Risto Santala THE MIDRASH OF THE MESSIAH The Messiah and His Meal in Midrash Ruth Chapters V, VII and VIII and its roots and reflections in corresponding Jewish literature Sn spa A wats Awd OND AanCopyright © 2002 by Risto Santala. Cover copyright © 2002 by Antti Santala ISBN 952-91-4780-5 No part of this book may be reproduced without previous consent of the author: Risto Santala, Kaivokatu 2 A 5, FIN-18100 Heinola, Finland, e-mail: risto.santala@ kolumbus.fi ‘This book and three other main Rabbinical studies of the author, and “Paul, the Man and the Teacher in the Light of Jewish Sources’ can also be found at Internet. Printed by Turmavuoren Kirjapaino Oy, Finland 2002“Thus says the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus - I will give you the treasures of darkness and the hoards in seeret places." Is. 45:1 - 3. OM TWN TNR ann - wo The MNT WR. SMR ne 3FT NOON RaSHI explains that “according to rabbis God will say this to the King Messiah". “He reveals deep and mysterious things; he knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with him.” Daniel 2:22. RW FU STANWOOD ATION DT Midrash Lamentations Rabbah I:5Isays: "Light dwells with him this is the King Messiah, for it is written: "Arise, shine, for your light Is, 60:1 ‘The study is dedicated to Institutum Judaicum AboenseTable of Content THE PREFACE The topic, its derivation and words of dedication I INTRODUCTION The formulation of the problem and its methodological aspects fl FUNDAMENTAL FACTORS IN MIDRASHIC LITERATURE 1. The concept of Midrash: ash and its relation to Pesher and Targum Midrash Ruth and its position in Midrashic literature 2,1 The early Midrashim 2,2 The middle Midrashic period 2,3. The later Midrashic period 3. The literary methods of Midrash: 3,1 Common Rabbinic regulations 3,2. The special characteristics of Midrash 4. Choosing a proper method for Jewish studies: 4,1 The characterization of Greek wisdom and Biblical thought by Thorleif Boman and Shalom Ben-Chorin 4.2 The topical method type nvw as expounded by Aristotle, Giovanni Battista Vico and Jacob Neusner 43 The present dilemma in Midrashic studies 4.4 Our methodological approach to Midrash Ruth 13 20 21 23 aay 25 26 31 33 38 41i Til MIDRASH RUTH RABBAH ‘The various manuscripts and their literary evaluation 46 2. The content of Midrash Ruth Rabbah: 2.1 The content and the division of Midrash Ruth 48 2.2 The Book of Ruth and the Targum 30 2,3. Ruth Rabbah compared with other Midrash Rabbah collections sl 2.4 The moral conduct of the people of Israel in the dispersion 57 2.5. The national disappointment expressed in Midrash Ruth and its equivalents in Jewish sources 59 2,6 The national disappointment in the light of the Siddur 62 2,7. The psychological and symbolic message of Ruth Rabbah 64 2,8. The “hot potato”: Elisha Ben Abuyah 66 2.9 The Six parables of the King and their equivalents in the New Testament 69 2,10 The: total lack of halakhic purification rules in Ruth Rabbah 72 IV TRANSLATION OF THE “MESSIAH-PARASHIYOTH" IN MIDRASH RUTH RABBAH ‘The English text of Ruth Rabbah V.6, VII,2 and VIII, according to the standard Wilna edition 74 wad Vv INTERTEXTUAL AND CONCEPTUAL ANALYSIS OF THE RESPECTIVE MESSIANIC PASSAGES Specifications concerning Parashah V 1. The numerical pattern "six", pow mv. 85 1,1 Seth and other Messianic allusions in the Book of Genesis 86 1,2 The logic of the numeral six 88rT 2. “Come here" “near to the kingdom", maynd vatp Biba wa 91 3. "The bread of the kingdom", mann 3w ann 93 4. "Vinegar" and sufferings, nen nx yeUN YIN 94 4.1 The place of "vinegar and sufferings” as a whole 95 4.2. The message of the true vine 96 5. Does Isaiah 53 speak of the personality of the Messiah? 99 5,1 Isaiah 53 in the Talmud 105 5,2 Isaiah 53 in the Zohar tradition related to Midrash 107 5.3 Isaiah 33 in Jewish prayer literature ul 5.4 Reflections on Isaiah 53 in the Middle Ages 113 6. To be "satisfied", yawns 5oxn linked with "to eat in this: world and in the Messianic age", Nad Png? FoI NWI nt FoIN 115 6,1 A conceptual analysis of “eating to the Messiah” 5 6.2 The tradition of Elijah and the Messianic age 116 6,3 The fate of the Torah in the Messianic age 120 64 The interplay between 9’y> and a’"mya 122 7. The first and the last Redeemer INNA Sam Pw SRT 123 7,1 The Rabbinic exposition of these concepts 124 8. "The kingdom taken from him for a time", 89 7730 ayw? moznn 126 8,1 The potential denial of the Messiah for a time 126 8,2 The potential second advent of the Messiah 129 8.3 The "kingdom", one of the favorite concepts of Midrash Ruth 132 84 The heavenly “seat” in the light of Psalms 2 and 110 133 8,5 The vision of the kingdom in the Siddur 138 9. The “blessing in the stomach" of Ruth, pts ams dw myna nan 140 10. Recording of good deeds,n”37™ rewnn Tom ams 19x, ‘now Ime Ew AT NX OBMN 145 10,1 Good deeds in the Jewish and Christian context 146 10,2 Elijah the celestial scribe 14810,3 Elijah and the Messiah in the Jewish prayer book, the Siddur 151 10,4 Penuel, the Angel of the Lord, the Angel of the ‘Covenant, the Prince of the Countenance and the Lord of the Covenant 153 10,5 The Messiah as the Prince of the Countenance and the Metatron in the Siddur 154 10,6 The heavenly scribe in the light of Talmudic literature 155 10,7 Why does Midrash Ruth deal with the disputation concerning the heavenly seri 158 Specifications concerning Parashah VIL 1. Acconcealed solution to the Messianic mystery 161 2. The secret of the “closed Mem" Aetnen Dan Fe Tea 162 3. The Song of Songs as a key-text for Messianic interpretation 164 Specifications concerning Parashah VIII 1. The tainted descent (sy5109 minawn) of Ruth and the evil inclination Gn 15) in Jewish and Christian literature 167 1,1 The problem of free will and original sin 168 1,2 Some extracts conceming free will in Midrash Ruth and the New Testament 170 1,3 The evil inclination in the writings of Qumran 172 1,4 The evil inclination in the light of the Siddur 173 2. Discussion concerning Perez, n»wan 2v Pay YD 174 3. The "ladders of princes and kings" mom ows? man mama? 177 4. The genealogical tree of the Messiah linked with the New Testament 180VI THE SAGES BEHIND THE MESSIANIC PARASHIYOTH IN MIDRASH RUTH 184 1. The Sages in the "Messiah-Parashiyoth" 185 2. The tradition of Midrash Ruth visualized in schemes 191 Vil THE MESSIAH AND HIS MEAL IN RESPECTIVE JEWISH LITERATURE 195 1. The bridge to the relevant literature 195 1.1 Preliminary results of our intertextual approach 196 2. The Messianic meal in the Dead Sea Scrolls 2,1 The common characterization of the Qumran Scrolls in this context 199 2,2. The Messianic meal at Qumran and its special aspects 204 3. The Messianic meal in the New testament 3,1 The limits of our inspection 207 3.2. The historical background of the Passover meal 211 3,3. The message of the bread 213 3.4 The message of the wine 218 3,5. The eternal perspective in the Holy Communion 21 3,6 “The blessing of the song" wn no3 and the “halle!” 222 4. The Didache and its Messianic banquet 227 4,1 The Didache as a bridge between Jewish and Christian thinking 27 4.2 The Didache as source material for the Holy ‘Communion 228 §. The third meal in the tradition represented by the Zohar, the Talmud and the New Testament 5,1 The third meal and its specifications in the Zohar 232 5,2. The third meal in the tradition of the Talmud 234 5.3 The meal reflected in the New Testament 237 6. The Messianic meal in the light of the Jewish prayer literature 239 6,1 The banquet of King David in the Siddur 240VI VOI CONCLUSIONS CONCERN! THE MESSIAH AND HIS MEAL IN ITS JEWISH FRAME OF REFERENCE 1. Conclusions concerning the method and content of our study 245, 2. Specifications about the Messianic idea in Midrash Ruth 2,1 The enigma of Isaiah 53 in its Jewish frame of reference 2,2 The Messianic age and. the Torah 2.3. The potential second advent of the Messiah 24 The enigma of the birth of the Messiah 2.5 Elijah and Metatron 2,6 The secret of “the clased Mem” in Isaiah 9:6 2.7 Good deeds and free will 2,8 The genealogy of the Messiah 3. New light on the Messianic meal 3.1 The "piece of bread” projected in old sources 3.2 The wine and its interpretations 3,3. The “halle!” linked with the eternal perspective 34 Other similar Messianic banquets in the old tradition 3,5. The special message of the so called “third meal” 3,6. The holy banquet in Didache 3,7 The third meal in the book of Siddur 4. "What then shall we say", "yo yown xp NH" ? 5. The scheme of the content and the roots of our study 250 252 263 265 265 267 269 270 273 275Vil APPENDIX 279 It is difficult to grasp the mature of the main Hebrew sources. Therefore we give some extracts of them visualized as they appear in the original texts: 1. Midrash Ruth, 2. Mikraoth Gedoloth where RaSHL, Ibn Ezra, RaMBaN, RaDaQ and RaLBaG repeatedly appear, 3. the Talmud, 4. the Zohar, 5. Isaiah 53 at Quinran, 6. the Yalkut, 7. the Siddur, 8 the Mahzor, 9. the Messianic text of RaMBaM in Hilkhoth Melakhim, 10. the flylief of Mikr. Gedoloth. The only legitimate method in Midrashic studies is to lean on these Hebrew and Aramaic sources. They dovetail the Jewish selfunderstanding into the correct rabbinic frame of reference. INDICES 292 to 297 LITERATURE CONSULTED lito XVIITHE MIDRASH OF THE MESSIAH The Messiah and His Meal in Midrash Ruth Chapters V, VII and VIII and its roots and reflections in corresponding Jewish literature ath aba MN wits Nw? NN Non PREFACE The topic, its derivation and words of dedication Adopting an academic approach does not necessarily imply that the substance is boring. Every scientific challenge has its own motive and personal history behind it. This fact fits in with Archimedes’ exclamation of “heureka” while he was sitting in the bathtub and with Newton's discovery when the famous apple fell upon his head - the same rule can be applied to every scholar who makes new original discoveries. Only an inspired attitude can spur also others to tackle the same puzzle. My personal interest in Jewish literature is the result of a long process. As a young student in 1948 I ordered from Sweden some books on the so-called "Jewish question". In particular the celebrated rabbis Marcus Ehrenpreis and Gottlieb Klein left their imprint on my soul. In the early 80's I wrote two studies in Hebrew4 on the Messiah in the Old and New Testaments in the Light of Rabbinical Writings. In the process I came across our subject, the “Messiah-parashiyoth" in Midrash Ruth. It reveals an eternal perspective on the Messianic banquet similar to the Holy Communion in the New Testament. The concepts as “to eat in this world, and in the Messianic age, and in the World to Come", “the bread of the kingdom", the Messiah, who “was wounded for our transgressions”, the Messiah who will “rain down manna” upon his people, the discussion concerning Elijah recording our good deeds and “the Messiah and the Holy One subscribing to and sealing” them, provided imposing spectacles for studying other Jewish writings. No wonder Midrash Ruth has been awarded the nickname “the Midrash of the Messiah" The only academic study on Midrash Ruth which was then available was the doctoral thesis published by Myron Bialik Lerner in 1971.!