Volume 9, Issue 2 - Special Issue: Midrash as Rabbinic Reception of the Bible; Guest Editor: Burton L. Visotzky

The editor of the special issue on Midrash discusses the history of the genre Midrash as reception of the Hebrew Bible and its evolution during the period from ca. 70–1070 CE.

The Tannaitic Midrashim offer a unique and ancient view of the reception of the bible by the earliest generations of rabbis. This study describes how the close readings and textual analyses in these midrashim resulted in a fuller picture of biblical ideas and characters; in this case, the women of the Pentateuch. The tannaitic midrashic texts that describe Zipporah, Miriam, the Daughters of Zelophehad and Serah bat Asher are isolated and analyzed in order to see how the ancient rabbis read the biblical stories of these women and then elaborated on them in their exegetical writings.

This article analyzes the reception of the Bible in a group of midrashim called amoraic midrash , or aggadic midrash , which reveal the centrality of Scripture in the world of the rabbis. Each midrash is organized around a particular biblical book and its verses, bringing a collection of interpretations taught by different rabbis in the land of Israel in the first five centuries of the Common Era. These compositions were redacted towards the end of the Amoraic Period and immediately after and are therefore referred to as midrashei amoraim . The title midrashei aggadah reflects their content, with almost no interpretations dealing with halakhic issues . In this article, I explain the unique fashion in which midrashei aggadah function as a mode of biblical interpretation, the creative ways biblical verses were employed by the rabbis, and the conception of the Bible’s unity evidenced in their midrashim. I then present the main role of biblical verses as an organizing principle in two genres of midrashic compositions. I conclude with the question of the link between midrashei amoraim and the world of the synagogue. Do these midrashim teach us about biblical reception and interpretation solely among the intellectual elite or also among the general public?

This article addresses the paradox of the Bible’s reception in the Babylonian Talmud: that despite the Bible’s centrality to many of the discussions and stories in the Talmud, the Talmud ultimately recontextualizes the Bible by creating a new version of the Jewish study canon. It argues that this paradox cannot be understood without recognizing that there are essentially two different concepts of the Bible held by the late rabbis; that is, a material Bible and a memorized Bible. The Bible makes an appearance in the Talmud as a physical object or set of objects, composed of words on parchment, and consisting of a specific collection of works, which are accorded special status. However, the Bible as a memorized study text plays a different role in Talmudic hermeneutics, in which the redactors of the Talmud present the Bible in atomized form as one of many sources that are all subject to the same type of discussion and interpretation. By analyzing the complexity of the Bible’s role in the Talmud, this article stakes a middle ground between the argument that the Talmud and other works of rabbinic literature are in some fundamental sense part of a continuous line of revision and commentary that dates back to the earliest forms of inner-biblical exegesis; and, on the other hand, the position that the rabbis either are uninterested in or represent an active rupture from modes of reading the Bible.

This essay explores two questions: How is the Bible received and expressed in classical rabbinic Jewish liturgy? What is the implication for the understanding and interpretation of Jewish prayer, given the role of the Bible in the liturgy? We will review the prevailing theories of the Bible’s reception in the liturgy and classify the different forms of this reception. We will then explore the implications for interpretation of liturgy by analyzing a piece of the daily Jewish liturgy—the first blessing of the amidah.

This article surveys the reception of the Bible in rabbinic literature during the period from the close of the Talmud until the rise of Rashi and the medieval commentators who followed him – from approximately 650 to 1050 CE. It considers works of midrash and mysticism, as well as works of individual Geonim. The article charts the eclipse of biblical authority in the period, and its reemergence in Europe at the end of the Geonic era.

The most influential biblical commentary in Jewish history is that of the late eleventh century scholar, Rabbi Shlomo Yitzḥaki (“Rashi”) of northern France. This essay examines Rashi’s Torah Commentary as a midrashic anthology and examines Rashi’s reception of the Bible through the lens of his use of midrash. After highlighting shared traits of first-millennium midrashic corpora and Rashi’s Torah Commentary, I offer a new reading of Rashi’s “methodological statement.” I then turn to Rashi’s historical context to suggest that the Commentary’s lemmatized form demonstrates that Scripture cannot be properly understood without its rabbinic accompaniment, the midrash of the rabbis’ Oral Torah. Finally, I offer examples of the range of ways Rashi employed midrash in his Commentary, the primary lens through which traditional Jews have received Scripture for a millennium.