To Decipher

What is the difference between commentary and midrash? If I read a Biblical passage and then read a commentary the writer attempts to make sense of the passage through the lens of individual belief. In the midrash the same personal lens is used but then the writer allows himself the freedom to expand way beyond the words on the page.

I envision the writer of midrash attempting to uncoil the knots of a passage. Each word is rife with possible connotations, stepping off places for the beginning of a story. When I think of Lot's wife turning around and looking back I stop—mired in the past.

Unlike her husband, she needs to take one last look at the place she sat with the other women, where they spoke of sorrows and joys.

Haven't writers, intrigued with the complexity of a biblical character or text, written a modern day story that owes its impetus to that ancient text? Entire books like The Red Tent by Anita Dimant take a small incident and ask what is the full story, the before and after. Thomas Mann's trilogy on Joseph and his brothers explores the biblical Joseph in exquisite detail. Scholars note that Mann encountered midrashic stories in the work of Micha Joseph ben Gorion and that he made use of those stories when writing the trilogy.

And don't commentators often find within each verse a chance to see their particular view of the biblical text. Perhaps that is what makes the text so rich is the multitude of possible lenses for viewing.

Is commentary an explanation or an interpretation? Or are we talking about a critical explanation when we speak of biblical interpretation or exegesis?

Hermeneutics is the branch of theology that deals with exegesis. " Origin: from ancient Greek ( translator or interpreter). Term introduced by Aristotle c360B.C. in his text On Interpretation."

The question posed by some: Was Moses engaged in exegesis when he interpreted the Law for the people at Mt. Sinai?

The latitude for an interpreter widens and narrows depending upon the constraint of belief and the period in history.