_ The author produced a critical edition of the major Midrashic compilation of Midrash Ruth Rabbah and gave his exegesis of the Book of Ruth in midrashic-talmudic literature and related sources. I had the privilege of contacting this respected scholar and asking his opinion about the Messiah-parashiyoth. The professor of the orthodox Bar [Man University in Tel-Aviv then modestly replied that he did not respond to the specific Messianic problem in his query. However, [ noticed that he quoted many Christian theologians and the New Testament, comparing the genre of Midrash and the parables in the New Testament. This unprejudiced position is typical of Jewish scholars in our day. Since 1925 the New Testament has been taught at the University of Jerusalem as Je literature. ‘The famous professor Joseph Klausner was a pioneer in writing books about the Messianic idea and Christian faith. His successor, David Flusser was profoundly acquainted with the New Testament and the Dead Sea Scrolls. ! Lerner Myron Bialik, N29 77w7MN ANN , Academic dissertation consisting of three parts in Hebrew, Jerusalem 19715 Having personal contact with both of them and reading their books, I received a deeper insight into Jewish thinking? It is commonly accepted that the New Testament reflects the way of thought in old Jewish sources. This new viewpoint has mostly been neglected. Between 1965-70 as we conversed in the LWF-Committee on the Church and Jewish People over the role of Jewish thinking in Christian theology the attimde to this kind of approach was rather supercilious. In the mutual conference of the Evangelical Churches and the Jewish Synagogues in Berlin in October 1976 the situation somewhat softened. In the statement made then, support was given to Christians to spread the fundamentals of their faith to Jews and vice versa. Probably the most productive negotiation occurred in Bossey in August 1982. This international consultation on "The Significance of the Jews in the Life and Ministry of the Church" benefited from the presence of a notable Jewish contingent. The main theme of the discussion was "The Christian's relationship to his Jewish inheritance". The final statement of the consultation averred that the Old Testament knowledge of both ancient and moder Jewish scholars may well “enrich the church and give to it a deeper understanding of its own biblical roots”. For this reason the church's teachers should “compare” its roots and faith with the religious inheritance of Israel. When we become aware of the “Jewish roots" of our faith and its "Jewish inheritance", this can effect "new power of faith" in every aspect of church life.’ This 2 Klausner Joseph, The Messianic Idea in Israel from its Beginning to the Completion of the Mishnah, London 1956; Jesus von Nazareth, Seine Zeit, sein Leben und seine Lehre, Jerusalem 1952: Von Jesus zu Paulus, Jerusalem 1950; Klausner emphasized in a personal discussion that his third book reveals his real thinking about Jesus. Flusser David, The Dead Sea Seet and Pre-Pauline Christianity, Jerusalem 1958, and his Hebrew collection "Jewish Sources in Early Christianity", Studies and Essays, 1979 X"N “BOW DWT TEBE NET > LWB-Studien, Die Bedeutung des Judentums Filr Leben und Mission der Kirche, Bericht, April 1983, pp. 9-17.6 challenge has not yet been fully realized in Christian theology. Jewish commentaries are mostly written in the so-called RaSHI characters. [1 has blocked the entrance to rabbinic studies. Also this field of research is a kind of untilled virgin soil. Due to this we are making in our query as the rabbis say, a "Nahson's leap”, the first one to jump into the Red Sea at Moses’ command. It is a common assumption that the Messianic idea would not be accepted in Jewish thinking. Still it is writen in the Talmud that “all rhe prophets prophesied only for the days of the Messiah"! It is surprising and even stirring to see how much we can lear as Christians of our own roots in the oldest normative Jewish writings. An old Hebrew saying goes, "I did not seek, and I did not find - then I sought, and I found" Another byword states, “When we reveal one measure of our pal, another two palms are still hidden"® - in other words, when we look into one issue, there are two new challenges behind it which we would not have noticed without looking at the first. Rabbinic literature contains an abundance of esoteric Messianic interpretations similar to those which are familiar to us from the New Testament. Already as such Midrash Ruth also reflects Jewish thinking and the main Messianic expectations among the rabbis. But after the second look it reveals the "two-fold palm" with many new problems. In fact these problems excite three main puzzles. 1. ‘The first requirement is to know the inner affiliate of Midrash Ruth with other Jewish writings. This demands a special method which fits to the literary genre of equivalent sources. 2. There is also a need to analyze the various concepts of Midrash Ruth and their religious meaning in that frame of reference. 3. One must also be critical to previous studies and ostensible experts in the field - due + Berakhoth 3b. § Megillah 6b, nwxm ne © Berakhoth 23b, avhay Meaminas Mat7 to the fact that the final evaluation on this ticklish sphere can be given only on an unbiased base. All this must be taken into account when we deal with our topic and its derivation. To whom the words of dedication may be given is also an inseparable part of dissertations of this kind. I am thankful for the privilege having dealt personally on the path of my life with personalities like Joseph Klausner, Martin Buber, David Flusser, Myron Bialik Lerner, Dr. Shalom Ben-Chorin and the Swedish Professor David Hedegard, an expert in Jewish prayer literature. Sometimes the written opinions of well-known scholars lacking a personal acquaintance remain somewhat pale and resemble a kind of dead mummy without flesh and blood. The late Orthodox rabbi Yechiel Goldin Ben Abraham sold me at a reasonable price the main books of his Hebrew library before passing away in the late sixties. After coming to Christian conviction he had to take a solitary role and I was, in a minor part, his personal consolation and student - on the back of his photograph he wrote his dedication, "to my brother in the Messiah, Rabbi R. Santala with love from Rabbi Y.G. Ben Abraham”, [also spent numerous weeks in the French library of the Catholic Brotherhood in Jerusalem and in the Ecumenical Centre of Tantur while writing in Hebrew about the Messiah in the Old and the New Testament in the Light of Jewish Literature. The library of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem was somehow remote because of its new ADP equipment. Thanks to my son-in-law and grandchildren that this grandpa is now able to grapple with these challenges. Earlier | had to make the notes on my card-index in stenography - now all kind of CD Rom's, the Internet and e-mail services contribute to the research workers in their study. In this regard the philosopher's stone has been mostly in the hands of my close friend, the computer “freak” Pentti Vataja, who has saved me from many eclipses af the monitor. For fun I call him by the name that occurs in Midrash Lamentations8 [31 and Midrash Eccl. Rabbah VILI9 Ben Battiah rpma, the nephew of R. Johanan Ben Zakkai. There were in Jerusalem "four councillors, viz. Ben Zizith, Ben Gorion, Ben Nakdimon and Ben Kalba-Shebua, each of them capable of supplying food for the city for ten years"? This Battiah or Vataja "was a chief of the zealots and arose and burnt the storehouses” - so ll be careful with mine also! Nakdimon or Nicodemus is known to us from the New Testament and the name Ben-Gurion from the famous David, the Prime Minister of Israel, whose former name was Green - an impossible title for an experienced politician! The tenet in the so called "dominant theology” tends to disparage the meaning in Jewish writings. It is not conversant with Hebrew sources and Medieval Rashi commentaries. I was confronted with the proposal to abandon my theme of the Messiah and his meal and to conceniraie on the similarities in Midrash Ruth and the Gospel of Matthew - a factitious and irrelevant suggestion. We often collide with this dilemma in Rabbinic and Midrashic studies. The proofreading of this study has been kindly done by Ph. Dr. Lloyd Swantz in a way that all the prepositions, articles and particles would be in their proper positions - an accomplishment which is not easy at all in the eyes of a Scandinavian Viking. Above all, my humble gratitude redounds upon my dear wife Kerttu and her fifty years of honest, loving and diplomatic alignments in practical theology, whenever needed. "Love rejoiceth in the truth", and love it has been. Conventional thinking does not promote research nor life. In the study of Midrashic literature new dimensions are needed. Plato has said that “the beginning is the most important part of the work". May God bless this start and the whole study that it might provide spiritual edification and stimulation as is the general purpose of the Midrash. 