Gold is one of the things for the non-existence of which man would probably be all the better. It was originally called into existence for the service of the Mishkan and of the Temple.
  • 37 (tr. Samuel Rapaport)

• My light, the Torah, says God to man, is in thy hand; but thy light, the soul, is in my hand. Take care of my light, so that I may take care of thy light.
  • 37 (tr. Samuel Rapaport)

• God requires but earnest prayer and a penitent heart.
  • 38 (tr. Samuel Rapaport)

• Israel was redeemed from Egypt in answer to prayer. Joshua became a conqueror because of his prayer; in the days of the judges help was obtained by prayer; Samuel's help for his people was granted in reply to prayer.
  • 38 (tr. Samuel Rapaport)

• When God first called Moses, not being then an expert prophet, he was addressed in a voice similar to that of his own father, and he thought that his father had come to him from Egypt. God then told him that it was not his earthly father who called him, but the God of his father. Then, we find, Moses hid his face, which he did not do when first called by his name; not in fact until he heard the words, 'I am the God of thy fathers.'
  • 45 (tr. Samuel Rapaport)

• It is prohibited to preach out of manuscript. Sermons are to be delivered without the help of any writing before the preacher.
  • 47 (tr. Samuel Rapaport)

Translations

• Samuel Rapaport, Tales and Maxims from the Midrash (London: George Routledge & Sons, 1907)

• Louis Ginzberg, The Legends of the Jews, 7 vols. (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of America, 1909–1938)

External links

• Encyclopedic article on Midrash on Wikipedia