Open AccessMystical Midrash
Author(s) -
Marianne Schleicher
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
nordisk judaistik
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.113
H-Index - 2
eISSN - 2343-4929
pISSN - 0348-1646
DOI - 10.30752/nj.69604
Subject(s) - midrash , mysticism , torah , judaism , philosophy , literature , kabbalah , jewish studies , theology , art
This article conceives of mystical midrash as the act of interpreting the details of a Torah verse with the purpose of entering a meditative or ecstatic state of union with God, in which the mystic by drawing down God’s insights can explain how the Torah verse mediates the micro-macrocosmic relation between God’s will and the course of history. However, since mystical midrash is such a rare phenomenon in Judaism, I have chosen to highlight the various approaches to the Torah in Jewish mysticism as a background for understanding why only one of these approaches qualifies for the epithet ‘mystical midrash’.