7 ‘The expression is also used of Elimelekh in Midrash Ruth,I INTRODUCTION ‘The formulation of the problem and its methodological aspects The aim of this study is to examine the Messiah and his meal in Midrash Ruth Rabbah. Midrash Ruth has a three-dimensional message: the description of the events in Ruth Rabbah linked with the period of the judges, the special moral codes required by the Midrash and the picture of Messianic meal in eternity. All these views are enshrined in a many-faceted nature. There is a danger to fall into a kind of scientific snobbery giving the impression that one could master the immense Rabbinic literature and find an answer to all the problems. Being too “academic” does not fit to Midrashic studies which always includes a narrative, practical and explanatory approach, Our object is limited principally to Midrash Ruth but behind the Jewish Messianic expectation there is a wider spectrum. Every single concept, story and parable in our Midrash awakens new perspectives and questions. They are opening a window to captivating unknown landscapes. These new spectacles reveal old discoveries and visions which are relevant both to Jewish and Christian readers. If we are mapping out the various fields of problems and challenges, some of them raise clearly to the surface: How and why does the Midrash use the Old Testament verses in arguing its claims? What position does the Messianic expectation really have in Jewish thinking? Why are the rabbis speaking about the Messianic meal? What do the special concepts of Midrash Ruth mean in this context? Is that possible to see also the "extratextual reality” of the text which would reveal the reason for the special exegesis of the compilators? And how has the Jewish self-understanding related the various aspects of Midrash Ruth to its own Torah interpretation in a wider span of time? We endeavor to observe all these and10 some other questions. The use of the Old Testament in Midrash Ruth forms the principal basement for our study. One of the leading authorities in Jewish studies, professor Jacob Neusner deals with this subject in his book “The Midrash Compilations". He uses the heading “Writing with Scripture": In Ruth Rabbah the compiler is “engaged in dialogue with the Scriptures of ancient Israel - the Scripture provided the language, the vocabulary, the metaphors. But the authors supplied the syntax, the reference point, the experience that formed the subject of the writing’. “The Scriptures raised questions, set forth rules of thought, premises of fact and argument." However the Midrash "does not bear any literary or rhetorical resemblance to Scripture”. Jt “has condemned ethnocentrism and favored a religious, and not an ethnic, definition of who is Israel" *® This "condemnation" of ethno-centrism is not a rare feature in the Jewish literature. It is reflected in the Hebrew book of Yair Hofman dealing with the “Prophecies about the Gentile Nations in the Bible”. There he argues according to the presentation of the publisher, that the purpose of the Old Testament is not primarily a fruit of national interest but rather “an evidence of universal message of God based on the faith of the prophets". This was illuminating the special nature of the Israeli prophets in quite a new light. Midrash Ruth gives some new elements to this universalistic emphasis. Neusner summarizes his word about the use of the Bible in the above mentioned sub-article "Writing with Scripture” as follows: ® Jacob Neusner. The Midrash Compilations of the Sixth and Seventh Centuries, ‘An Introduction to Rhetorical, Logical and Topical Program, Volume Il, Scholars Press, Atlanta Georgia 1989, pp. 135-136. ° Yair Hofman, 4977, “X) YOOY) NYN STW DWT NE OWEN TRINll "Indeed, among all the Midrash compilations, J cam find none that gives us a beiter view of what it means to write with Scripture than Ruth Rabbah." Neusner mentions also, that "the ancient rabbis read Scripture as God's personal letter to them”. And he adds: "If I may express what I conceive to be their conception of matters: we are not wiser because we know more, but in the pages of Scripture we may become wiser by understanding better what we know. All of this is meant to be captured by the phrase, ‘writing with Scripture." "As soon as an authorship does more than repeat what it finds in Scripture - and that authorship that merely apes or copies is no authorship at all - we enter the realm of those who write with Scripture."!0 The second starting-point in our siudy in addition to the abundant use of the Scriptures is to become acquainted with the plain content of Midrash Ruth Rabbah. It leads us to penetrate into one of our principal interests, the etemal perspective of the Messianic banquet in Midrash Ruth and in other Jewish writings. Some features in Midrash Ruth are very similar to the teachings of the New Testament. One of the problems in this context concerns Rabbi Elisha Ben Abuyah in Parashah V1.4. He is considered as a kind of arch-apostate in the Talmud."! This also justifies the use of the New Testament in our study the same way as the Jewish scholars increasingly do. Midrash Ruth raises a question whether this story would be an attempt to hem in the "minim", including the Hebrew Christians and other secterians, back to the synagogue. The main Sages in Midrash Ruth were living as we shall see in Sephoris or in Tiberias, places where the disputations with the "minim" were most heated. Midrash Ruth presents also as a central theme the task of “a celestial scribe" mostly called as Metatron who records the merits of Israel 10 The above book of Neusner pp. 137 - 138. '! See section IIL,2,8 in our study.12 together with Elijah in the heavenly accounting in order to see whether she would be worthy to see the days of the Messiah. The role of Metatron along with other similar Messianic speculations belong closely to our investigation of Midrash Ruth. Withour a careful and detailed analysis of these enigmatic notions we do not find the correct setting of various ideas in the Jewish selfunderstanding Jacob Neusner gives an unambiguous declaration about the message of Midrash Ruth. He writes: "To speak of ‘messages’ in the Midrash compilation, Ruth Rabbah, simply is misleading. Our document has only one message, which is expressed in a variety of components but single and cogent - the Messiah out of Moab.” "Our sages impose upon the whole their distinctive message, which is the priority of the Torah, the extraordinary power of the Torah to join the opposites - Messiah, utterly an outsider - into a single figure, and, as I said, to accomplish this union of opposites through a women, The feminity of Ruth seems to me as critical to the whole, therefore, as of the Moabite origin: the two modes of them (from the Israelite perspective) abnormal, as an outsider, as against an Israelite, woman as against man, therefore are invoked, and both for the same purpose, to show how, through the Torah, all things become one. This is the message of the document, and I think, seen as a whole, the principal message, to which all the other messages prove peripheral. This Messianic message of Midrash Ruth is unique of its nature, and it is one of the objects in our study. An additional full “palm” of problems will be revealed when we deal with the various Messianic concepts in Midrash Ruth and their "2 Jacob Neusner, The Midrash Compilations, pp. 148-149.13 meaning in the frame of Jewish reference."? The inner weight of each and every item of Midrash Ruth can be evaluated only in rhe light and context of other Midrash compilations and other normative Jewish sources. This in mind we shall present first the fundamental features of Midrashic literature as such and its general stylistic literary rules. Il FUNDAMENTAL FACTORS IN MIDRASHIC LITERATURE 11,1 The concept of Midrash and its relation to Pesher and Targum Probably the best definition of Midrash is given by Renée Bloch in her article in Dictionnaire de la Bible, Supplément. According to it rabbinic Midrash is a homiletic reflection or meditation on the Bible which seeks to reinterpret or actualize a given text of the past for present circumstances. lt penetrates to the text and makes it relevant for the contemporary situation.'4 With this in mind Midrash represents a kind of modern thinking of its own period. Gary G. Porton makes, about twenty years later when the Midrashic studies had already advanced, an exceedingly remarkable ‘3 Qur transliteration of the Hebrew concepts is given according to the English pronouncing. The more problematic characters are marked for the legibility of the matier as follows: A =h,n =h, 3=kh, p= qor k, os tandn mostly as th. \ Renée Bloch, Dictionnaire de14 summary about the definitions of Midrashim. He writes that the purpose of the Midrash had a religious rather than purely scholarly aim, and it endeavored not so much to seek the original meaning of the text as to find religious edification and moral instruction. According to his estimation Zumk argued that Midrash was basically a teaching about God; Bloch wroie that "Midrash allows God to speak to the people"; LeDéaut has written that "Midrash in the Jewish world designates above all an attitude, the concrete translation of the way in which the relationship between Scripture and the people of God was conceived in Israel” and Sanders wrote, that "Midrash at least means the function of an ancient or canonical tradition in the ongoing life of the community which preserves thase traditions and in some sense finds its identity in them".!> Addison G. Wright mentions that "in the studies of Midrash written before Bloch's article there had been no real attempt carefully to define Midrash as a literary form".!“ Also in the Christian theology there is a growing interest to use the literary techniques of the old synagogue for literary criticism. Addison G. Wright characterizes the situation stating, that one of the prominent characteristics of biblical studies in this century has been the careful and explicit attention given to the classification of literary genres. Literature has been classified into genres for various purposes at least since Plato and such classification has become a standard technique for the study of literature in some schools of literary criticism and has found its way imo biblical criticism especially through the work of Gunkel and Lagrange. However, we must point out that it ought to be only an aid and not a master. It 45 G. G. Porton, “Defining Midrash", N.Y. 1981, in the Study of Ancient Judaism I: Mishnah, Midrash, Siddur, ed by J. Neusner, p. 60. ‘6 Addison G. Wright, The Literary Genre Midrash, Albe House, New York 1967, p. 22. We are not dealing in our study with the potential re-writing of the texts in the phase of their composition but rather with the literary and conceptual features.1s requires also an extensive knowledge to see the essence of the matter, fon nN. No work of literature can be understood correctly unless it is put into its proper literary focus in this way. That is also the Way t approach our special theme about the Messiah and his meal without making too hasty conclusions. The name Midrash derives from the root yt which in the Bible means mainly “to search", "to seek” or "to examine". The noun Midrash occurs only twice in the Bible!” In the time of the Second Temple the word was first employed in the sense of education and learning generally. The synagogue was called as "a house of learning". wrren ma. The discoveries at Qumran have raised the question of Midrash in a new and somewhat confusing light. In the beginning the new concept 98 was identified with wm. In Qumran the word Aff appears about five times signifying a kind of “juridical investigation" or "study". The most common concept a is a generic name for “interpretation or exposition” and it has very little to do with the genre of Midrash." Among the scholars today the term Midrash has become a technical literary term to designate a literary genre alone. There is exegesis of the WH type in the Talmud also and yet the Talmud is not called a Midrash by the rabbis. We must differentiate between all these terms. “Pesher" or W in Qumran literature is a kind of paraphrase of the biblical text and not a homiletic expansion of a biblical book or its part for the purpose of edification? "Pesher" does not cite other biblical books or the opinions of teachers the same way as the Midrash does. And the Qumran literature is less detailed and developed than that of the Midrash. In Qumran literature both "raz" Tor “secret” and “pesher"” wa appear in the same context. The 17 I Chron. 