Understanding What a Midrash Is

Greetings and blessings,

Midrashim are very ancient explanations of the Torah that were transmitted orally and were written down approximately two thousand years ago. Their purpose is to describe ideas beyond the plain meaning of the Torah, and they teach deep moral teachings. Some midrashim were said literally, but many of them are only parables. To understand when a midrash is speaking literally and when it is speaking as a parable, one must examine the commentaries carefully.

Many midrashim were not intended to describe reality in a literal sense, but rather to teach deep, inner ideas that stand behind reality. This is especially true in matters of mussar and Kabbalah, where the matters are profound, and even stories that seem simple contain great and hidden depth regarding higher worlds and the rectification of character traits.

Only regarding Scripture did our Sages state explicitly: "A verse does not depart from its plain meaning" (Shabbat, folio 63a), but midrashim were often not meant literally. So our teachers ruled: "One does not derive halacha from aggadic statements," "One does not challenge aggadic statements," and "One does not scrutinize them" (see further in the introduction to the Guide for the Perplexed by Rambam; Saadia Gaon, Otzar HaGeonim, Chagigah, p. 65; Rabbeinu Chananel, Otzar HaGeonim, Chagigah, responsum 50). The midrashim of our Sages, as their name indicates, are midrashim - they are meant to be expounded upon, and to teach us morality and wisdom.

What is this comparable to? To someone who tells us a parable about a fox speaking with a fish, and another person suddenly objects: "But foxes cannot speak!" It is understood that the intention is not the animal called a fox, but rather the abstract idea that the fox represents in the parable. Many midrashim of our Sages were meant to represent deep and hidden ideas through parables and images. Without the commentaries, we cannot know when the intention of the midrash was literal and when it was stated as a parable.

The Maharal of Prague expounded many midrashim in the Gemara not according to their plain meaning. For example, the midrash stating that Moshe Rabbeinu was five meters tall is, according to many commentaries, not literal, for they explained that our Sages intended to refer to Moshe's spiritual stature before the people, and how each person felt in his presence in the generation of the wilderness (Maharal in Chidushei Aggadot on Bava Metzia, chapter 4). And similarly in other cases.

Likewise, there is a Gemara that expounds: "Yaakov Avinu did not die" (Ta'anit, folio 5b), and the Gemara there objects, for it is stated explicitly in Scripture that they eulogized Yaakov and buried him, and it answers: "I am expounding a verse! ...Just as his descendants are alive, so too he is alive." Similarly, it is stated in the Zohar: "David, King of Israel, lives and endures."

A simple explanation of all the midrashim in the Gemara can be found in the book Shiurim BeHagadot Chazal by Rabbi Geberd, where he explains all the aggadot of the Talmud in a logical and straightforward manner accessible to every reader.

With blessings,

Daniel Bels