midrash

American  

[mee-drahsh, mi-drahsh] / miˈdrɑʃ, ˈmɪ drɑʃ /

noun

• midrashim,
  plural
• midrashoth,
  plural
• midrashot,
  plural
• midrashos
  plural

1. an early Jewish interpretation of or commentary on a Biblical text, clarifying or expounding a point of law or developing or illustrating a moral principle.

2. (initial capital letter) a collection of such interpretations or commentaries, especially those written in the first ten centuries a.d.

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midrash British  

/ miˈdraʃ, ˈmɪdræʃ /

noun

1. a homily on a scriptural passage derived by traditional Jewish exegetical methods and consisting usually of embellishment of the scriptural narrative

2. one of a number of collections of such homilies composed between 400 and 1200 _ad

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• midrashic
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• midrashim
  plural
• midrashos
  plural
• midrashot
  plural
• midrashoth
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of midrash

First recorded in 1605–15, midrash is from the Hebrew word midrāsh literally, exposition

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

midrash midrashim

Each book uses a traditional storytelling structure — lyrics, midrash, folk tales — while pushing at the edges of what a form can contain, cramming it with modern human concerns, triumphs and tragedies.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 27, 2023

Sinai, God’s voice, in midrash, was heard communally, but was so overwhelming that only the first letter, aleph, was sounded.

From The New Yorker ● Jan. 1, 2017

This was the meaning of the words in the Passover Haggadah, “We ourselves went out from Egypt,” and the midrash that states, “All generations stood together at Sinai.”

From New York Times ● Jun. 23, 2016

“There’s actually a midrash, a Jewish teaching, that says ‘Why was there gold in the temple in Jerusalem?

From Slate ● Jun. 19, 2013

Jacob’s was inflected with the rhythms of the Hebrew Bible and the beit midrash where the men of his village studied and argued.

From "The Inquisitor's Tale" by Adam Gidwitz

It is closely allied to the midrashim or didactic stories that were a characteristic literary product of later Judaism.

From The Makers and Teachers of Judaism by Charles Foster Kent

As time passed, Posner opened coeducational technical schools for the children and batte midrashim for adults, and soon the homesteads presented the appearance of progressive and flourishing farms.

From The Haskalah Movement in Russia by Jacob S. Raisin

The waves of the Renaissance and the Reformation sweeping over Russian Jewry reached even the sacred precincts of the synagogues, the batte midrashim, and the yeshibot.

From The Haskalah Movement in Russia by Jacob S. Raisin

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