Here is a three step method to facilitate the process of studying midrash:
1. Searching out the question in the Biblical texts that prompts the midrash
2. Understanding the answer found in the midrash
3. Deriving the message of the midrash
Whenever we take a look at a rabbinic story or explanation of the text of the Bible, we immediately have to ask ourselves what question the rabbis are coming to answer. There are two ways of going about it.
One way is to study the answer before we know the question. Once we understand the answer it will lead us to the question in the text. One big game of Jeopardy!
The other method is also a challenge but in order to carry it out we will have to hone our skills together. So now TaNaCh in hand, we have to decide what prompts the answer that the rabbis have proposed. The first step is to take a careful look at the verse or verses being commented on.
Of course this is difficult to do with an English translation since most of the problems or questions have already been solved by the translator one way or another, but frequently questions in the text might be noted in the form of footnotes or by a commentary which may accompany the text. As you further your studies, the excitement of studying midrash will bring with it the desire to learn the Hebrew necessary to do it yourself. In the meantime, we will discover together the questions that lead us to midrash.
We also have to distinguish between the answer that the rabbis have given and the actual meaning of the Biblical text. We distinguish between the literal meaning of the text known as “pshat” and the interpretive meaning of the text known as “drash”.
The “pshat” meaning of the text represents how the text should be understood within its normative literary context or more plainly, how the normal reader understands the text upon reading it. “Drash”, on the other hand, is as E. Greenstein puts it, “the endeavor to decipher and spell out the latent meanings of the text. Meaning stems not only from their gist but from peculiarities in their style, vocabulary, and spelling as well.”
In order to draw out the full richness of the Bible, each element of the text must be analyzed closely. These two levels of meaning live side by side, even though at times they contradict each other. For some of us this may present a real problem, since up until this point we may have assumed that any text we read would have only one meaning. HaZaL saw the text of the TaNaCh, given its sacred nature, as multi-faceted and therefore open to different levels of interpretation. To put it in their own words:
“One spoke God, two have I heard” (Psalm 62:12) – one verse has many meanings but one meaning cannot be derived from two verses….It is taught: (like a)” hammer shattering a rock” (Jeremiah 23,29) -just as a hammer shatters a rock into many sparks, so too does one verse have many meanings.
Sanhedrin 34a
Midrash is very taken up with the interpretation of Scripture, but it does not stop there. Here we move to the third step in our process, the search for the significance of the midrash itself- what is the message of the midrash itself and what does the midrash tell us about those who wrote it and their concerns? For this third step we have to wear two different hats – that of the religious human being yearning for the message of our Sages, and that of the investigative human being searching for the meaning of the midrash within its own particular historical context. I must emphasize that these two questions will not always yield the same answer, as we will see a bit later on.