MIDRASH. - Homiletic interpretation of the Bible, by the rabbis of approximately the 2nd–10th centuries.
The term derives from dāraś, which, both in its verbal and nominal forms, already occurs in the Old Testament; in post-biblical Hebrew it means: “search for meaning, inquiry, explanation,” theoretical study as opposed to practice, “interpretation, exposition” of the sense of Scripture (Aramaic dāraś).
The midrash tends to deduce from the sacred text whatever was necessary for the observance of precepts that, from the end of the prophetic period onward, through the activity of the first learned men (“scribes”), became ever more vital. The midrash thus becomes the further development of the “Law,” now called hālākhāh (q.v.), “practical norm.” In the period of the tannaim (q.v.), the midrash is rich in preceptive elements, which gradually give way to others, haggadic (cf. HAGGĀDHĀH), homiletic, narrative, creative ones, replete with parables and historical narratives, meditations, affective and consolatory expressions. The midrashic interpretation follows a particular hermeneutic and, given the fascination it exerts on its hearers, is the food of the popular soul. From the beginning of the 3rd century A.D. the midrashic production begins to be committed to writing. In the period of the gā’ōnīm (q.v.) the legal tendency prevails. More recently, the midrash has been replaced by collections of sermons or by historical and scientific studies.
The homiletic midrash begins with an exordium (“opening”: pētīlāh), in which the midrash is linked to some scriptural text (prophetic, hagiographic, or sapiential). The midrash extends, however, to collections that are based on almost all the books of the Old Testament.
Among the midrashim of a tannaitic character are the Mēkhilthā’ (“measure”), Siphrā’ (“Book”), and Siphrē (“Books”), which comment on Exodus and Deuteronomy. The principal midrashim of a haggadic character are: the midrash rabbāh (Pentateuch and the midrashim meghillōth), the Pēsīqātā, Falqūt. The “pearl” of midrashic homiletic literature is the Tannā’ dēbē ’Ēlījāhū. Of an esoteric-gnostic character is the “Book of Creation” (Sēphēr jēsīrāh), the pivot of the Kabbalah (q.v.).
Many midrashim were translated, particularly by Wünsche, into German.