13:22 and 24:27 18 MLP. Horgan, Pesharim, Qumran Interpretations of Biblical Books, Washington Cath. Bibl Ass. 1979. '9 Addison G. Wright, Midrash, The Pesharim p. 81.16 first stage of divine revelation was imparted to the biblical writer, but it remained a mystery and secret until the second stage, the interpretation or “pesher” was imparted to the Teacher of Righteousness and his disciples2° The “Pesher" tries primarily to actualize biblical texts and make them meaningful for the limited Essene groups: "Midrash" endeavors to make the story of the past more vivid to the whole Jewish community. There is in Qumran literature also a kind of brotherly communion which illuminates the difference and special nature of Messianic meal in the intermediate stage of our era. Even the difference between the Aramaic targums and the Midrash is notable. The targums render a wanslation and some expansions of the text. They reflect the synagogue homilies which followed the daily readings. The Targums explain mostly separate concepts giving incidental material. The Midrash on the other hand gives homiletic material scooping it from biblical and rabbinical texts. The Talmud states as follows: "The whole Torah in its entirety is in Hebrew, but certain things from the Targum also belong to it"?! Only the Targum of Ongelos received the’ synagogue's official approval. It contains expository material on the whole Pentateuch and dates from the 2nd century C.E. and onwards. The Targums which go under the name of Jonathan Ben Uzziel were written later on the basis of a tradition which was handed down from one generation to another, although Jonathan himself lived very near to Jesus’ time. The Targum of Jonathan contains material which, according to some scholars, dates from as far as the 2nd century B.C. and is thus partly older than the Targum Ongelos.22 8 See Encyclopaedia Judaica X11, pp. 331-333. Masechet Soferim 1a. Addison G. Wright, Midrash p. 23. See also footnate 23. B7 The significance of Targum is very prominent from the perspective of our study. Just as in the Midrash literature the hand of the censor is not obvious in the Targums. This is further illustrated by the fact that, according to counts made, 72 OT passages are explained in the Targums as applying to the Messiah. More than the other Targums, the wadition associated with the name of Jonathan highlights the Messianic concept, and for this reason we will describe him in the light of the Talmud. It dedicates a prominent amount to the reason why Jonathan Ben Uzziel was abandoned by the synagogue as an accepted and authorized teacher for the Torah.” Jonathan was the greatest pupil of the elder Hillel before the destruction of the Temple. One taditional account relates that Hille! had 80 pupils: “40 of them earned the descent of the Holy Spirit upon them, just as Moses did; 30 that the sun would stand still above them, as in the time of Joshua the son of Nun; 20 were average: but the greatest of them was Jonathan Ben Uzziel, and the least Johanan Ben Zakkai - and let it be remembered that the latter was the creator of the renaissance of the Torah in Jamnia immediately after the destruction of the Temple.""* Jonathan translated the prophets into Aramaic, accompanied with brief explanations. His work of course aroused opposition from the 3 The literature which deals with the matter: John Bowker, The Targums and Rabbinic Literature, An Introduction to Jewish Interpretation of Scripture, Cambridge 1969; S.H. Levey, The Messish, An Aramaic Interpretation, The Messianic Exegesis of the Targum, Cincinnati 1974; ELL. Strack, Finleitung in Talnwd und Midrasch, Ist ed. Berlin 1887, 6. Aufl. Miinchen 1976; B, Pick, Old Testament Passages Messianically Applied by Ancient Synagogue, Hebraica 1885-1888. 2 Page 518 in the Hebrew reference work of Mardekhai Margatioth on the “Wise” of the Talmud, Tel-Aviv 1964.18 Sages of the time, as they felt that the Hebrew original would thus be forgotten. But, in his own words, Jonathan went ahead so that doctrinal disputes would not multiply in Israel. It is remarkable that the synagogue accepted Ongelos' work for the normative use even though he was a “ger” or proselyie?° Jonathan's specifically Messianic emphasis was one of the reasons that his translation was not accepted.26 Talmud Megilah 3a explains the exact reason why Jonathan Ben Uzziel was not accepted by the rabl It tells about “the voice of revelation” ip 74 which reproached him from heaven because he “revealed the secrets of God", although not for his own glory - “and when he wanted to reveal targum of the Hagiographa trating there came a Yyp M4 and said to him, it's enough Pre! What was the 25 May it be said, that there is a certain confusion in using the names of various Targums. The two principal Targumim are thus Targum Ongelos to the Pentateuch, which originated in Palestine before being used in Babylonia at the end of the third century where it soon won high esteem. Targum Jonathan an the Former and Latter Prophets ( TJon ) was in use in Babylonia in the early fourth century. Even a part of Targum to the Torah came to be called by the name of Jonathan, but it is now commonly called as Targum Yerushalmi ar pseudo- Jonathan ( TPsI ) to distinguish it from the Targum on the Prophets. In Jewish commentaries the Sages differentiate beiween Targum Ongelos, Targum Jonathan and Targum Yerushalmi. The confusion in the use of the names derives from the fact that the Hebrew abbreviation TY. (s,m) can indicate bath the Targum of Jonathan and Targum Yerushalmi 8 There is an interesting discussion in the Talmud on this matter. “The Targum of the Pentateuch was composed by Onkelos the proselyte under the guidance of R. Eleazar and R. Joshua. The Targum of the Prophets was composed by Jonathan hen Uzziel under the guidance of Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi, and the land of Israel (thereupon) quaked over an area of four hundred parasangs by four hundred parasangs. and a Bath Kol came forth and exclaimed, 'Who is this that has revealed My secrets to mankind? Jonathan ben Uzziel thereupon arase and said, “i is I who have revealed Thy secrets to mankind. It is fully known to Thee that I have not done this for my own honour of for the honour of my father’s house, but for Thy honour I have done it, that dissension may not increase in Isracl’.” Megiltah 3a.19 reason? - Because the latter days of the Messiah twem 4p are foretold in it.” Behind the restraint of the rabbis in eschatological matters is a certain disappoinunent. This is reflected also in Midrash Ruth. The Messiah had to come according to Daniel 9:24- 26 before the destruction of the second Temple but apparently from the standpoint of rabbinic thinking he did not. It is important for us to know the principal tendencies in Jewish writings, One of them is the common inclination to avoid Messianic interpretations although in the old medieval legends the eschatological view and Messianic exegesis is more notable” This negative attitude in the matter originates from the bitter history between the church and the Jewish people. The theology of Judaism - if there is any such kind of uniform thinking - reasons mainly with the knowledge of God and his will afforded by God's self-manifestation in the Torah, both oral and written. But Christian and Jewish exegesis are still treating partly the same topics. In this sense they can complete one another and increase the knowledge of our common inheritance. ‘We are aware of the tension in the Messianic interpretations in this matter. Myron Bialik Lerner wanted primarily to demonstrate the existence of different strata and traditions behind Midrash Ruth dealing thus so little with the special Messianic parashiyoth in his academic dissertation. Jacob Neusner and his colleagues are doing now a comprehensive and systematic project to translate and study all the material of Midrash Rabbah, but even in this plan the 27 The collection of different articles given by Raphael Patai, The Messiah Texts. Jewish Legends of Three Thousand Years, Detroit 1979, does deal also with the Messianic Banquet (pp. 235-246) or the Sufferings of the Messiah (104- 121), but these stories are mastly legends and nnt original sources appropriate to our study. The Hebrew collection with three Volumes, Mossad Harav Kook, Jerusalem 1976, nye TTOM me TAA ADA “WX leans more on Talmud and Midrash. The Hebrew and German edition of Adolph Jellinek, Bet ha-Midrash in six volumes, Jerusalem 1967, has the widest collection of these legends.20 Messianic aspect seems to play a minor role, Addison G. Wright omits totally in his extensive book "The Literary Genre Midrash” the role of Midrash Ruth Rabbah, And yet there we do find all the typical literary features related to old synagogue sermons. The main aspects of Messianic expectation are embedded there like precious jewels in the ocean, Also the late Swedish Prof. ‘Trypeve Kronholm leaves the Messianic message untouched in his portrayal of Ruth Rabbah.25 Renée Bloch attempted to elaborate a new synthesis of all Midrashic texts. But her tragic death in 1955 prevented her from doing more than grapple with the preliminaries. There is a real need to delineate the primary characteristics also from a Christian perspective. The aim of Midrash is to comment on the Scriptures and to make them relevant to the contemporaries of each time. Midrash has primarily a religious and edifying purpose and not only a speculative one. The rabbinic sources are giving different interpretive alternatives to a given text and they do not inevitably fix the opinion of the student to one limited explanation. We endeavor to penetrate in our study to the common inheritance of the Jewish and Christian theology. 