The rabbis’ great achievement after the destruction of the Second Temple (70 CE) and the failed Bar Kokhva rebellion (132 CE) was to adapt Judaism so that it was no longer tied to the Temple and now based its existence on portable elements, such as the Torah, prayer, and halakha, among other things. The rabbis sought to ensure that people everywhere could learn about Judaism in a simple way, for which they wrote midrashim, short writings that sought to explain religious rules (Midrash Halakha) or non-normative topics (Midrash Agadah).

The Agadah, which in Hebrew means to relate, covers a wide range of topics. They range from interpretations of biblical texts, legends that do not appear in the Bible, stories developed about biblical characters and their achievements, sermons that were given in ancient synagogues, fragments of popular folklore, anecdotes about the lives of the wise men and their times, and all rabbinic thought in general, such as their ideas about God, creation, the reason for the commandments, etc., in addition to popular topics about magic, angels, demons, folk medicine, astrology, and others.

The rabbis wrote these midrashim from the late Second Temple period until after the 11th century CE, and they can be found in a large number of texts, such as the Midrash Tanhuma, written between the 7th and 10th centuries CE, which in its section Pekudei 3 tells us: “Before a human being begins to form in his mother’s womb, God decrees what he will ultimately become: male or female, weak or strong, poor or rich, short or tall, lanky or handsome, skinny or fat, humble or daring… But God does not decide whether a person will be righteous or wicked, a matter that He leaves to man. Then He orders the angel in charge of souls in Paradise to bring Him a particular soul and asks it to enter the drop of semen the angel holds in his hand. The soul resists, saying… Why do you want me, who am pure and holy, to enter that drop?” fetid? God answers: The world I am about to bring you into will be more beautiful than the one in which you have lived. The soul enters the drop and the angel leads it to the mother’s womb. Once inside, the angel lights a lamp so that the new being can see the world from one end to the other. The angel then leads her to the Garden of Eden, where he shows her the righteous seated in glory with crowns on their heads. Do you know who they are, the angel asks? No, my lord. In the beginning, all these you see were formed like you in the mother’s womb. Then they went out into the world and fulfilled the precepts of the Torah, which is why they earned the merit of being here. Just so you know, said the angel, in the end you too will leave this world.”

In this small section alone (the Midrash is much longer) we find a wealth of concepts and values ​​that, as Maimonides said, must be approached metaphorically, not literally. This narrative is not found in the Bible. It comes from the creativity of one of our sages. They were interested in understanding all facets of the world and, in the case of this midrash, explaining what it takes to be a righteous man. Studying midrashim is embarking on an extraordinary journey that leads us to the profound values ​​of Judaism.

By Marcos Gojman

Bibliography: Sefer Ha Aggadah, by Chaim Nachman Bialik and Yehoshua Hana Ravnitzky, and other sources.