Midrash (or Midrashim in the plural) is a Hebrew term which indicates the interpretation and the biblical comment in the Jewish tradition.
Definition
The word means in Hebrew: “ which comes from the drash ”. However, Drsh means “to require” (cf the Arab root: drs ), or with the direction second, “to seek”. In Arabic, a a little different semantic evolution gave the word madrasa (school). Also, in Sanskrit, darshana means " école" or " " point of view of; …
Precise DITL :
singular male Hebrew Name formed on root D-R-HS, more precisely on the verb darash: to require, question, examine, from where to interpret in-depth. Midrash appears twice only in the Bible, in an identical context (II Chroniques 13,22 and 24,27: other events of the life of the king are mentioned in the midrash of a Prophète). The word thus means here account, talk detailed. In the talmudic literature, it takes sometimes the direction of study. But according to the Treated Fathers (1,17), it is not the midrash or the study which is essence, but the maaseh , work, the interrogation, the action (this competition between work, action and study is found for example in the Epîtres of Paul). From this direction of study for midrash the expression rises from beyt-hamidrash house of study.
The second comment of Rachi on the first verse of Bereshit 1:1 (At the beginning God created the skies and the ground) states:
- “Lo Ba will hamiqra lemor ela D has R HS ouni ”
It will thus be considered that midrash is equipped with a Homonymie intern:
- many midrashim (with tiny) is brought back in Talmuds;
- one also indicates by Midrash (with a capital letter) of compilations of oral lesson and systematic comments of the biblical books which did not find place in the collections of the Talmud; one finds there also Proverbe S, Conte S and Fable S; in the same way the collection of the Fables of the Fountain, with a capital letter, contains fables, with tiny;
- the midrash is finally a method of interpretation, with the precise rules, whose 13 principles of Rabbi Ishmaël give an idea: it is said that such verse derives from such other “by midrash ”; to continue the comparison, the collection of the Fables of the Fountain derives from that of Esope by translation of the French Greek and application of the precise rules of traditional versification (rate/rhythm, rhymes, alliterations, etc)
Method
According to Marc-Alain Ouaknin, the midrash , method of direct Interpretation of the biblical text, is distinguished from the Mishna , indirect method, “independent of the base scripturaire on which it is based”.
Traditionally, the comprehension of the biblical text is divided between the pshat (literal direction), the remez (allusive direction), the drash (interpretation) and the sod (mystical). Midrash concentrates on the remez and more still on the drash . He resorts to processes Rhétorique S such as the Allégorie, the Métaphore, the Concordance, the analogy, the Gématrie. L' talmudic Herméneutique was codified successively by Hillel (seven principles of Hillel), Rabbi Nahoum de Gamzo (“ett inclusive”, is treated Hagiga 12b), Rabbi Akiva, Rabbi Ishmaël, Rabbi Eliezer Ben Rabbi Yossi Galiléen (32 principles).
According to Maurice Mergui, the features among most projecting of the midrash are:
- its disparate appearance, which is the effect of the Pilpul: the topics are followed in an astonishing disorder (seemingly): accounts of the daily life, lesson, fables, debates, lawsuits, dialogs between God and Israel, etc;
- the absence of consideration for the history;
- the midrash is sometimes difficult to translate. Its language does not have the transparency of the Hebrew biblical. It mingles late Hebrew with several levels with araméen;
- the preference for the double agreement and representability (for example, the Circoncision is comparable with a customs taking away);
- freedom compared to the letter, and thus compared to the sacrality of the text, freedom also compared to the history: certain passages deny the existence of characters about which the Writing speaks: Job or the Queen of Sheba; others affirm that the facts reported in the Bible are not historical;
- the opening: the debates are not closed again by the final imposition of a direction, the davar aHer (“another word”) add, rather than oppose, the points of view. They follow the proverb " word of the one, word of the other, word of God " ;
- the achievement: for to achieve the biblical text, the midrash can invent narrations simply to justify a verse of the Bible;
- the midrash puts in debate all that relates to the destiny of Israel: the direction of the exile, that of the law, etc
Halakha, Haggada, Pescher
The classic authors distinguish:
- the halakhic midrachim , producers of halakha , i.e. of jurisprudence;
- the aggadic midrachim , producers of Aggada, i.e. of edifying anecdotes, parabolas, even of complete stories;
- the midrashim pesharim , attested at Hugh J. Schonfield and, with its continuation Armand Abécassis and Marc-Alain Ouaknin, in which an old account repeats mutatis-mutandis '' while changing what must be changed '': by adapting the thing studied to the context in connection with a character of the present.
The distinction is not always easy, of many anecdotes being used as support with ethical decisions, as the Fables of the Fountain have “moralities”.