11,2. Midrash Ruth and its position in Midrashic literature In this section we shall try to give the facts about Midrashic literature in the right proportionate measure. This is only a kind of preliminary procedure. From the point of view of the period of the arrangement and collection the aggadic Midrashim have been divided into three groups: early, middle and late. This commonly 28 Tryggve Kronholm, The Portrayal of Characters in Midrash Ruth Rabbah, Annual of the Swedish Theological Institute 1983/12, pp. 16-54.21 accepted way of division is given in the Encyclopaedia Judaica by Dr. Moshe David Herr of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Ir serves best in defining the principal stylistic differences between the various layers of the Midrashic literature. The determination of the time of the editing and arranging of the various Midrashim is by no means a simple matter. It is nearly impossible to determine with even approximate certainty the period when a Midrash or aggadic work was compiled. However, it is possible to arrive at a relative date, that is, to determine the relation of a particular Midrash to others. To do this one cannot rely on the historical allusions alone or merely on the names of the sages mentioned in the Midrash, nor can one rely on the first mentions of the Midrash and its first citations, since al! the Midrashim contain much material from different and extended eras. The best and probably the most reliable method for determining priority or lateness among Midrashim is the relationship between the various Midrashim, the use one makes of another as well as their relationship to other sources. There are also other additional indications for this kind of comparison like the literary forms, language and style. In the case of Midrash Ruth it is apparent that all these features are linked to a certain early period. 11,2,1 The early Midrashim This group of Midrash differs clearly from those of the middle period. Sometimes they are called “Classical Amoraic Midrashim". These seven early Midrashim are: Genesis Rabbah; Leviticus Rabbah; Lamentations Rabbah; Esther Rabbah 1; Pesikta de-Rav Kahana; Song of Songs Rabbah and Ruth Rabbah. ‘The most developed and perfect literary forms and constructions are °° Encyclopaedia Judaica XI, pp. 1507-151422 already found in these oldest aggadic Midrashim. This proves the literary crystallization of many preceded generations mostly of the Amoraic period. Midrash Rabbah has usually a classical proem at the beginning of the whole Midrash or even of each chapter. It served fundamentally as the introduction to a homily delivered in public. The classical proem is a prelude to a homily on a certain verse by citing a verse from another source and connecting it with the chief verse of the homily. This kind of proem is yet scarcely found earlier in the Tannaitic literature. 1 was mostly developed and perfected in the time of the Amoraim between 200 and 500 A.D. It was given to attract, stimulate and arouse the curiosity of the audience and 1o emphasize the unity of the biblical books. The Midrash actually follows the method of preachers. Midrash Rabbah consists of a collection of homilies, sayings and aggadot of the Amoraim revealing the rich world of thoughts and rabbinical interpretations. They are written in Galilean Aramaic and rabbinical Hebrew with some Greek addenda. It seems that these early Midrashim, which are not mentioned in the Babylonian Talmud, were edited in the Land of Israel in the fifth and sixth centuries C.E. Two types can be distinguished: exegetical and homiletical. Exegetical Midrashim like Genesis Rabbah or Lamentations Rabbah and Ruth Rabbah are interpreting only one book of the Bible. They contain comments on the whole book, each chapter and every verse, and at times even on every word in the verse, We are explaining the reason to it when we are dealing with the methods of Midrash. The homiletical Midrash takes usually only the first verses in the weekly portions of Torah or prophetic readings expounding its practical meaning. In homiletical Midrashim each chapter constitutes a collection of homilies and sayings. They are combined into one long homily on the specific topic. Early and later Midrashim differ a lot in their character. In the Midrashim of the middle period a decline is already discernible in the developed literary constructions and forms, especially in the23 procm. However, it is only an inferior and artificial imitation. After the Muslim conquest the apocalyptic literature, which had been disregarded by the talmudic rabbis particularly because of the controversy with Christianity, became more apparent influencing in the Midrash both in content and form. There is a notable increase in homilies which refer to angels, demons, the garden of Eden, hell and apocalyptic items. This does not belong to Midrash in its earlier stage. The authors who were the narrators, gave their own seal to the compilation. In addition there is also a difference in language. The Galilean Aramaic of the early Midrashim progressively disappears, as does rabbinical Hebrew. Instead there is progressive use of artificial Hebrew, apparently pure and polished and becoming freer from the influence of Aramaic language. In the light of these characteristics given by Moshe David Herr it seems obvious that Midrash Ruth points to the category of the earliest Midrashim being written in rabbinical Hebrew and having pure classical proems and a typical use of the Scriptures. 11,2,2 The middle Midrashic period The middle period between 640 - 900 C.E. consists of more than 20 different Midrash compilations. Characteristic to them is the role of private compilers. All these are homiletical by nature. The most important and popular Midrashim from this period is the “Tanhuma Midrash" (Yelammedenu) group of eight compilations where the old and the new material is used indiscriminately. Rabbi Tanhuma Bar Abba to whom the Tanhuma Midrash bas been ascribed was a Palestinian Amora acting in the second half of the fourth century. His principal teacher in halakhah and aggadah was Rabbi Huma (ca 320-350 A.D.), a central figure in Midrash Ruth also, ‘Tanhuma is noted especially for the proems with which he introduced his discourses. The phrase “R. Tanhuma began his discourse with this biblical text” occurs frequently in Midrash, particularly in Pesikta Rabbati, one of24 Yelammedenu Midrashim. When he was asked questions he did not answer immediately; after a long silence he quoted a biblical verse connecting it with the item concerned. 10,2,3 The later Midrashic period The late period of Midrashim has a great practical value for every Torah student of modern times. This school between 1000 and 1200 C.E. and especially the series related to Moshe ha-Darshan means a turmming-point in Midrashic compilations. In these Midrashim there is hardly a trace or even an imitation of the classical proem and the Hebrew is completely of medieval times. For our study the following phase between 1200 and 1550 C.E. is also meaningful. The Jewish scholars in various countries assembled anthologies from various Midrashim and aggadic works. To these belong e.g. Yalkut Shimeoni to the whole of the Bible assembled in Germany and Yalkut Makhiri to various biblical books. When we are asking whether a certain Bible verse is mentioned in Talmud the quickest shoricut is to check it in Yalkut.° Another way to scrutinize and balance the various Midrashic compilations is to emphasize their nature as halakhic or haggadic as well as exegetical ar homiletical and outlining them in the line of their presumable place of origin. This is evident also in our division in accord to the time of their composition. The position of Midrash Ruth in Midrashic literature has to be seen in this factual connection. It represents exegetical Midrashim commenting upon the whole book of Ruth, each chapter and almost every word and verse. And it has all the Midrashic stylish features typical for the earlier period. 30 The CD-Rom of Soncino Classics Collection does not show the Bible verses related to Talmudic discussions the same way as the Yalkut docs.11,3 The literary methods of Midrash The sphere of rabbinical literature and its methods is so many- faceted that it is impossible to give precise definitions and condensed answers where exactly the borderlines between various sectors are. From the perspective of our study on Midrash Ruth certain definitions remain still to be done. First of all if we are inspecting rabbinic literature, it can be divided to two different categories (Gattungen), Mishnah and Midrash. The concept mown derives from the verb “to repeat” - certain rabbinical teachings were repeated and accepted by the honored rabbinistic authorities until they became normative rules for religious behavior. These ordinances were collected and written to so-called "halakha", which defines “how to walk” according to the Jewish law. This word derives from the word "to walk", 999. Halakha is mostly collected without a reference to those Bible verses they are related to and gives rather the names of the rabbis who recommended their use. The Midrash leans more on the specific verses in the Scriptures. According to the content rabbinic literature can be divided to halakha and haggadah. Halakha ordinances build the backbone for Jewish behavior. The expression haggadah originates from the word Tan’, which means “to tell" the traditional thinking for the next generation. Haggadah is based mostly on the Scriptures. It is supported with biblical texts and many times it is even forcing the reader upon the artificial meaning of the interpreter. Haggadah comprises independent material like comparisons, legends, historical anecdotes and stories about various rabbis. Midrash literature contains both halakhic and haggadie material, but its fundamental feanre is always the close and inseparable liaison with the given item and biblical text. The later medieval Midrashim are dealing almost exclusively with halakhic material26 The literary methods of Midrash include both general Rabbinic regulations as well as pure classic literary genre of Midrash. 