Searching for Meaning in Midrash : Lessons for Everyday Living

by Katz, Michael

• ISBN13: 9780827607309
• ISBN10: 082760730X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-07-01
• Publisher: Univ of Nebraska Pr

Summary

A comprehensive yet clear and accessible guide to the study of Midrash.

Author Biography

Gershon Schwartz is rabbi of Beth Sholom Congregation in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	x
Part I	1	(24)
Prologue	3	(6)
What Is Midrash?	9	(2)
How the Rabbis Read the Bible and Created Midrash	11	(4)
Outline of Midrash Collections Used in This Book	15	(4)
How to Use This Book-A Sample Entry	19	(4)
A Parable	23	(2)
PART II	25	(182)
Genesis	27	(58)
You have ruined things! Take a thread and sew it up!	28	(3)
Healer, heal your limp!	31	(4)
There is a need for wine and a need for vinegar	35	(3)
In a market filled with the blind, they call the one-eyed person ``Bright eyes.''	38	(3)
No one loves his fellow craftsman	41	(3)
The wicked are controlled by their hearts... but the righteous control their hearts	44	(3)
You don't have trouble for one person that doesn't bring gain for others	47	(3)
Won't your ears hear what your own mouth says?	50	(3)
If one person tells you: ``You have donkey ears,'' don't believe him; two, make for yourself a bridle	53	(4)
One angel doesn't do two missions	57	(3)
All are presumed to be blind	60	(3)
Between the midwife and the woman in labor, the poor child was lost	63	(4)
The swine lies down and stretches out its hoofs, as if to say ``I am kosher.''	67	(4)
What's under your head is yours	71	(3)
Two fighting birds can't rest on one perch	74	(4)
The very last is dearest	78	(3)
The milk of white goats and the milk of black goats are the same	81	(4)
Exodus	85	(56)
Whoever takes advice from elders will not stumble	86	(3)
Idiot! Who ever saw a Kohen in a cemetery?	89	(3)
The only benefit from the acacia is when it is cut down	92	(3)
Does a person who drinks from the well cast a stone into it?	95	(3)
If a mitzvah comes your way, do it right away	98	(3)
There is ``tomorrow'' now, and there is ``tomorrow'' at a later time	101	(3)
Say to a good worker: ``Well done!''	104	(3)
By the measure that a person measures, so is he measured	107	(3)
There is a time to be brief and a time to prolong	110	(3)
Honor your healer even before you need him!	113	(3)
Hearing isn't like seeing	116	(3)
Each according to his power	119	(3)
The place my heart loves, my feet lead me there	122	(4)
No good thing, and no peace, ever come from arguing	126	(3)
So it is with dogs: When one barks, all of them gather round and start barking at nothing	129	(3)
A carpenter who doesn't have a tool isn't a carpenter	132	(3)
Either a Jew or hanged!	135	(3)
When I lower myself, I am raised, and when I raise myself, I am lowered	138	(3)
Leviticus	141	(14)
Pitiful is the province where the physician has gout, and the foreman has only one eye, and whose defender turns prosecutor in capital cases	142	(3)
The drunk sets his eye on the cup while the storekeeper sets his eye on the pocket	145	(3)
A person should not say, ``It's impossible for me to eat pork.''	148	(3)
All Israel are guarantors one for the other	151	(4)
Numbers	155	(30)
A person lights one candle from another: The candle is lit while the other is not diminished	156	(3)
One says [only] partial praise of a person in his presence	159	(3)
It was to my benefit that my cow broke its leg	162	(4)
Let his mother come and wipe up the filth	166	(4)
When a person is going to sin, Satan dances with him until he finishes the sin	170	(4)
Throw a stick into the air-it falls to where it came from	174	(4)
Whoever tarnishes himself also tarnishes his family with him	178	(4)
Don't throw a stone into the cistern you drank from	182	(3)
Deuteronomy	185	(22)
The servant of a king is a king: Stick to the captain and they will bow down to you	186	(3)
By virtue of the gold the small change was gathered	189	(4)
It is easy to go up to the stage but difficult to go down	193	(4)
If he transgressed a minor commandment, he will surely transgress a major commandment	197	(3)
A hundred deaths but not one bit of envy!	200	(3)
Happy is one who dies this kind of death!	203	(4)
Part III	207	(8)
Is There Still Midrash Today?	209	(4)
The Torah Can Be Interpreted through Thirteen Guidelines	213	(2)
Epilogue	215	(4)
Glossary	219	(4)
Texts for Further Study	223	(4)
Generational Chart of Rabbis Cited in This Book	227	(6)
Index of Entries According to Weekly Torah Portions	233	(4)
General Index	237