Classic Midrash

As an ancient document, the Bible reflects its time of origin and the early history of Israel. However, the social and political situation had dramatically changed by the time of the Rabbis in the first centuries. Midrash afforded an opportunity for the Rabbis to reread the biblical text, rendering it meaningful to their contemporaries. A vast genre of rabbinic literature, Midrash fills in the gaps of the terse biblical narrative by providing the thoughts and feelings of the characters and the motivations behind their actions. Classic Midrash is a distillation of this extensive collection of works into an accessible, single-volume narrative with numerous citations offering the interested reader the opportunity to delve into specific stories in more detail.