  Spiritual
This week: The Power of Midrash Edited by: Sophy New Year  
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Hi, I'm Sophy New Year ~ your editor for this edition of the Spiritual Newsletter. This week we'll explore the Jewish tradition of Midrash.
The Rev. Scotty McLennan, author of the book "Finding Your Religion," compares humanity's innate need for spiritual searching to climbing a mountain. In his view, we are all endeavoring to climb the same figurative mountain in our search for the divine, we just may take different ways to get there. In other words, there is one "God," but many paths. I honor whatever path or paths you have chosen to climb that mountain in your quest for the Sacred.  |
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The Power of Midrash
Miriam Therese Winter, Catholic religious worker and professor of liturgy, worship, spirituality, and feminist studies at Hartford Seminary says about Midrash: "In Judaism they have a methodology for honoring imagination called Midrash: taking the word or text and pushing it as far as it can go and imagining all kinds of things. They aren't saying this is what happened ~ but in the process of pushing the text something does happen. All of a sudden there is a meaning there that was never seen before because we went outside the lines, we turned it upside-down, we turned it inside out, we did everything in a different way ... If we free our imagination, God has a little more leeway and maybe the Spirit can get a word in edgewise. Maybe give us an insight which brings the good news that's been trying to be said for so long. What would it mean for us to live 'as if?' What if we tried to make a reality of the radically liberating message found in the writings of the Hebrew prophets and the gospels, instead of dismissing them as irrelevant, or worse taking them literally? What if we let our sacred imaginations come alive? What if we believed God is untamable by our words or worship, uncontrolled by our fear or prejudices? Where would we find ourselves?"
In the Jewish tradition, "midrash," which means "to explain, deduce, ferret out," was a method employed by rabbis to seek out the deepest meaning from scripture. As rabbis poured over the ancient texts, they were encouraged to "read into them" and expand them beyond what was written. These then became texts themselves, as volumes were produced by rabbis throughout the centuries. For Jews, midrash was and is seen as a method by which one might deduce the intent or intentions of the Scriptural message. Midrash is a way of interpreting biblical stories that go beyond simple distillation of religious, legal or moral teachings. It fills in many gaps left in the biblical narrative regarding events and personalities that are only hinted at.
One of the premises of midrash is that every word and every letter in the text of the Torah has significance. Lawrence Kushner gives an example of this in his book, Eyes Remade for Wonder:
"Aleph is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It has no sound. Only the sound you make when you begin to make a sound. Open your mouth and begin to make a sound. Stop! That is Aleph. It is the letter beginning the first of God's mysterious seventy names: Elohim. It also begins the most important thing about God: echad. One. Know that God is one. The first and the last and the only One. The name of the first man was Adam. Adam, the first man. The name of the first Jew is also Aleph, Avraham Avinu, Abraham our Father. Aleph is the first letter of fire, aysh. A fire that flames but does not destroy. That is how the Holy One gets your attention. God shows you the primordial fire. And the very first letter of the first commandment begins with the first letter, which has no sound: Aleph, anochi, I. 'I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, the house of slavery.' It is no accident that all these words begin with Aleph. The most basic words there are begin with the most primal sound there is. The almost sound you make before you make any sound."
A parable by Stephen Mitchell quoted in Marcus Borg's The God We Never Knew is another example: Everyone knows what happened at the bottom of Mt. Sinai, but no one mentions what happened at the top. These wise sages speak in Mitchell's parable:
Rabbi Levi said, "On the top of Mt. Sinai, Moses was given the choice of receiving the commandments or seeing God face to face. He knew he could not see God without first dying. It was like looking into a mirror without a reflection inside."
Rabbi Ezra said, "Moses did receive a commandment, but only one, only the First. All the others blended into silence, as all colors blend into white."
Rabbi Gamaliel said, "Moses received only the fist phrase of the First Commandment: I am the Unnamable."
Rabbi Elhannan said, "Moses saw on Sinai what he heard from the Burning Bush. There was just one message: I Am."
Rabbi Samuel said, "Not even that. The only word the Unnamable whispered was I."
Rabbi Yosi said, "In the holy tongue, I is anokhi: aleph-nun-kaph-yod. What Moses received from God was the first letter of I."
But the aleph is a silent letter.
Rabbi Yosi said, "Just so."