After the return of the Exile of Babylon, the Torah was in the center of the Jewish life. The permanent concern of the authorities was to ensure the conformity of the individual and collective behaviors the commands of the Torah. However the payments of this one, having been written in old circumstances, were to be adapted to new circumstances.
The interpretation of the law constitutes “Midrash Halakha”.
Although one calls oldest (collections of) midrashim, “Midrash Halakha”, they do not include/understand only a Halakha, but also of the Aggada. One could call them Midrashs “tannaitic” (Tannaim being doctors of the Mishna, between and the 3rd century), if this title were not already of use, on the one hand, and if, on the other hand, the aforementioned Midarshim tannaitic, and the lessons which they contain, in particular as regards aggada, had not been altered by the Amoraïm, the doctors of the Talmud who succeeded to them, whose era extends from the 3rd century at the 5th century.
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Between the time of Tannaïm and that of Amoraïm. The border (floating) is that of the publication of the official Mishna by Rabbi Yéhoudah “the Prince”, who exerted the religious authority in Galileo (and for all the Roman empire) between 175 and 217. The five generations of Tannaïm which nourished these Midrashim thus extend from the Fire of the Temple, in 70 of the common era, with 218 - 240 of the common era. But it is known that Rabbi Yohanàn the Blacksmith, for example, who comes just after this time, largely worked over again the Mekhilta…
Large collections
Though the biblical text presents some examples of midrashim (p. e.g. the titles of certain psalms give the impression to be a work midrachic on 1-2 Samuel), this method of allègorèse develops and is systematized mainly at rabbinical times.
The principal collections known as “halakhic” come either from the School of Rabbi Ismaël, or of the School of Rabbi Akiva (two of principal Tannas of IIe century), but the distinction between these two “Schools”, obviously fixed and reinvested by various traditions of the 3e - 4th century, is the subject of divergent and complex interpretations.
Some, like Gary Porton, hold even the quarrel Ismaël/Akiva for “artificial”. The paradox (the “artificial quarrel”) wants that famous the 13 rules of interpretation of Rabbi Ismaël, defining the halakhic method even of the midrash like “infinite reading” nourishing the “step” of the people of Alliance, are precisely with the opening of the “Sifra”.
It is difficult to support the bonds between these two styles of Midrash or to establish a detailed biography of these two “figures” of the beginning of the 2nd century, rich person of legendary anecdotes, even miraculous: this research is regarded as an impossible “search” since the studies of Jacob Neusner and others.
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oldest of these collections is the Recueil or the Mékhilta according to Rabbi Ismaël , which is a species of “seminar” of interpretation on the Livre of the Exodus, matrix of many developments in Talmuds and other Midrashim. Michel Remaud also announced that this Mékhilta tie-beam in resonance with the Evangiles.
- the other collection most important, of the School of Rabbi Akiva, is the “Sifra”, i.e. “the Book” “par excellence” of the practice of the Judaism (also called the Torat haCohanim , the “Law of the Priests”): its interpretations relate to the Lévitique.
- There exists another “Mekhilta” on the Exode, reconstituted at the time modern: the Mékhilta according to Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochaï, actually part of the Zohar.
- the others Midrash Halakhah , bearing on the Numbers and Deutéronome, are simply called “the Books”: the “Sifré”.
One considers that it exists not Midrash Halakhique on Genesis (sefer Bereshit), because it is before all the history (concerning aggadic interpretations) which makes the richness of it, rather than the legal material. The legal material that it contains (on the Shabbat, the circumcision, the sacrifices, etc) is thus treated starting from its occurrences in the other biblical Books.
Midrash Rabbah
Definition
The Midrash Rabbah gathers a collection of peripheral writings to the Talmud, ordered according to the plan of the Tanakh. It is characterized by the great number of Aggadoth which it contains By Aggada, one hears a kind of writings (history, fiction, legend, allegory, scientific observation, etc) which are not concerned with the law. Midrash is thus a collection of accounts in relation to words, topics, or narrative units of Tanach.
Various collections of Midrashim are published. Most important names Midrash Rabbah or Midrash ha Gadol, (of Midrash, like above and Rabba which means large, multiple and whose plural form is Rabboth), which counts a great number of volumes. Other collections include/understand the Peschita (Divisions for the Festivals), Mekhilta (Treated), Sifra (Book), and Sifre (Books).
Contents
The Midrash tackles varied subjects. Confronted with the opposition of those which interpret the Torah in a strictly literal direction, the Rabbis seek the most creative and subtle interpretations by various modes of interpretation of the text of the Torah. The Midrash includes/understands quantities of accounts resulting from an examination from word for word or certain expressions. Sometimes, the Midrash seems to fill an apparent white in an account. The Midrash can be included/understood like an attempt to discover the interior direction of the Tanach .
