Word: midrash
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...Legends of the Talmud and Midrash...
Talmud and Midrash...
John Murray Cuddihy calls this jag ged meditation a "midrash." The metaphor is apt, for like a Talmudic exegesis, the book is a learned commentary on "sacred" texts, in this case those of the giants of the Jewish Diaspora. As with a midrash, the argument unfolds from a single overriding principle: in this case the bold if cranky notion that from Marx to Freud to Abbie Hoffman, the Jewish intellectual vanguard has been obsessed by embarrassment at its own Jewishness...
...specifically mentioned 750 times in Hebrew Scripture, and referred to euphemistically as the "City of David," "Holy City" or "Temple Mount" a thousand times more. Some Talmudic scholars conceive of it divinities, earthly and divine-"and so you find the Jerusalem above directly opposite the Jerusalem below," says the midrash. Jerusalem was the talisman on which Judaism in exile survived; on every Passover, Jews of the Diaspora promised one another: "Next year in Jerusalem." Even for unreligious Israelis, of whom there are many, Jerusalem possesses a certain mystique because, in Israeli hands, it represents the continuity and justification of Jewish...
Rabbi Riskin is a charismatic speaker, flexing his voice like a Bible Belt preacher, punctuating his ideas with his hands. He is also a widely respected Talmudic scholar who stresses that the most important function of the synagogue is to be a Bet Midrash-a "house of study." More than 250 people regularly jam his weekly class on Jewish Law and its application to such modern problems as contraception, prison reform and war. But concern, not relevance, is probably the ultimate key to Riskin's appeal. "The ministry must create a community of people whom the rabbi cares about...