Your assignment, should you choose to accept, is to take a familiar passage of scripture from your religious tradition and "midrash" it. Tell what happened before, or after, or to a side character in the story. Scripture is a living, breathing entity that needs our continued care and attention for it to continue to be relevant, so using the passage of your choice as inspiration, let the spirit invite you to consider other aspects of the story which may speak to your soul. Tell the story from a perspective that needs to be shared. And then please share your items with me to feature in next month's newsletter. |
Below you'll find spiritual items from around the site posted during the last month or so. (I did a search for "midrash" and found nothing -- but perhaps you'll create some and change that!)  Please let the folks know if you read their piece by leaving a thoughtful comment or review.
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Here are some comments from my last Spiritual Newsletter on Peacemaking, "Spiritual Newsletter (June 1, 2011)" :
From Daizy May 
The concept you put forth in this newsletter is the perfect description of peace. I agree with your point that peace starts on the personal, local level. You are very perceptive. Keep it up!!
Thanks so much for your kind words.
From Doremi 
I like the story you told of the incident in the coffee shop. You showed a strong lesson. Keeping the peace is a choice and a decision and not letting another's bad behavior cause me to do the ddame back. The Bible says render to no man evil for evil but contrariwise blessing. A choice not a feeling, a decision made in the mind not a reaction in the gut. Thank you for sharing.
doremi
Glad you enjoyed the story. Thanks for writing in! 
From jogar
Dear Sophy: It is also written that " no one comes to the Father but through me." I'm one who believes that Jesus Christ who died for our sins and rose on the third day was our blood sacrifice. And through the son that The Father sacrificed was an elemenat that no other "divinity" yielded. The verse John 3:16--John3:34 through John3:36 had made these Holy statements. I believe that the Father has meanings beyound our comprehension. Perhaps those who follow another path may see the Father and enter into Paradise. I only believe what I have experienced and read in the Holy Scriptures. I know that as you know the path is wide and the road to grace is narrow. But whatever your thoughts on this so delicate a demarcation, surely will be His wisdom, not ours. Yet I can't help but hope for the creation of Gods children all enter the kingdom of Heaven through His Grace and Mercy. GOd Bless You. Joel.
Hmmm, my issue was about peacemaking, and I'm not sure what your comment is referring to unless it's the quote I include every month in the "About This Newsletter" section. If so well, thanks for sharing your thoughts, and for allowing me to share mine.
From Specter
Hi Sophy,
An understandable NL in the matter of peace. Realistically, peace can only be attained individually, not worldly. In what Christ was saying, "turn the other cheek," is, He was addressing His disciples in that when any of them ran across a troublemaker and slapped him for what he said, then, turn the other cheek. Why? Because in anger there is no understanding of truth.
Lesson: In the course of Life, you will run into a multitude of snarling snares.
Suggestion: Keep a low profile and watch truth shrivel and die. Or, turn loose a seed at a time and hope for the best, expecting the worst, like a slap to the cheek. Bless be the sower...
What does it take to be a peacemaker? Wisdom of the ages. The awesome tears of the saints. A rainbow over raging battlefields. No, it takes God and Christ before you.
slick
Thanks for sharing your perspective on peacemaking. I agree that realistically true peace must be obtained first and foremost on the individual level. Then the world will follow.
From Mia - craving colour
Hi Sophy,
I enjoyed the editorial story you shared as a human encounter in engendering peace. And the way you sum it up: "if there is going to be peace on earth, we must begin with ourselves" makes it a goal we can all work towards.
Thank you for sharing this story and your insight.
 Mia
Glad you enjoyed it, thanks for letting me know!
From joe black
Hi
On the question of peace highlighted in the 'Spiritual' newsletter I would like to say there can be no peace on any level either personal, familial, communal, nationaly, or internationally until we find peace with God. There must be a universally accepted centre for there to be harmony and only God fits that description. There can only be discord with many centres. Much as throwing many rocks into a pond produces many centres of concentric circles which clash. If you throw one rock into a pond you get harmonious concentric circles.
Thank you for writing in to share your perspective. For me, there being One God doesn't mean there cannot be many paths to find that One God, in my opinion. God may be the center, but even in a circle there is more than one way to reach that center, which I think is pretty darn creative and very cool!
Please keep your comments and suggestions coming, they are greatly appreciated!
Sophy New Year |
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Spiritual: June 29, 2011 Issue [#4479]
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