Midrash Temurah

Rabbinic literature
Talmud Readers by Adolf Behrman
Talmudic literature
Tannaitic Mishnah Tosefta Amoraic (Gemara) Jerusalem Talmud Babylonian Talmud Later Minor Tractates
Halakhic Midrash
Exodus Mekhilta of Rabbi Ishmael Mekhilta of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai Leviticus Sifra (Torat Kohanim) Numbers and Deuteronomy Sifre Sifrei Zutta on Numbers (Mekhilta le-Sefer Devarim)
Aggadic Midrash
Tannaitic Seder Olam Rabbah Alphabet of Rabbi Akiva Baraita of the Forty-nine Rules Baraita on the Thirty-two Rules Baraita on the Erection of the Tabernacle 400–600 CE Genesis Rabbah Lamentations Rabbah Pesikta de-Rav Kahana Esther Rabbah Midrash Iyyob Leviticus Rabbah Seder Olam Zutta Tanhuma Megillat Antiochus 650–900 CE Avot of Rabbi Natan Pirkei De-Rabbi Eliezer Tanna Devei Eliyahu Alphabet of Sirach Ecclesiastes Rabbah Shir HaShirim Rabbah Deuteronomy Rabbah Devarim Zutta Pesikta Rabbati Midrash Shmuel Midrash Proverbs Ruth Rabbah Baraita of Samuel Targum Sheni 900–1000 CE Ruth Zuta Eichah Zuta Midrash Tehillim Midrash Hashkem Exodus Rabbah Shir ha-Shirim Zutta Iggeret of Rabbi Sherira Gaon 1000–1200 CE Midrash Tadshe Sefer haYashar Later Yalkut Shimoni Yalkut haMachiri Midrash Jonah Ein Yaakov Midrash HaGadol Numbers Rabbah Smaller midrashim
Targum
Torah Targum Onkelos Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Fragment Targum Targum Neofiti Nevi'im Targum Jonathan Ketuvim Targum Tehillim Targum Mishlei Targum Iyyov Targum to the Five Megillot Targum Sheni to Esther Targum to Chronicles
v t e

Midrash Temurah (Hebrew: מדרש תמורה) is one of the smaller midrashim, consisting of three chapters.

Contents

It develops the view that God in His wisdom and might has created all things on earth as contrasted pairs which mutually supplement each other. Life is known only as opposed to death, and death as opposed to life (comp. Tao Te Ching, chap. 2); and, in like manner, if all were foolish or wise, or rich or poor, it would not be known that they were foolish or wise, or rich or poor. "Therefore God created man and woman, beauty and deformity, fire and water, iron and wood, light and darkness, heat and cold, food and famine, drink and thirst, walking and lameness, sight and blindness, hearing and deafness, sea and land, speech and dumbness, activity and repose, pain and pleasure, joy and sorrow, health and sickness," and the like.

In chapter 3, the antitheses given in Ecclesiastes 3:1 etc. are enumerated and are paralleled with Psalms 136. Chapter 1 contains an interesting anthropological passage. Chapter 2 begins with pseudepigraphical interpretations ascribed by the midrash to Rabbi Ishmael and Rabbi Akiva; the latter appear, consequently, as joint authors of the midrash.

According to A. Jellinek, the work was composed in the first half of the 13th century, since it drew upon Ibn Ezra and upon Galen's dialogue on the soul, even though it is cited by Me'iri and Abraham Abulafia. It was first edited by Azulai (Leghorn, 1786), being appended to the second part of his Shem ha-Gedolim; and it has been reprinted by Jellinek.^[1]

References

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). "Smaller Midrashim". The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. Its bibliography:

• Zunz, G. V. p. 118;
• Rab Pe'alim, pp. 123 et seq.;
• A. Jellinek, B. H. i., pp. xx. et seq.

This page was last edited on 16 April 2021, at 18:04