Yeshiva University – Stern College for Women

Introduction to Midrash

JUDS 1873H, CRN 33045

The world of midrash is both strange and fascinating and is one of the most important but perhaps least understood works of Jewish literature. This course surveys the major works and methods of rabbinic midrash, both halakhic and aggadic. We will discuss the historical development of Midrash, inner-biblical exegesis, the hermeneutical rules, literary theory, and the concepts of omnisignifigance, polysemy and intertextuality. We will also devite one unit to the Passover Haggadah. After this course, students should be able to find and understand a selection of midrash on her own, navigate relevant methodological issues, and appreciate what the midrash is doing.

Grades will be determined based on a midterm (35%) a final (35%), attendance, participation and preparedness (10%), and assignments/presentations (20%). Students will be expected to prepare primary sources and readings for each class and be ready to discuss them.

The only book required for the course is Joseph Tabory, The JPS Commentary on the Haggadah: Historical Introduction, Translation, and Commentary, Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society (2008). All other readings are available from the course website: midrash.rabbinics.org.

Office hours will be on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 3:00-4:00PM in room 523.

Please bring a Tanakh to every class.

Assignment 1 – due Tuesday March 1^st - Choose a section of Midrash Halakhah (about 200 words). Photocopy the critical edition as well as edition with commentaries, point out significant manuscript variants, translate accurately and clearly, reproduce any verses or other parallels in rabbinic sources, write a comprehensive commentary on each step of the midrash. Conclude with significance of this selection both in terms of content and method and cite relevant points from class readings. Address the following, if relevant: What exegetical problem does the midrash face? What is the peshat? What rhetorical devices does the midrash use to persuade the reader to its conclusion? Is this a מדרש יוצר or a מדרש מקיים? Does this fit the methodology of R. Ishmael or R. Akiva? Are there significant differences in parallel midrashim? If so, which version is original? What midot are used in the midrash? Does the midrashic argument make sense or does it seem forced? If the latter, what may be the motivating such forced interpretation?

Assignment 2 – due Tuesday April 25^th - Find an article (use Rambi) or book chapter relating to midrash and write a critique of it. Please hand in a copy of the article. You should summarize its main argument, explain his methodology, delineate the strengths and weaknesses of the argument, what further questions does the article raise in your mind, what might be an area of further research. Also say something about the author: where he/she teaches, what other books and articles he/she wrote, and how his/her views fit into the field of midrash in general compared with other writers we have seen. Should be about 5 pages.

Assignment 3 – due Thursday May 5^th - Choose a section of Midrash Aggadah (about 300 words). Photocopy the critical edition (if it exists) as well as edition with commentaries, point out significant manuscript variants, translate accurately and clearly, reproduce any verses or other parallels in rabbinic sources, write a comprehensive commentary on each step of the midrash. Conclude with significance of this selection both in terms of content and method and cite relevant points from class readings. Address the following, if relevant: What exegetical problem does the midrash face? What is the peshat? What rhetorical devices does the midrash use to persuade the reader to its conclusion? Is this a מדרש יוצר or a מדרש מקיים? What lesson is the darshan teaching his audience? Are there significant differences in parallel midrashim? If so, which version is original? What midot are used in the midrash? Does the midrashic argument make sense or does it seem forced? If the latter, what may be the motivating such forced interpretation? How can literary theory help in understanding this midrash?

All students will be required to give an oral presentation of one of their papers. For Assignments 1 and 3 this means making copies of your selected text for the class and teaching it to them. For Assignment 2 it means making copies of one of the texts analyzed in the articles, explaining the main argument of the author and your critique.

Unit 1 – Early Midrash

1. Tuesday, January 25^{th –}Definitions, Books and History

Reading: Moshe David Herr, “Midrash” in Encyclopedia Judaica

Suggested Reading: Lawrence Schiffman, From Text to Tradition, pp. 177-200 and 220-239.

Texts: Qayin and Hevel, Yibbum, Incline after majority - handout

powerpoints - what is midrash, intro to rabbinic lit, intro to dead sea scrolls

2. Thursday, January 27^th - Inner-Biblical Exegesis

Reading: Michael Fishbane "Inner Biblical Exegesis: Types and Strategies of Interpretation in Ancient Israel." In Midrash and Literature, edited by Geoffrey Hartman and Sandra Budick. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1986, pp. 19-36.

Texts: Resolving contradictions: Cooking Passover - Ex 12:8-9, Dt 16:7, 2Chron 35:13, Mekhilta d’R. Ishmael Piskha 6; Passover Animal - Ex 12:5, Dt 16:2, 2Chron 35 7-9, Mekhilta d’R. Ishmael Piskha 4. Narrative: Samuel and Chronicles. Daniel 9. Nehemiah 11.

handouts - contradictions, fishbane examles, Devarim 14

3. Tuesday, February 1^st - Early Midrash in Second Temple Sources

Reading: James Kugel, The Bible as It Was, pp. 1-42.

Texts: Dead Sea Scrolls, Marriage Laws, Pesher, Rewritten Bible, Targum

4. Thursday, February 3^rd - cont.

Reading: Steven Fraade, “Shifting from Priestly to Non-Priestly Legal Authority: A Comparison of the Damascus Document and the Midrash Sifra,” Dead Sea Discoveries 6, 2 (1999), pp. 109-25.

