Modern Midrash

In Jewish and Muslim interpretation, Hagar and Sarah represent the matriarchs of Abraham’s blessed heirs, the Arabs and the Jews. In classical sources, the break between the two women is never mended, but feminist readers of the Bible, Jewish and Muslim, have used midrash-style poetry to rewrite the ending of their story. Part of this endeavor is the hope of rewriting the contemporary conflict and reconciling between their putative descendants.

A struggling ex-slave and single mother labors against all odds to raise her son and shield him from the prejudices of the surrounding community.

The megillah emphasizes the ongoing obligation to observe Purim, and Maimonides asserts that it will endure even into the messianic age. Yet many modern Jewish thinkers have questioned this holiday’s continued relevance. What value does Purim continue to hold?

The Seder as a Night of Hermeneutic Freedom: Introducing the Four Readers of the Haggadah‍

Jewish tradition seems to have difficulty with the relationship between fathers and sons. Hence the last verses of Malachi, a coda to the Nevi’im section of Tanakh, imagines ultimate redemption through a metaphor of father-son reconciliation, with the fire and brimstone prophet Elijah its unlikely, antagonistic harbinger. Leave it to the poet Yehuda Amichai to step in and offer a counter-model to rescue the metaphor.

The biblical portrait of Miriam can leave the feminist reader with a lingering bitterness but a literary rereading may help highlight her prophetic leadership role.