 |
According To The Midrash Rabbah
|
Retired Rabbi's Magnum Opus Debuts Many years ago, at his Montreal synagogue, Rabbi Wilfred Shuchat encountered an older rabbi whose habit was to study the Talmud each day. The man told Shuchat, "I've done it for 50 years, and I recommend you do the same." Choose what you want, the elder rabbi said--any type of rabbinic text. Shuchat followed his advice, opting to work on the Midrash Rabbah, an ancient biblical commentary on the five books of Moses. Shuchat started writing down his analysis. That was in 1973. Now Devora Publishing has released the first piece from Shuchat's nearly 30 years of work on the text, The Creation According To The Midrash Rabbah . The book has 472 pages, including the original Hebrew version of the Midrash, the English translation and Shuchat's commentary. And that's only for the creation story: the first chapter of Genesis, and a couple of verses into the second, where God rests. The publisher considers this monumental work a breakthrough Jewish book, and is promoting it as an essential guide to life. Yaacov Peterseil, managing editor for Devora and its parent, Pitspopany Press, said the book brings lofty material down to a more earthly level, and makes a venerable but difficult text accessible and relevant to a modern reader with little knowledge of the text, Jewish or not. "I think it's got a very wide appeal. Creation and Bible study is in now, which is really a wonderful thing," Peterseil told BookLine from his home in Jerusalem. Peterseil also writes books, mostly for young adults, including his Gang of Four detective series for Pitspopany. Rabbi Shuchat retired in 1990 after 47 years leading Montreal's Shaar HaShomayim Synagogue, which is Canada's second oldest Jewish congregation. He also wrote "The Gate of Heaven" (McGill-Queens University Press, 2000), a history of the 156-year-old congregation. By telephone from Montreal, where he is rabbi emeritus at the synagogue and keeps daily office hours, he mildly joked that his Midrash Rabbah book has been "festering for a long time." "You have to sit on the Midrash the way a hen sits on eggs. It takes a while. It doesn't come easy," Shuchat said. Some scholars think the Midrash Rabbah was written as early as the Second Century, but Shuchat believes it had to have been a bit later. He said the Talmud covers legal matter mainly and reaches conclusions, while the Midrash concerns non-legal folk matters and documents thought, with its writers disagreeing among themselves, "and therefore your imagination can move in many directions." Shuchat found it impossible to simultaneously serve his congregation, which has 1,700 families, and write books. But he persisted in his study of the Midrash and in his note taking, and as the years passed and technology evolved, he moved from typewriter to computer. About five years ago, he found he had a manuscript. Another Judaica publisher became interested, had the book edited, and made plans to publish it, Shuchat said, but that publisher had to withdraw because of financial problems. "That was a low point," Shuchat said. "After all this work…" His son lives in Jerusalem and became aware of editor Peterseil and of Pitspopany, which is American-owned. Pitspopany publishes mostly for children and young adults, and its Devora imprint is for adults. "He knew we were looking for interesting material. He did not know that what he was holding and what we were looking for were one and the same," said Peterseil, who had studied the Midrash himself. "I really did a double-take when I saw the manuscript." Peterseil will spend November, which is Jewish Book Month, traveling Canada and the United States to help promote the book, primarily to Jewish bookstores. On November 14, Shuchat's congregation will hold its own book launch. Rabbi Shuchat is working on his next Midrash Rabbah book, which will cover the second chapter of Genesis. "The Almighty will decide how far I go," he said. "I'm halfway through the next volume, but it will take a long time." Juli Cragg Hilliard |
|
Rabbi Wilfred Shuchat, who has taught Midrash to hundreds of people at Congregation Shaar Hashomayim over a career that has spanned more than 56 years, has just published what may be rightfully be called his magnum opus. The Creation According To The Midrash Rabbah, Devora Publishing, is a volume that makes the Midrash accessible to both laypeople and clergy. It combines the original Hebrew text, a comprehensive translation in contemporary English, a summary of traditional commentaries from divergent texts and Rabbi Shuchat's own "seed thoughts," or reinterpretations. The 82-year-old rabbi, who is now rabbi emeritus of his synagogue, can count among his former students Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthamer and real estate and publishing magnate Mortimer Zuckerman. Former student Zuckerman, editor-in-chief of U.S. News & World Report and chair of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, has provided this endorsement of the book: "This is a brilliant and humane book that speaks to new generations that seek Judaism to add meaning and significance to their lives. If, as the author, Rabbi Shuchat says, 'The spiritual appetite grows with spiritual eating' then this book is a feast that will add spiritual weight to its readers." Rabbi Shuchat says he became interested in Midrash very early in his rabbinic career, which began after his ordination form the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1945. About 20 years ago, he began to look at the Midrash in a systematic way, studying the Midrash Rabbah on a daily basis. "The experience with Midrash has been for me the greatest form of spiritual enjoyment," he says. But he realized that, to be broadly accessible, Midrash requires much more than translation. As he says in the introduction, it "requires rendering to that the arguments flow gently and meaningfully from one sage to another," as well as interpretation. Midrash is as relevant to Jews today as it was at the time it was written, he says. "The rabbis tried to show that Judaism spoke to their generation. That is how I understand Midrash. We should try to do the same thing for ourselves." He says his "seed thoughts," after every section of Midrash, are an attempt to do this. Most midrashic passages are somewhat of a riddle, Rabbi Shuchat says. They usually contain an implied question, to which the interpretation responds. A verse is then citied that contains the answer, but normally the Midrash does not proceed immediately there. "Having brought forward the verse, it will then, en passent, draw certain conclusions from it, or certain teaching values, that may or may not be related to the immediate question," the Rabbi says. "Only after this is done does the Midrash then conclude with the answer to the question. Rabbi Shuchat says Midrash is an important element of Jewish teaching because it is less interested in solving the "problem" of the biblical text and more interested in solving the problem of life. Even the sometimes "fanciful flights" the Midrash takes in interpreting the Bible are a legitimate part of study and, more importantly, a valid approach in the search for meaning in life, Rabbi Shuchat says. The Creation According To The Midrash Rabbah is dedicated to the memory of Rabbi Shuchat's daughter Elizabeth Shuchat Schwartz, a rebbitzen and "lover of the Torah" who died three years ago.
Janice Arnold |
|