Christian Midrash

The practice of civil and responsible speech characteristic of ancient and modern midrashim (i.e., the Jewish Midrash Tanhuma) provides a good template for religious people wishing to participate in a discourse that both reveals God’s purpose and provides care for a “community of speakers.”

The basic definition of this practice is found in a primer for understanding midrash, “Midrash is an interpretive act, seeking the answers to religious questions (both practical and theological) by plumbing the meaning of the words of the Torah. (In the Bible, the root d-r-sh is used to mean inquiring into any matter, including occasionally to seek out God’s word.) Midrash responds to contemporary problems and crafts new stories, making connections between new Jewish realities and the unchanging biblical text.” (see, http://www.myjewishlearning.com/texts/Midrash/PrimerMidrash.htm?GL=true) (for an excellent midrash bibliography see, http://huc.edu/midrash/).

Put more poetically by an early twentieth century scholar, “The Torah is full of holy fire; it was written with a black fire upon a white fire. The Torah has meekness as its footgear, and the fear of God as its crown. Hence Moses was the proper person through whose hands it should be delivered; he was meek, and with the fear of the Lord he was crowned. You can not expect to occupy yourself with the study of the Torah in the future world and receive the reward for so doing in this world; you are meant to make the Torah your own in this life, and to look for reward in the life to come.” (see, http://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/tmm/index.htm)

Reading Joan Chittister’s recent article has prompted me to pray into and regard the manner of my own and other’s speech on this site. I want to share my understanding.

Perhaps you, like me, have been relatively unaware of the responsibility we carry as we participate in a variety of on-line discourse concerning the sacred lives of each other and the way that our speech and actions form a kind of “Christian midrash.” We are so very young in the experience of “virtual chat” that I believe we misunderstand the seriousness of what might otherwise seem an anonymous and casual "speech play." This is not only an artifact of “web-talk” but, as Sr. Joan points out, endemic to our society. When clever insults and trivial point-scoring become part of an on-line banter, our “midrashim” dishonors each other and, dare I say, the One to whom we wish to honor above all else.

Even in the heat of controversy and dispute, Rabbinical discourse has, over the millennia, honed a practice of civil speech that might be a template for our own youthful dialogue, as we learn to use the speech-space of the internet more responsibly.

For example, in preparing my sermon for this coming Sunday, I am sensitive to the midrash regarding Ruth and the way in which these interpretive teachings grapple with the difficult fact (for Jews) that the line of David had been initiated by the ‘marriage’ of a Jewish and non-Jewish couple [which ‘scandal’ makes pale, the contemporary unease over women in the priesthood and the inclusion of homosexual people in the clergy!) (see, http://www.propheticmidrash.com/ for an explanation of the twelve women prophets of the Hebrew Scripture; and http://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/tmm/index.htm for Samuel Rapaport's 1907 midrash on Ruth.)

So I write this to implore you, Sisters and Brothers-in-Christ, to be careful what you say and HOW you say it when you speak in the name of God about matters of faith. One of the great midrash lessons is the simple dictum that “when you provoke a person to sin, this is akin to taking her life.”
Let us take care to provoke each other to love rather than anger; to tolerance rather than judgment; to humility rather than scorn.