64
Chapter 5
Concepts of Scriptural Language in Midrash
Benjamin D. Sommer
Virtually all Jewish conceptions of scripture since late antiquity grow up
in the shadow of the rabbinic interpretations known as midrash. Whether
by incorporating them, adapting them, or reacting to them, postrabbinic
Jewish thinkers who studied the Bible lived in a conceptual world shaped
by the midrash. To this day, the interpretations of the weekly biblical read-
ing one hears from a darshan (a rabbi, teacher, or preacher who gives
the sermon) in the course of synagogue worship1 is likely to consist of a
paraphrase of a passage from a midrashic anthology that treats the weekly
reading; alternatively (if the darshan is more ambitious), it may begin with
a summary of a midrash and move on from there. Th us, one needs to ac-
quire some appreciation for midrashic approaches to scripture not only to
understand the Bible’s role in the Judaism of the classical rabbis who pro-
duced the midrashim but also to understand the Bible’s role in the Juda-
isms of all who came aft er them. In what follows, I provide a defi nition of
the term, and I explain how the rabbis viewed the language of scripture,
which, for them, diff ered in essential ways from all other uses of language
on earth.2
Properly used, midrash refers to interpretations of scripture found in
classical rabbinic texts — that is, the texts that were produced in the fi rst
millennium of the Common Era or shortly thereaft er.3 More specifi cally,
the term midrash is used in several ways:
- Midrash can refer to the methods of reading that produce these in-
terpretations. (Th us, a person might speak of midrash in contrast
with some other mode of reading, such as the interpretive method of
medieval or modern biblical exegetes.)