13,1 Common Rabbinic regulations Rabbinic manner of exegesis illustrates the nanere of Jewish literary records at the tum of the Christian era. ‘The basic rules which were formulated in the Jewish academies developed different ways of studying the Torah. The same methods which we find in Midrashic literature blossomed already in the first and second century CE. in the so-called Tannaic period between 40 and 200 and also among Amoraic teachers 200 - 500 CE. The earliest pedagogical regulations were drawn up in the schools of Hillel and Shammai, the later scholars followed the instructions of Akiba and Ishmael. In fact, R. Ishmael had thirteen hermeneutic rules in all. Many of them were commonly accepted by others also. According to wadition R. Ishmael Sxgow followed the footsteps of R. Nechunja Ben Hagana nopn yenna (80-110 °C.E.) reasoning Torah “Kkelal u-ferath", ‘wiv y93 proceeding "from general to particular" and “he gave this method to his pupil R. Ishmael". Rabbi Akiba qo) yA xpy followed R. Nahum Gam Zo trea 1 Yt 02 YON OI from the same time and they used the method “ribuyin u-mi'utin", ‘powen yan which means a kind of expansion and limiting the matter. Rabbi Gamaliel’s grandfather R. Hillel was living a little before Christian era and the Tannaic period. He gave more than the others for the expansion of literary methods and he can be considered as the father of hermeneutics.*! He taught seven ways of study, so called "middoth" mvPa or “ways of measurement”, in which the text was to be handled. 31 Hermann L. Strack, Finleitung in Talmwd und Midrasch, Munchen 1976, pp. 96-99.7 Hillel's first rule was “gal va-homer", “worm 9p that is, drawing conclusions from the “lighter” or smaller matter to broader contexts. Jesus, too, employed this mode of thought when he spoke of the birds of the air that God takes care of - and are we not of far greater value? Or “he who is faithful in a little is faithful in much”.#2 Hillel’s second "middah", "gezera shavah", mw mm aims to analyze similar expressions and the inner causes of the same matter. The most convenient way to demonstrate this is to remind the words of Paul in Rom. 4:1-5 when he speaks of Abraham, who was not justified on the basis of works; this applies to everyone else as well. Verses 9-12 relate that Abraham was justified while he was uncircumcised and received “circumcision as a seal of this justification through faith"; this too applies to everyone. We shall see these features in Midrash Ruth later on. Hillel's third principle, "binyan av mikatuy chad”, nson wep 4hM means the grouping of Bible verses, opinions and facts into one “building”. like a family. It became a common feature for all the later Jewish writings. Midrash literature may have in one chapter as many as one hundred different initial words of Old Testament verses and the abbreviation “wa-gomer" ‘M1 or “and so on”, and the reader was supposed fo repeat the entire context by heart. With these united families it sufficed to state the main idea of the verse. and it could be combined with other Bible passages in the name of the same prophet. This is what Paul did in his letters too. The fourth rule of Hillel, "binyan av mishnei ketuvim", 4 PO train ‘yn is similar to the third principle, It shows the cause and 82 The same rule can be found indirect in Gen. 44:8 and Deut. 31:27. Genesis Rabbah 92:7 enumerates ten Pentateuchal cases where qal va-homer is used in plural mixing Hebrew and Aramaic as WMD oF galim va-hamurin. See also Matthew 6:30 and Luke 16:10-12.28 the argumentation based on two Bible verses, because “at the mouth of two witnesses - shall the matter be established” ( Deut. 19:15). In his fifth rule, proceeding "from general to particular and from particular to the general”, 992) 952) 992) 992, Hillel taught that one should proceed from common principles to special claims and vice versa. Jabob Neusner prefers to say a bit similarly that we ought to advance “from the parts to the whole and from the whole to the parts” seeing the inner interplay in matters under the research. Hillel's sixth principle was to find "similar features in other connections" 31% oYpNa 13 x¥Y3, a kind of associative method common in Jewish thinking. The seventh rule of Hillel concemed practical and spiritual ‘conclusions, 3ya Tayn 337, one of the main methods in Midrash too. In addition to all this we must remember that Rabbi Ishmael had thirteen, R. Eliezer Ben Josi Ha-Gelili thirty-two, some had forty-nine or even seventy different criteria for evaluation. On the whole we must remember the wellknown story of the four rabbis who went into a "garden", Heb. "PaRDeS" v115 #! The consonants of Pardes refer as a mnemonic to four words: "pshat”, “pemez", “drashah” and "sod" tr) ,Aw77 .ta7 ,owa . Practical approach to a problem for the rabbis meant that they first asked 5 This story in sagigah 14b in Talmud tells about four men who entered the celestial ‘Garden’, namely Ben Azzai, Ben Zoma, "Aber", and R. Akiba. Ben ‘Azzai cast a look inside and died, Ben Zoma looked and became demented, Aber mutilated the “shoots”, an esoteric expression about Rabbi Elisha Ben Abujah, whose apostasy caused for many “shoots” in the celestial Garden to die. This “Aber” or “the other one” whose name was not permitied io be pronounced anymore in the lips of Israel is also a center figure in Midrash Ruth. Only R. Akiba saw the holyness of God and departed unhurt. Especially in Kabbalistic literature this type of old hermeneutics is very popular.29 what is the "pshat” - the “simple” meaning. Second, they wanted to find out what “remazim" or “references” the word could be connected with. Third, they wanted to find out the “drashah” or “sermon” in the message. In addition, there were in the text also certain “sodoth" or “secrets”. The N.T. contains some of the stylistic devices of Midrash literature too. By quoting the words "al tiqra" Wyn dx or “do not read in that way but in this way" the precise meaning of a term or its grammatical form was highlighted. The Christian reader understands it better if we show some examples of these Rabbinic rules from the New Testament as Jewish scholars also increasingly do. In Galatians 3:16 we read: "Now the promises were made to Abraham and his offsprings. It does not say, ‘and to offsprings’, referring to many; but, referring to one, ‘and to your offspring’ (Greek, tw onepuon ewrov), which is Christ.” Tartei mashma" yowD eH or “the double meaning” of a term reflects the same attitude. In addition, one should study what happened “earlier and later", “muqdam u-meohar" qMKD) OTP! - thus. for example, ‘Abraham was justified because of his faith 430 years before the law en (Gal. 3:17). A possible change of word root is also to account, although Torah copyists are to this day required to reproduce the text exactly down to the smallest detail, otherwise the entire scroll being copied must be burnt. 11,3,2. The special characteristics of Midrash The special characteristics for the literary genre Midrash are combined with the common Rabbinic stylic expressions. But particularly in the introductory artistic proems the beauty of Midrashim is mostly apparent. The classical proem or "petihta", Nnnene «serves as we have said earlier like a prelude and introduction attracting to listen the main message of the sermon. Second, one had to interpret as it is often expressed all the minute details in Scripture, Tera mat 29) nan 93. This principle was30 based to some extent on the conviction that the Torah is a divine book and that it does not speak in human language. Unlike the language of men, God's word has many meanings for he can say many things at once.*+ Furthermore, the rabbis taught that “a biblical verse never loses its literal meaning” wg regardless of how the verse may be employed in rabbinic interpretation. This principle affirms that the literal meaning is stable and primary and that the rabbinic interpretations are added matters and secondary in their nature whatever the predecessors may have done with it35 It was commonly accepted as a precept for the Midrash that every single detail of God's revelation, the Torah, should be interpreted, and every detail explained in relation io the matter in hand and also as an independent unit, for the Torah never loses its "literal meaning". Every statement should be also confirmed by a passage in the Old Testament, because the human opinion has no value as evidence. Midrash ofien repeats the Aramaic saying, “ha be-ha talya"’ wo MMA NN that is “this depends on that” ~ thus inner bridges were constructed to connect the subject with the message of the Bible. This demands the use of a kind of associative method suitable to Midrashic studies 3° 4 Addison G. Wright, The literary Genre Midrash, p. 62. 35. §, Rosenblatt, The Interpretation of the Bible in the Mishnah, Baltimore 1935 and Heinemann, Aggadsh 129-130, 136, 153-156. 38 See also Jurgrau Max, Targumic and Midrashic Methods of Interpretation. Bar/llan 12, 1974, p. 179-199 (Hebr.). Hans Walter Wolff is stating well in his “Hermeneutics 0} Old Testament”, page 160, that "Every method of exposition, which by some principle would make itself master of the text and its Context instead of entering inte the service af the text, is to be rejected”. The Rabbinic rules of exposition seem to serve best to the assotiative nature of Jewish literature.31 114 Choosing a proper method for Jewish studies Every scientific research requires its own tools. A carpenter, too, uses different saws, drills and planes, depending on the nature of the work. When | was invited to lecture on rabbinic literature in the United States or to deliver eighty hours of study at the Free Evangelical Academy in Basel, the question of method ofien came up. How could one listen to the sources in the right way and search for the references in the text and for the conceptual connections according to the "Hillelian methad"? Especially during the lectures in Basel an answer seemed to be found. In both Old Testament and New Testament studies we must be aware of the nature of the subject under investigation and of the rules which prevailed when these sources and the New Testament were written down. 14,1 The characterization of Greek wisdom and biblical thought by Thorleif Boman and Shalom Ben-Chorin Thirty years ago the Norwegian scholar Thorleif Boman published his doctoral dissertation entitled "Hebrew Thought in Comparison with Greek"2? Four impressions of this book appeared in Japanese and various European languages. Boman emphasized that hearing, action and the practical aspect are typically