Why one ancient rabbi argued the evil impulse is very good
Genesis ends the sixth day with God finding creation very good. A rabbinic reading seized on one small word, and, to argue that the verse praises the evil impulse too: without it, nobody would build a house, marry or raise children. That habit of mining every letter for meaning is called midrash.
The term comes from the Hebrew root darash, to seek or enquire, and means study or interpretation. It can name a method, a single interpretation, or a whole work, and capitalised it often refers to rabbinic compilations produced between 400 and 1200 CE. Since the early Middle Ages it has been contrasted with peshat, the plain reading that aims at a verse's original sense. The word itself appears twice in the Hebrew Bible, in Chronicles, where translators render it as story, book or writing and its exact meaning remains uncertain.
Midrash treats apparent oddities as invitations. A seemingly redundant word or letter, a strange order of events, or two parallel versions of a story can open into pages of philosophical discussion. The scholar Wilda Gafney describes rabbinic readings as crafting new interpretations that stand beside older ones rather than replacing them, sometimes answering the questions they raise and sometimes leaving them to the reader. According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, the method peaked in the rival schools of Rabbi Ishmael, who reasoned by logic and analogy, and Rabbi Akiva, who assumed every apparently superfluous letter taught something hidden.
Two broad streams exist. Halakhic midrash derives or supports religious law, as in the Mekhilta of Rabbi Ishmael, a commentary on the legal chapters of Exodus finalised around the 3rd or 4th century. Interestingly, some verses it quotes differ from the standard Masoretic text and match the Septuagint or Samaritan Torah, showing the biblical wording was not yet fixed. Aggadic midrash roams more freely across ethics, legend, angels, the messiah and parables, sometimes hiding mystical teachings beneath simple lessons.
Scholars still argue over boundaries. Gary Porton's widely quoted 1981 definition covers any literature built around citing an authoritative sacred text, while others restrict the word to rabbinic writing. Some apply it to Qumran texts and parts of the New Testament, and Jacob Neusner's categories of paraphrase, prophecy and allegory were later echoed in Christian reading of scripture, as when the Song of Songs is read as love between God and his people.
Source: Midrash
