Midrashim - forget everything you knew before

In class we brainstormed about what we know about Megillat Esther by filling out a "Think, Puzzle, Explore" chart. In my puzzle section, I wrote "Was the Vashti tail situation actually written in the megillah?". When I presented this question to the class, I got a big sigh of frustration from Mrs. Perl. Mrs. Perl told us that the story of Vashti growing a tail, breaking out in pimples, and thus being unable to attend the party is not written in the megillah but is really a midrash. This set the ball rolling. The class reacted in a chorus of "What?!?" and "My whole life is a lie!!!" and "Why did they teach us that in elementary school?"

We proceeded to launch into a conversation about midrashim in general. The story of Avraham finding G-d through looking at the sun and the stars popped into my mind. I started thinking back to my Bereishit class - had we skipped over that story in the Chumash? Mrs. Perl explained that that too, was a midrash. "But it's such a beautiful story!" I thought. How could it just be "made up"? And what else had I learned in my years of day school that were not actually in the text, but were midrashim? How much do I have confused? 

First, and very importantly, as Mrs. Perl pointed out, midrashim aren't there as a way of confusing us, and they are not just made up stories that popped into some guy's head which he decided to write down. Rather, midrashim serve as a way of teaching us valuable lessons through stories. And not all midrashim are untrue. Some have historical context to them that suggest they have truth to it. Then there's the question of why we are mainly taught Chumash through midrashim if it is only going to confuse us? As children, only looking at the stories in the Chumash through the text would, honestly, not be that exciting. Sometimes the text leaves you hanging, leaves you with questions because only half of the puzzle has been put together. Midrashim paint the picture that the text can't illustrate on its own. It adds an element of excitement and wonder to the Chumash. Don't throw out your Little Midrash Says just yet!

These ideas continued to flow through my mind through this weekend. (I was thinking about Torah outside of school- can you imagine?!) I wanted to explain these fascinating ideas to Hannah Leigh, so I asked her a question: "Hannah Leigh, name me any one thing you know about the Chumash." 

(HLM: Why? Leave me alone. Me: Just do it.) "Okay.. Avraham"

"What about him?"

"He discovered G-d."

"How?"

"He looked at the sky."

I was first amazed that she thought of the exact same example as me, but that's beside the point. I then proceeded to explain everything we had discussed in class to my sister. "Isn't that cool??!!!" I exclaimed. I received something along the lines of "yeah" or "okay". (Love ya, HLM). 

These ideas contained to invade my thoughts as I went to Rabbi Lennon's weekly CJET class Shabbos morning. When I found a chance to jump in, I explained my fascination over the idea of midrashim and the idea that I had been assuming things incorrectly for the longest time. I managed to get him totally off topic, but I think it was worth it. Rabbi Lennon said something that I really liked. He said that we were taught all these midrashim in elementary school, and now our high school selves are faced with a questioning of what we had previously known. He said that what makes Judaism special is that this dilemma will occur throughout our entire lives. We will constantly question what we had learned before as we delve more into Judaism. And that's okay - that's what makes this religion exciting.