Jewish, while the Greek thinking moves more in terms of "conceptual, ideological problems". “The Jews demand signs and the Greeks seek wisdom" (Ist Cor. 1:22). In Hebrew there is no real verb "to be” in the same sense as in other languages. According to Hebrew we say "Me Tarzan, you Jane" when we mean "lam", Hebrew thought does not mean a static stationary situation but action and dynamism, of which 37 -Thorleif Boman, Das Hebriische Denken in Vergleich mit dem Griechischen, Géningen 5th priming 1968. See also his book "Europas kulur og den jidiske ary, Oslo 1972,32 the Hebrew grammar provides an example. ‘The first impression to the claims of Boman is predominantly positive. The Greek philosopher and the father of the topical method Aristotle endeavored to see the ethical problems in the light of experience using the human sense (the Greek vove) in his argumentation. And he was the first one who taught how to make conceptual analysis in the light of semantic approach. ‘This is charasteristic also of the rabbis in all their writings. The subtle Rabbinical analysis is partly rooted in the Greek philosophy using the same analytical tools which prevailed in the whole Roman Empire. There are still some different viewpoints in both of them, which can not be ignored in our methodological approach. The famous writer Schalom Ben-Chorin, with whom | was also able to discuss research methods, wrote in one connection of "the fundamental differences between Greek wisdom and biblical thought” ** For him the Greek world attempted primarily to find the systematic philosophical regularities. This objective was dominant from Aristotle to Hegel. It fitted the details to larger units, forcing them into predetermined categories. Hebrew thought proceeds from details to rules, from concrete observations to ideas. For this reason the Bible is not acquainted with dogmatic and systematic theology per se. Instead it has two basic characteristic objectives. narrative and law intended as guidelines for life. The books of Moses, the Psalms and the Prophets relate over and over again to the great deeds of God. Thus the historical facts are preserved unchanged, although their interpretation finds a new nuance according to the needs of each era, The holy law revealed in God's commandments does not change with fashion either. By contrast with Greek systematization the Bible represents in the eyes of Ben- Chorin a kind of “associative thinking”, where everything refers to the whole and everything depends on everything else. This fits to 3% Schalom Ben-Chorin, Jidischer Glaube, pp. 17-21, Tubingen 1975.33 the Aramaic words repeated in Midrash, so¥n mma xn . this is connected with this. We must only find the associative and inner affiliates with the life and other Jewish writings. One is tempted to insist that the characterization of Dr Thorleif Boman would be a little exaggerated and that Schalom Ben-Chorin would not do justice to the Greek thinking. But both of these scholars represent a wide reading and long experience. Their description can not be a mere caricature. In our study of Midrash Ruth we collide often with the difference of Westem and Jewish thinking, The research methods of the natural sciences and the humanities are regarded as differing fundamentally from each other. Religion, ethics and aesthetics often have to be content with narrative and hermeneutical or explanatory approaches. It includes always also an informative message. Methodology distinguishes between the “nomothetic” or “legislative” (Greek vopog) sciences and the ideographical sciences, that is, those relating to individual facts and ideas. 114.2 The topical method DyppN NOY as expounded by Aristotle, Giovanni Battista Vico and Jacob Neusner ‘The Greek philosopher Aristotle already formulated the so-called “topic (Gr. tor~0c, place) by which the “leading points" were to be sought e.g. in rhetoric, philosophy and in the study of legal problems - later on this was developed by the father of the philosophy of history, the Italian thinker Giovanni Battista 38 See e.g. Wilhelm Dilthey, Der Aufbau der geschichtlichen Welt in den Geisteswissenschafien, Ges. Werke, Band 7.34 (Giambattista) Vico“ Therefore the humanities must cover the entire expanse of human thought and place the leading points in their rightful place. Only by making "topical or in a way “topographical” comparisons can one appreciate the significance of details in the overall structure. This means adopting a wider holistic attitude. In this sense we should possess also as wide a basic knowledge of the foundations of Jewish faith as possible before we are able to make relevant deductions - otherwise we are going astray. The topical method demands wide background research and it requires an intertexiual approach where different sources are placed in their own places and in the contexts where they originated. I found my “topical” approach in the early 80's. This way I became more and more convinced that only a wide study of the original Jewish sources can reveal the real nature of each idea in its own setting. In our research of Midrash Ruth this is also the only key to exhibit the hidden treasures in Jewish thinking. The Rabbinic exegesis is altogether intertextual. This is visualized in our Appendix 2 about Mikraoth Gedoloth and in the extract of the Talmud in Appendix 3. For that reason it must be dealt with observing the wider aspects of each dictum. Giovanni Battista Vico elaborated the topical approach to a methodological system in which 40 Lothar Bornscheuer, Topik, zur Struktur der gesellschaftlichen Einbildungskraft, Fr. am Main. 1976, pp. 26-37. For Aristoteles (384-322 B.C.) the “methodos” in the topical approach meant “ein Hilfsverfahren” which helps to find the roblemreflexion, Argumentation, _Urteilsbildung und Schlussfolgering". In his writing “topika” he dealt with the premises underlying the human knowledge. Bomscheuer calls the topical method as “eine Methodenlehre des Forschens und Findens”, ibid. p. 19. Giambattista Vieo presented in his main writing "Scienza nuova" a new way to argue about the fundamental facts in the history, "de nostri temporis studiorum ratione". Only comparing linguistic and historieal sources in the light of the correspomding periad it will be possible to obtain reliable knowledge. The search engine www.google.com / “vice topos methotle" gives about 35 different articles and books where Vico and his method is dealt with.35 the significance of details in the overall structure could best be found. We intend to do this in our analysis of Midrash Ruth.*" Some time ago I noted that Jacob Neusner mentioned also the concept “topic” although not in the same context as Aristotle or Giovanni Battista Vico. Year 1997 he writes: “Nearly a quarter-century ago, frustrated by an important and insoluble problem of critical research using Rabbinic literature as the principal source, I decided to turn front historical to religions-historical and therefore also literary work, to investigate the character and history of the documents that purport to supply the facts out of which conventional history is to be constructed, and to utilize the results in the study of the history of the formation of Rabbinic Judaism as the documentary evidence yields that history.” The attempt to solve the underlying historical factors in using the Rabbinic literature as the principal source can really frustrate and it collides with “insoluble” problems. This is seen in our study too. Neusner clarifies his observations a little afterwards: 41 Vico is well known also in Japan, where his book De noste’ tempovis sudiorent vatione appeared in 1987. Hakayama Noriaki states that Vico identifies "the doctrine of invention with topical philosophy" and that "Vico considered that topica precedes abways critica”. "Argumente werden jedoch nicht cufallig aufgestiibert, sondem gezieli an bestimmien Plitzen gesucht (redex argumentorum)”. The topical approach is a kind of "Erschliessungsinventar” and “Mindmapping" which strives to bind “die gefundenen Aspekre einer Argumentation miteinander". Even Karl Marx was influenced by the historical theories of Vieo. The topical method is described eg_ in the books of Clemens Ottmers, Rherorik, Stungart 1996 (Sammlung Meuler, Bd.283), Breuer, Sehanze . Topik, Miinchen 1981; Aristoteles, Topik (Organon V), bers. und hrsg. Eugen Rolfes, Hamburg 1968; G. Battista Vico, De nostri temporis studiorunt ratione, Dt-lat. Ausgabe, Darmstatt 1963 and Lothar Bornscheuer, Topik, Zur Sinutur der geseilschafilichen Einbildungskrajt, Frankfur’Main 1976.36 “Now we know how to see the compilations whole and complete, so that we are able to distinguish one document from anciher by appeal to objective facts concerning their _ respective charasteristics in rhetoric, logic of coherent discourse, and topical program (topoi in the philosophical framework)? We therefore are able to define the definitive indicative traits of documents" 4 Jacob Neusner describes the development of his own methods as follows: “In the 1960s I saw matters as essentially historical problems. In the 1970s I moved onward to a literary-exegetical program. ‘The problem broadened for me in the 1970s, as I reached the conclusion that rabbinic writings had to be read, each on its own, That simple realization of the documentary character of the constituent parts of the canon of what we then called ‘rabbinic’ Judaism - carried forward the analytical approach to a category formation that was forming in my mind. In the 1980s I built upon the historical and literary results of the prior two decades work and moved into the study of religion. As the 1980s unfolded, I realized The topical program in its philosophical settings in literature. music or ethics has been studied by Pompa, Kugel, Boyarin and Faur, but they are mostly giving unintegrated opinions, which are irrelevant to Midrashic studies. Leon Pompa cts as a professor of philosophy in Birmingham. In his book "A Study of the new Science”, Cambridge 2nd ed. 1990 p. 190, he states that the topics is "the art of knowing and being able io summon all the considerations relevant to the formulation of a true judgement", Pompa "saved" the studies of Vico. He has however been criticized that he "narrows Vico in an unacceptable way and simply gets the text wrong” and "he has reconstructed Vico's arguments with a precision mot to be found in Vico himself. James L. Kugel was dealing with ethics and was “cher eine Halbhugel". Daniel Bayarin and the professor Jose Faur from the Bar-Ilan University can not be considered as experts in Midrashic studies. 