thread: 2007-01-10 : Some questions about worship
On 2007-01-18, NinJ wrote:
Midrashim are clearly a working of Biblical text into a new context, realigning the meaning of the original text. They define its core.
They are liturgical practice that gives weight to a moral stance by supporting it with select passages. Emphasis on the "select".
There are two ways to read a text, according to Jewish tradition: Drash and Pshat. A Pshat reading is where each word means only its most obvious meaning. This is the meaning we give to children as they first learn the basics of the stories, and this is the level that those who "believe in the literal truth of the Bible" are usually working on. Then come the Drash readings, the reading between the lines, the interpretation. This is done lots of ways: by comparing passages that contradict each other and manufacturing explanations; by using the numerical readings of the words (a Hebrew letters also being numbers), by anagrammatizing them, whatever. Obviously, this is a very subjective practice and tells more about the commentator than the historical origins of the text. Fortunately, what's most interesting is the perspective of the commentator; they're the ones living at a particular time and telling us what they saw. And we give them the benefit of the doubt: what they saw, yes, it was true, but the way you're reading it is wrong. This is why...
Here's a page of Talmud. In the center is a segment of primary text. Around it are commentaries. And commentaries on those commentaries. And commentaries on those....
This is the Babylonian Talmud, canonized about 1500 years ago from its oral sources (it's still often called "oral torah"). Once it was written down, new forms of oral liturgy came into existence and continue to evolve today.
So, the kernel, which kernel is that? The kernel where God brought the Israelites to Canaan, where they burned the city of Aa to the ground and salted the earth? Or the one where God chastized the Israelites for celebrating the drowning of the Egyptians because of their lack of empathy?
