The fine art of making sense of the many deceptive and subtle passages in the midrash and aggada
The rabbis of the Talmud were very smart people (which, no doubt, is why they were called חכמים). The Torah that inspired them was God's - Whose wisdom is endless. Isn't it obvious that the intellectual product of those rabbis and that Torah must both reflect and encompass wisdom? No matter how tempting and even entertaining it might be, I believe that there is nearly nothing to be gained by reading the wise words of midrash as simple and superficial stories. Midrash, like all facets of our Torah, can be properly understood only through great effort and careful preparation.
These essays are the record of my own efforts towards this goal. I invite you to join me on this journey and even to actively participate.
The well-known but little-understood midrash in which Satan's willful lie causes Sarah's death. Just what is Satan? An angel? Does he have free will? Can he oppose God's will?
How does an infinite and transcendent God fit in with our finite and mundane physical world? Rambam says one thing. A midrash seems to say another. Something's got to give!
Standing at Mt. Sinai and declaring "we will do" before "we will listen (learn)," the Jewish people demonstrated unexpected wisdom. But what made it so wise? And how does that lead us to reconsider the leaves of an apple tree?
That fact that Divinely-decreed poverty can be a blessing might be true, but that alone isn't enough: people also have to understand and appreciate it.
An apparantly straightforward passage of Talmud masks some deeply subtle observations about great cultural struggles and the psychological forces that drive them.
An assessment of the subtle and - at a first glance - contradictory sources that make up Ramban's position
Other Resources
There are many useful resources available to help open up midrash. This page contains links to three separate versions of Rabbi S.R. Hirsch's essay on agados.
This book on the methodology of learning midrash provides a range of practical tools that can greatly enhance a student's relationship to midrash.