48 Jacob Neusner, The Components of the Rabbinic Documents From the Whole to the Parts, III Ruth Rabbah, see the Introduction pages XVI and XXXIX, Univ. of South Florida 1997. The definition of the “topical program" where the “topoi" must be understood * in its “philasophical framework" corresponds to the aim of Giovanni Battista Vico, the “father” of the historical philosophy. He wanted to find the leading points in "rhetoric and philosophy” - almost the same as the “indicative traits” of Neusner, whatever he really meant with these words.37 that I had reached an inchoate and not fully articulated method pretty nuch of nty own.” Neusner called it "systemic analysis" comprising the whole way of life. It "begins with the literary and goes then to a religious study”. In this sense he speaks of “intertexmality” which means for him "a relation of co-presence between two or more texts". And “in that sense the rabbinic writings are wholly intertextual” ++ These words written in 1988 are clarified year 1999 in his bibliography given by Neusner himself, where he divides his extensive works into seven phases: 1. “the pre-critical stage", 2. "the beginning of the critic enterprise", 3. "describing the canon, document by document which comprises the stage of translation, formanalysis and exegesis, 4. “introducing the documents, comparing and contrasting the documentary components of the canon of the formative Judaism", 5. the stage of "religion, reconstructing and interpreting the history of the formation of Judaism", 6. "talmudic hermeneutics” and 7. "constructive and comparative theology from description to conviction etc" 45 In principle as Neusner tells, "these writings, seen in order, indicate three stages in the formation of that Judaism, which are best characterized as philosophical, religious, and theological” and it comprises always a theological synthesis“ ‘The methods of 44 Jacob Newsner, Wrong Ways and Right Ways in the Study of Formative Judaism, Preface XVI and pp. 34-36. 45 Jacob Neusner, The Rabbinic Ti ins. about the Pharisees before 70, Part 1, Scholars Press, Atlanta 1999, in his bibliography. 45. Jacob Neusner is dealing with this matter widely in his book "Rabbinic Judaism, The Documentary History of its Formative Age 70-600 C.E.". These writings "seen in order” are for Neusner Mishna, Talmud Jerushalmi and Talmud Babli although their nature as such does not necessarily indicate different "philosophical, religious and theological” stages.38 Neusner provide a useful "rear view mirror” to project my own endeavor in finding feasible tools for Jewish studies. If we are looking through this rear view mirror, Neusner seems to have manifold goals: He tumed “from historical to religions- historical” and “literary work"; he wanted to “distinguish one document from another" and to find "their respective charasteristics” and the "topical program” where the "topos" had to be understood in its philosophical framework; and then finally he moved “into the study of religion” striving to build “constructive and comparative theology from description to conviction". This is a rather big bite for any theologian. And the use of his “canonical” sources includes a very extensive material from the Talmud to Jewish prayers in the Siddur. In his own presentation of Midrash Ruth, however, Neusner does not give quotations of these sources.!? In this sort of work there lurks for everybody the common danger, typical to all the Rabbinic studies, to jump from one item to another and so the puzzle of the integrated “full-length portrait" suffers. But all the Rabbinic studies are facing this problem. ‘The question of the proper and balanced use of Jewish sources is actual in all this field - whether it succeeds to have distinctive marks of modem scientific approach is an other problem. It is commonly accepted that “the Rabbinic writings are wholly intertextual” as Neusner also has confirmed. However, this is an obligatory inconvenience which has to be challenged in our research also. 14,3 The present dilemma in Midrashic studies The essential problem between the scholars of Rabbinic studies is the question how to take a stand to the historical rehability of the 47 Jacob Neusner, The Midrash Compilations of the Sixth and Seventh Cemuries, An Introduction to the Rhetorical, Logical, and Topical Program, Volume three: Ruth Rabbah, Atlanta 1989, pp.135-15239 sources as such. In Midrash Ruth it enables to see its historical exposure. Neusner had a heated debate with the Isracli Prof. Ze'ev Safrai in the Israeli joumal “Zion” about this mater. The disputation concerned the critical utilization of Rabbinic sources for historical study.“ Neusner criticizes in the journal that "Safrai may serve as a reliable witness to the methods that dictate how historical study of Talmudic and Rabbinic writings is carried on in the State of Israel and its universities. It may be characterized very simple: it is simply intellectually primitive and historically uncritical. its questions are trivial, and its results, incoherent”. ft “produces neither consequential facts nor provocative hypothesis", and Safrai utilizes “almost all” Rabbinic texts pertinent to his subject. The actual question is whether and how the: heterogenous content of the Rabbinical documents can be used to construct historical reality. Therefore we cannot avoid the important methodological discussion between Neusner and Safrai. Neusner touches these things in the above appraisal about the method used by Safrai and his colleagues. He argues that the "Talmudic history in this Israeli journal finds definition as the study of historical problems pertinent to a given source rather than to a chronical period to which that source attests". "The Talmudic history Zion begins in an assumption universally adopted by the scholars of the journal: whatever the Talmud says happened happened. If the Talmud attributes something to a rabbi, he really said it. If the Talmud tells a story, it stands for an actual event” - it is "what Safrai shows he thinks it is: solely the collection and arrangement of facts, the analysis of facts, the synthesis of facts” Neusner concludes his criticism by speaking about the "yeshiva- 48 Jacob Neusner. Judaism in Late Antiquity, Pam Three: Where we Stand, Issues and Debates in Ancient Judaism, Volume One, Handbuch der Oriemalistik, Leiden Brill 1999. The whole debate is in pages 123-142 and 143-167,40 world" of Bar Ilan University and their fundamentalism which gives in their studies only peaces of unintegrated information. This was perhaps most insulting to Safrai. In his answer he first comments to these remarks. Then he gives an extensive account about the actual dilemma of their mutual different approaches. Safrai tells that Bar Tan boasts in fact of a diverse range of teachers. Some regard himself as a "heretic", while others are convinced that he is a “fundamentalist”. And he adds that "as researchers we should devote our energies to the subject under examination, not to stereotypes". If he has used the term “the Jerusalem study method", this has only been as a matter of “convenience”, following Neusner's terminology. He himself has not studied in a yeshiva. After this he faces the problem of dating the traditions and the reliability of the chain of transmission (ibid. pp. 155-167) In this context Safrai emphasizes that the rabbis undoubtedly prided themselves on the accuracy of their transmission. The Rabbinic literature repeats the obligation to properly anribute the teachings one relates. “The Tannaitic Midrash already presents this dozens of times as a part of the teacher-pupil relationship. The names of the transmitters were however corrupted at times. But these are not necessarily corruptions; they only constitute the possibility of corruptions. The phrase ‘one says - and the other says’ appears more than three: hundred times in the Jerusalem Talmud and the Midrashim. But the Talmud adds also more than twenty times that ‘we do not know who stated one opinion and who stated the other, with an attempt to reconstruct the proper attribution. This leads us to conclude that already in the beit midrash there was an awareness of problems in transmission and great care was taken in this matter." (ibid. pp. 156-157) Safrai concludes this matter saying: “Conversely, what proof is there of general corruption in this system? Why should such a doubt-ridden argument be regarded as ‘scientific’? Can such a41 system-wide failure be proven? - The fears that have been raised of the corruption of the transmission systems are almost totally groundless." "The researcher must be aware of the problem, but the concept of dead-end criticism exits in no realm of academic inquiry. The researcher nmst contend with the problem but cannot refuse to make use of the material." The main thing ix chat “the dictum possesses inner historical logic" (ibid. pp. 158-159) The obvious tension between those who are outside of Israel and might have some linguistic limits is expressed by Safrai as follows: “I did not argue that anyone who did not study in a yeshiva is not qualified to engage in the Rabbinic sources. I merely sought to explain the difficulties entailed in gaining accessibility to these sources? | provided an example of the linguistic difficulty of studying the Rabbinic literature for those fluemt in modern Hebrew. Unfortunately, Neusner took it personally.” - "A critical approach must lead to careful research and not to an excuse in futility - dead-end criticism. Most importantly, fundamentalism, which accepts the sources uncritically, is to be opposed - along the scholar who is fundamentally critical and believes in criticism for its own sake" (ibid. pp. 166-167) 11,4,4 Our methodological approach to Midrash Ruth Only in this point it is possible to draw a summary of the methodological trends in Midrashic studies and to define our own approach to it. The main emphasis of the Midrashic literature is its relation to the Scriptures. When Neusner speaks about “the dual Torah, oral and written”, he presents his view of the Bible and Judaism emphasizing it in Italics: "Judaism cannot be a biblical 49 The main difference between the Israeli schools and Neusner seems to be in the use of Medieval rabbinical sources. With all respect to the profound Western theological education of Neusner in Harvard, Oxford and at JTS in New York, he does not however lean on the Medieval commentaries with their Rashi script — but for those who have studied in "yeshiva" their use is « kind of "daily bread”