Midrash Unbound

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 volume 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 centres 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 volume is entirely new in scope and content; it seeks to open a new period in the study of Midrash and its creative role in the formation of culture. It should 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.

Philip Alexander, Emeritus Professor of Post-Biblical Jewish Studies, University of Manchester
Sebastian Brock, Emeritus Reader in Syriac Studies, University of Oxford; Professorial Fellow of Wolfson College, Ocford
Jacob Elbaum, Professor Emeritus of Hebrew Literature, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Michael Fishbane, Nathan Cummings Professor of Jewish Studies, University of Chicago
Robert Hayward, Professor in the Department of Theology and Religion, University of Durham
William Horbury, Emeritus Professor of Jewish and Early Christian Studies, University of Cambridge
Sara Japhet, Professor Emeritus, Department of Bible, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Ephraim Kanarfogel, E. Billi Ivry Professor of Jewish History, Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies, Yeshiva University
Naftali Loewenthal, Lecturer in Jewish Spirituality, University College London
Ivan G. Marcus, Frederick P. Rose Professor of Jewish History, Yale University
Alison Salvesen, University Research Lecturer, University of Oxford; Polonsky Fellow in Jewish Bible Versions, Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies
Marc Saperstein, Professor of Jewish History and Homiletics, Leo Baeck College, London
Chava Turniansky, Professor Emerita, Department of Yiddish, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Piet van Boxel, Emeritus Curator of Hebraica, University of Oxford
Joanna Weinberg, Reader in Hebrew and Jewish Studies, University of Oxford; Catherine Lewis Fellow in Rabbinics, Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies
Benjamin Williams, Oriental Institute, University of Oxford
Elliot Wolfson, Abraham Leberman Professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies, New York University
Eli Yassif, Zvi Berger Professor of Jewish Folk-Culture, The School of Jewish Studies, Tel-Aviv University

Note on Transliteration
Introduction
Michael Fishbane and Joanna Weinberg

Part I Origins and Subsurface Traditions
1 Midrash and the Meaning of Scripture
Michael Fishbane
2 The Hand upon the Lord’s Throne: Targumic and Midrashic Perceptions of Exodus 17: 14–16
Robert Hayward
3 Unwashed Hands: A Midrashic Controversy in the Gospel of Matthew
Piet van Boxel
4 ‘Tradunt Hebraei . . .’ The Problem of the Function and Reception of Jewish Midrash in Jerome
Alison Salvesen
5 Midrash in Syriac
Sebastian Brock

Part II Later Midrashic Forms
6 Piyut and Midrash: Between Poetic Invention and Rabbinic Convention
Michael Fishbane
7 The Mourners of Zion and the Suffering Messiah: Pesikta rabati 34—Structure, Theology, and Content
Philip Alexander
8 The Toledot jeshu as Midrash
William Horbury
9 Storytelling as Midrashic Discourse in the Middle Ages
Eli Yassif
10 Performative Midrash in the Memory of Ashkenazi Martyrs
Ivan G. Marcus

Part III Medieval Transformations
11 Midrash in a Leixical Key: The Arukh of Nathan ben Yehiel
Joanna Weinberg
12 Rashi’s Choice: The {H.}umash Commentary as Rewritten Midrash
Ivan G. Marcus
13 The Pendulum of Exegetical Methodology: From the Peshat to the Derash and Back
Sara Japhet
14 Midrashic Texts and Methods in Tosafist Torah Commentaries
Ephraim Kanarfogel
15 Zoharic Literature and Midrashic Temporality
Elliot Wolfson

Part IV Early Modern and Modern Traditions
16 The Ingathering of Midrash Rabbah
Benjamin Williams
17 Midrash in Medieval and Early Modern Sermons
Marc Saperstein
18 Rabbi Judah Loew of Prague and his Attitude to the Aggadah
Jacob Elbaum
19 The Destruction of the Temple: A Yiddish Booklet for the Ninth of Av
Jacob Elbaum and Chava Turniansky
20 Midrash in Habad Hasidism
Naftali Loewenthal

Notes on Contributors
Index