Contributors in Jewish and Hebrew studies seek to enlarge the perspective on Midrash and midrashic creativity to show how it is a fundamental form of Jewish culture and has maintained an identifiable coherence and integrity in all its expressions over the course of two millennia. They cover origins and subsurface traditions, later Midrashic forms, medieval transformations, and early modern and modern traditions. Among the topics are Targumic and Midrashic perceptions of Exodus 17:14-16, Midrash in Syriac, the Toledot yeshu as Midrash, performative Midrash in the memory of Ashkenazi martyrs, Midrashic texts and methods in Tosafist Torah commentaries, and Midrash in medieval and early modern sermons. Distributed in the US by ISBS. Annotation ©2014 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)
Midrash is arguably the most ancient and native of Jewish genres, forming a voluminous literature of scriptural exegesis over the course of centuries. There is virtually nothing in the ancient rabbinic universe that was not taught through this medium. This book presents the diversity and development of that creative profusion in a new light. It covers a broad range of literary texts, from late antiquity to the early modern period and from all the centers of literary creativity, including non-rabbinic and non-Jewish literature, so that the full extent of the modes and transformations of Midrash can be rightly appreciated. A comprehensive Introduction situates Midrash in its full historical and rhetorical setting, pointing to creative adaptations within the tradition and providing a sense of the variety of genres and applications discussed in the body of the work. Bringing together an impressive array of the leading names in the field, the book is entirely new in scope and content. It opens a new period in the study of Midrash and its creative role in the formation of culture. The book will be of interest to all scholars of Jewish studies, both broadly and specifically, as well as to a wider readership interested in the interrelationships between hermeneutics, culture, and creativity, and especially in the afterlife of a classical genre and its ability to inspire new creativity in many forms.
