Jacobs Irving. The Midrashic Process: Tradition and Interpretation in Rabbinic Judaism

Cambridge University Press, 1995. — 233 p. — ISBN: 9780521461740, ASIN 052146174X.Midrash is the oldest known form of Bible interpretation. It was the means by which the early teachers of Judaism made the Bible intelligible to their congregants in the ancient synagogues of the Holy Land, and relevant to their daily lives. To the modern reader, however, their approach to the Bible appears to be haphazard, without any regard for its plain meaning as we understand it today. How then did the rabbis understand the Bible, and what did they perceive it to be? These, as well as other questions, are answered in the book.