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the Midrash Rabbah contains volumes on the Chumash (5 books of Brace) and the Hamesh Megillot (5 Rollers, of Ketoubim). In spite of the similarity of the names, these works are not strictly homothetic comments either only exhaustive. They do not comment on all the biblical books, but only those used during synagogaux office: the Pentateuque in the annual cycle of reading, the other books at the time of specific festivals like the Book of Esther at the time of the festival of Pourim.
The text is divided into paracha (section), then sé' yew or basic unit of comment. The reference to the text of the midrash rabba is given by the paracha then séif.
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the Peschita (Divisions) joins together 3 works, turning around the readings of the Prophets (the Haftarot ) for Shabbat and the festivals.
- the Mekhilta (Treated) is a comment of Shemot ( the Names , i.e. Exode). Sifra (Book) comments on to Vayikra ( And he proclaimed , C. - with-D. Levitique). Sifre (Books) comments on Bamidbar (numbers) and Devarim ( the Words C. - with-D. Deutéronome). These 3 last are of a nature largely halachic (How to apply the law?). Some midrashim are sometimes included in several collections.
Sources and authors
If some believe the midrashim divinement inspired, like any element of a corpus of religeuse literature, it is important to announce that some of them should not absolutely be taken with serious though the range of each one of these accounts always exceeds the first access resulting from the first reading.
According to the Jewish tradition, the midrachim concern the revealed “oral Law” with Moïse at the same time as the Torah written. Certain traditional, like the history of the Abram young person breaking the idols manufactured by his/her father, or that of the young Brace making fall the crown from Pharaon and burning the language to burning embers that one presents to him, acquired the statute of revealed text besides.
Under the angle of the history of the texts, the things are obviously different:
- the Talmud is famous being the law Orale revealed at the same time as the Bible;
- the biblical accounts are often inspired by mythologies of the Middle East, as the works of Jean Bottéro show it;
- method of construction of the biblical text (that it is Greek or Hebrew, that it is canonical or not) is not the subject of consensus. See article specialized History of research on the Old Testament.
The Midrash collects the comments of wise and the scholars. As for the written sources of Midrash, they go up most of the time at the time of Amoraim (200 - 500 of our era). For part of these sources, let us say Mechilta, Sifra, and Sifre, one can follow them until Tannaim (of − 400 to 200). However, the drafting of the midrashim extends over one period from approximately 1 200 years and the compilers are, generally, anonymities.
Bereshith Rabba , or sometimes Genesis Rabbah
Its drafting spreads out between the beginning of the 5th century and the current of the 6th century of the common era. This midrash on Genèse offers explanations of the words and sentences, interpretations haggadic and various talks whose majority are related of enough far to the text because of the advance from thought of the commentators reproduced in the text. The comment interlaces maxims and parabolas. Its drafting is based on the first rabbinical sources, including Mishna, Tosefta, the precepts halachic, the targumim. The text which us arrived from there connects with a version of Talmud of Jerusalem who resembles to him, without being exactly identical…
It is in Bereshit Rabba (38: 16), that in connection with the interpretation of the verse “And Haran died in front of his/her father” (Gen. 11:30) are told the famous stories of Abraham breaking the idols of his/her father Terah and the miracle saving Abraham of the furnace where Nemrod plunges, stories which, though absent from the biblical account, acquired the same authority.
Other collections
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Shemot Rabba , less often Exodus Rabbah (11th and 12th centuries)
- Vayyiqra Rabba, (middle of the 7th century)
- Bamidbar Rabba, (12th century)
- Devarim Rabba, (10th century)
- Shir Hashirim Rabba, (probably written before the middle of the 9th century)
- Ruth Rabba, (middle of the 9th century)
- Eicha Rabba , (7th century). Lamentations Rabbah knows two versions. The first edition printed in 1519, Pesaro; the other is the edition of Buber, starting from manuscript J.I.4 of the Biblioteca Casanata of Rome. This second (Buber) is quoted in Shoulkhan Arukh , as by the medieval Jewish authorities. Perhaps he knew a beginning of drafting as of the 5th century.
Midrash ha-Gadol
The Midrash ha-Gadol or “Large Midrash” is an anthology of midrashim 13th century, drawn from the literature rabbinical and gathered by the Rabbin David Ben Aaron of Aden, (Yemen). He comments on Pentateuque according to the parashoth, C. - with-D. the system of weekly readings.
Midrash Tehillim
It is the midrash on the Psalms compiled with the length of the centuries. Are absent the comments of Psalms 123 and 131. Solomon Buber joins together it in 1891.
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