Midrash מדרש
The method of interpretation that draws from a verse what it does not say outright—law and story alike.
Midrash comes from darash, "to seek" or "to demand". It is a way of reading that treats the text as exact: no superfluous letters, no accidental repetitions, no indifferent word order. From a redundant word a law is derived; from an odd phrase, a story.
A distinction is drawn between midrash halakha—legal derivation (Mechilta on Shmot, Sifra on Vayikra, Sifrei on Bamidbar and Devarim)—and midrash aggada, which opens meaning through parable, dialogue and imagined scene. Rabbi Yishmael formulated the thirteen rules of interpretation recited in the morning prayers; Rabbi Akiva went further.
Aggadic midrash is free: it may offer three incompatible explanations in a row, because it seeks meaning rather than fact. Reading it literally, warned the Rambam and the Maharal, is a crude error.
On the timeline
Related
Sources
Chazal: Mishnah, Talmud, midrash, Zohar
- Sifra, the Baraita of Rabbi Yishmael — the thirteen hermeneutic principles
- Berachot 10a — an example of the aggadic reading of the psalms
- Sanhedrin 34a — “one verse yields several meanings”
Acharonim and later rabbinic literature
- the Maharal, “Beer HaGolah” — the defence of midrash against the literalists
Basis: Talmud and midrash.