I keep hearing a new popular wave of erroneous claims stating that the Midrash is nothing more than made up tales invented by the Rabbis, that it is nonsense, not authoritative, holds no weight, that it was a later ‘addition’ that doesn’t even exist in the Bible or Biblical Tradition. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The Midrash has always been a systemic approach to Torah Wisdom since ancient times from the beginning to this very day. It has always been an intrinsic component to the development of Torah Wisdom all throughout the ages. So the claims against it is rather strange coming from folks who claim to believe in the Bible in the first place, but that’s another talk.
Evidently, not only do they grossly misunderstand the purpose and nature of Midrash, which is a vital field of study with respect to Oral Torah, those who hold to this strange unsupported view do not even study the Hebrew text of the Bible in its original language….
….Because the word ‘Midrash’ occurs twice (thrice) in the Bible: 2 Chronicles 13:22 “in the Midrash of the Prophet Yido,” and 24:27 “in the Midrash of the Book of the Kings;” and directly in the middle of the Torah is the uncannily placed quintessential crux of Midrash which appears in Leviticus 10:16: “Mosheh d’rash d’rash/ Moses investigated and investigated.”
The word “Midrash” (mi – d’rash) means “results from the inquiry into.” Since ancient times from the beginning it has always been a literary device based on an investigative system that explores the parameters of critical thinking and empirical method, and the infinitude of every form of development and mystical grasp, through which the Bible and its Oral Tradition was always exercised and expressed within its own cultural trappings, language and character. This is how Biblical Tradition has always worked, and it is only to the benefit of the yearning seeker who utilizes it accordingly.