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In this video,
we'll be learning about a rabbinic method of reading the Bible called legal midrash.
In the next video, we'll see how a particular form of legal midrash plays out
in a passage of Talmud from our chapter.
One of the central activities of the rabbis,
who produced rabbinic literature, was midrash.
Midrash is a rigorous reading of the Hebrew Bible.
In the Tannaitic period, before the publication of the Mishnah,
the core exercise of midrash was focused on the pentateuch or Torah, and
much of the intense work was directed at determining the particulars of the laws
dictated by the Bible.
Biblical legal text, like other legal texts, are gapped.
There are cases or subsets of cases that are not explicitly considered.
These interstices in the law are filled in by midrashic reading.
While we think of midrash as a playful, creative activity that allows the rabbi's
tremendous leeway in adding all sorts of stories to the biblical epic.
When it comes to legal passages, the midrashik readings are mostly conservative
and often can be persuasive contextual readings about the passage might have
meant historically to the people who composed it.
A primary principle of rabbinic legal midrash is the notion that
a text has to be marked in some way as requiring interpretation.
If you were reading the Biblical text, you might come up with your own standard for
identifying the textual bits that require explanation.
For the rabbis, the list of marks make it possible to
read using midrash includes contradictions, redundancies in meaning or
spelling, juxtapositions of passages or verses, and a few others.