Modern Midrash

Heart and Soul

For thousands of years Jews have sought to understand the Bible, with all its inconsistencies and contradictions, through “midrash”. Midrash is a combination of interpretation and teaching based on the written texts of the Old Testament that tell the story of the ancient Hebrews, from the creation of the world, through God making his covenant with Abraham, the Exodus from Egypt, the destruction of Jerusalem, the Temple and the exile to Babylon.

As what it means to be Jewish has changed over the millennia, Jews have used midrash to re-interpret their identity in the world. In this edition of “Heart and Soul,” Michael Goldfarb searches through the ancient texts for clues to what it is to be Jewish in the 21st Century. He looks for modern midrash in conversations with a rabbi, an archaeologist, a Jewish Studies professor, a psychoanalyst, and a composer who is writing musical midrash for each part of the Torah, the five books of Moses. They talk about the historical truth of the Bible, and can midrashic interpretation help find meaning in the Holocaust, and even these days of the pandemic.