Concepts of Scriptural Language in Midrash 79assumption, typical of postbiblical Jewish texts, is at odds with the Bible’s own
view, in which predicting the future played a fairly small role in a prophet’s job
description.
- Th is assumption on the rabbis’ part, of course, tells us much about their
conception of the God who authored the text and the world that God created. In
the classical rabbis’ worldview, all things have a proper place, and ambiguity or
liminality must be resolved. - On the relationship of tradition to scripture as well as secondary attempts
to link the former to the latter (or to assert that tradition rather than scripture has
conceptual priority), see chapters 3 and 4 by Steven Fraade and Azzan Yadin-Israel
in this volume. - See chapter 10 by Moshe Idel in this volume, on concepts of Torah in Jewish
mysticism. - See, in this volume, chapter 6 by Meira Polliack on Karaite and Rabban-
ite interpreters among the Sephardim, chapter 7 by Robert Harris on the French
Ashkenazic school of Rashi and his followers, and chapter 8 by James Diamond on
Maimonides. - See the chapters in this volume by Jonathan Cohen, Job Jindo, Marc Bret-
tler, and Shalom Carmy on several modern Jewish thinkers and interpreters.