Suggested Reading: Steven Fraade, “Rabbinic Midrash and Ancient Jewish Biblical Interpretation,” in The Cambridge Companion to the Talmud and Rabbinic Literature, eds. Charlotte Fonrobert and Martin Jaffee, pp. 99-120.

Texts: Septuagint to Megilat Esther, From Priest to Rabbi

Unit II – Midrash Halakha

5. Tuesday, February 8^th – Introducing Midrash Halakha

Reading: Gary Porton, Understanding Rabbinic Midrash, pp. 1-16.

Menahem Kahana, “Midrash Halakha” in Encyclopedia Judaica.

Text: Death Penalties

6. Thursday, February 10^th

Class trip to NYPL - Three Faiths

7. Tuesday, February 15^th – Midrash and Ethics

Reading: Moshe Halbertal, "Halakhah and Morality: The Case of the Apostate City," S'vara 3 (1993), 67-72. In expanded form, Interpretative Revolutions in the Making: Values as Interpretative Considerations in Midrashei Halakhah (Hebrew) (Jerusalem: Magnes, 1999), 122-44.

8. Thursday, February 17^th -

Midrash Yoser or Midrash Mekayem

Reading: David Weiss Halivni. Peshat and Derash. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991, 3-22.

Jay Harris, How Do We Know This?: Midrash and the Fragmentation of Modern Judaism, pp. 251-263.

Texts: Rambam Sefer haMisvot, Shoresh 2 and Ramban’s commentary. handout

9. Tuesday, February 22^nd - Hermeneutical Rules – מידות שהתורה נדרשת בהם

Reading: David Daube, “Rabbinic Methods of Interpretation and Hellenistic Rhetoric,” HUCA 22 (1949), pp. 239-264.

Text: Sifra introduction and examples

10. Thursday, February 24^th –

Two Schools of R. Ishmael and R. Akiva

Reading: Abraham Joshua Heschel, Heavenly Torah as Refracted Through the Generations, pp. 29-64.

Suggested Reading: Azzan Yadin, Scripture as Logos: Rabbi Ishmael and the Origins of Midrash.

Text: Handout

11. Tuesday, March 1^st - Student Presentations

Updating Torah to Address New Realities

Reading: Richard Hidary, Dispute for the Sake of Heaven: Legal Pluralism in the Talmud, pp. 297-333.

Text: Sifre on Rebellious Elder

Review Sheet

12. Thursday, March 3^rd – Midterm

Unit III – Midrash Aggadah

13. Tuesday, March 8^th – On Interpreting Aggadah

Reading: Abraham Joshua Heschel, God in Search of Man. New York: Ferrar Strauss and Giroux, 1976, pp. 336-340.

Hananel Mack, The Aggadic Midrash Literature, pp. 7-29.

Texts: Rambam - Introduction to Perek Helek, Guide III:43, Letter on Astrology

R. Abraham ben ha-Rambam, Introduction to Aggadah. Printed as an introduction to Ein Yaakov. Translation from S.H. Glick, En Jacob (1916).

14. Thursday, March 10^th - Three Year Cycle and the Synagogue Derasha

Reading: Mack, pp. 30-56.

Text: Bavli Shabbat 30a-b

15. Tuesday, March 15^th - The Petiha Format

Reading: Mack, pp. 57-87.

Text: Beresheet Rabbah, Lekh Lekha

16. Tuesday, March 22^nd – Midrash Rabbah

Reading: Mack, 88-118.

Suggested Reading: Heinemann on Lev Rabbah

Text: Vakikra Rabbah

17. Thursday, March 24^th – Method of Aggadah

Reading: Mack, 119-144.

Suggested Reading: Yitzhak Heinemann, Darkei ha-Aggadah.

Text: Vayikra Rabbah cont.

18. Tuesday, March 29^th – Literary Theory I

Daniel Boyarin, Intertextuality and the Reading of Midrash, pp. 1-21.

Text: Vayikra Rabbah cont.

19. Thursday, March 31^st – Literary Theory II

Susan Handelman, The Slayers of Moses: The Emergence of Rabbinic Interpretation in Modern Literary Theory, pp. 3-29.

David Stern, “Moses-cide: Midrash and Contemporary Literary Criticism,” Prooftexts 4 (1984), pp. 193-213.

Susan Handelman, “Fragments of the Rock: Contemporary Literary Theory and the Study of Rabbinic Texts-A Response to David Stern,” Prooftexts 5 (1985), pp. 75-93.

David Stern, “Literary Criticism or Literary Homilies? Susan Handelman and the Contemporary Study of Midrash, Prooftexts 5 (1985), pp. 96-102.

Text: Vayikra Rabbah cont.

20. Tuesday, April 5^th – Literary Theory III

David Stern, Midrash and Theory, intro and ch 1 (focus on ch 1)

Rashi’s Use of Midrash

21. Thursday, April 7^th - Structure of Haggadah

Arami Oved Avi

Reading: Joseph Tabory, The JPS Commentary on the Haggadah: Historical Introduction, Translation, and Commentary, pp. 1-36.

22. Tuesday, April 12^th - – Student Presentations

23. Thursday, April 14^th - Four Sons

Reading: Joseph Tabory, The JPS Commentary on the Haggadah: Historical Introduction, Translation, and Commentary, pp. 37-69.

Pesah Break