Q&A: Midrash
Midrash
Question
Hello Rabbi,
I’m trying to understand the place of midrash in the context of the Oral Torah tradition.
Are the midrashim a human creation inspired by spiritual/Torah insights? A kind of Torah-oriented David Grossman? Or are they truth passed down through tradition?
For example: the splitting of the Sea of Reeds was a historical event. Was the dialogue between the Holy One, blessed be He, and the angels (“My handiwork are drowning in the sea,” etc.) also a historical event?
Inspired by the intensive religious education I received, I always believed that this was truth passed down through tradition, and that we really know in exact detail how the Holy One, blessed be He, reacts to all kinds of situations, what His train of thought was, what He does or doesn’t like, what He said to the moon and what it said back to Him, and so on. Now it seems to me so unlikely to think that way, and even ridiculous. But what do I know?
Thanks in advance, and many thanks for the interesting site.
Answer
You are talking about aggadic midrashim. The more interesting question is actually about halakhic midrashim. With aggadic midrashim, it is clear that they are not meant to fill in historical facts. They convey messages through literary means. By the way, there is no religious obligation to believe in their historical reliability. Maimonides, in his introduction to the chapter Helek, speaks about three groups in relation to the aggadot of the Sages (and those who take them literally are, in his view, fools). True, he is referring mainly to aggadot in which it is obvious that they are not historical truth, but simply speaking that is the intent regarding any aggadah for which there is no reason to assume that it is conveying facts, such as the conversation surrounding the splitting of the sea.
Rabbi HaNazir said about the Sages that “they were poets.”