Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of a group of Jewish commentaries on the Hebrew Scriptures compiled between AD 200 and 1200 and based on exegesis, parable, and haggadic legend.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In Jewish lit., exegesis, interpretation, or exposition of the Hebrew Scriptures.
  • noun An exposition or discourse of this kind, or a collection of such expositions or discourses: as, the Midrash on Samuel; the Midrash on the Psalms. In this sense the plural is Midrashim, occasionally Midrashoth.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A talmudic exposition of the Hebrew law, or of some part of it.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A Rabbinic commentary on a text from the Hebrew Scripture.
  • noun The Rabbinic technique or tradition of such exegesis.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun (Judaism) an ancient commentary on part of the Hebrew scriptures that is based on Jewish methods of interpretation and attached to the biblical text

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Hebrew midrāš, commentary, explanation, Midrash, from dāraš, to seek, study; see drš in Semitic roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Hebrew מדרש, in turn from Aramaic דרש‎.

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Examples

  • The word Midrash comes from the Hebrew root D-R-SH meaning "to inquire" or "to seek."

    Understanding Midrash 2010

  • The word Midrash comes from the Hebrew root D-R-SH meaning "to inquire" or "to seek."

    David Shasha: Understanding Midrash 2010

  • But to go so far as to deny that there was such a figure at all, and to appeal in support to the term Midrash which do not mean in Rabbinic Judaism what you seem to mean by it, then you seem to be going beyond the most natural reading of the evidence.

    What Jesus Said and Did: 2) Divorce James F. McGrath 2008

  • But to go so far as to deny that there was such a figure at all, and to appeal in support to the term Midrash which do not mean in Rabbinic Judaism what you seem to mean by it, then you seem to be going beyond the most natural reading of the evidence.

    What Jesus Said and Did: 2) Divorce James F. McGrath 2008

  • As Rabbi Eliezer teaches in Midrash Rabah, these Kings are "[t] he wicked [who] have drawn the sword and bent the bow to cast down the poor and needy" (citing Psalm 37: 4).

    Elissa D. Barrett: To the Righteous, Wealth Is a Greater Test Than Poverty Elissa D. Barrett 2010

  • As Rabbi Eliezer teaches in Midrash Rabah, these Kings are "[t] he wicked [who] have drawn the sword and bent the bow to cast down the poor and needy" (citing Psalm 37: 4).

    Elissa D. Barrett: To the Righteous, Wealth Is a Greater Test Than Poverty Elissa D. Barrett 2010

  • As Rabbi Eliezer teaches in Midrash Rabah, these Kings are "[t] he wicked [who] have drawn the sword and bent the bow to cast down the poor and needy" (citing Psalm 37: 4).

    Elissa D. Barrett: To the Righteous, Wealth Is a Greater Test Than Poverty Elissa D. Barrett 2010

  • Midrash is a process by which a mythological character is meticulously inserted into historical settings to add validity to an allegorical/symbolic message.

    Think Progress » ThinkFast PM: June 6, 2006 2006

  • The works to which the name Midrash is applied are the

    Chapters on Jewish Literature Israel Abrahams 1891

  • Of course the commentators assert that the word Midrash, which occurs in the Bible only in these two passages, there means something quite different from what it means everywhere else; but the natural sense suits admirably well and in Chronicles we find ourselves fully within the period of the scribes.

    Prolegomena Julius Wellhausen 1881

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