Electronic Resources for the Study of Midrash
Compiled for RS-744: Topics in Rabbinic Judaism: Midrash, A. Y. Reed, McMaster University, 2004
(* marks resources available only from McMaster and other subscribing institutions)
- Introductions and bibliographies on-line
- Midrash Bibliography - an extensive, multi-part bibliography, including secondary works as well as texts and translations, compiled by faculty of Hebrew Union College
- "The Goy’s Guide To The Midrashim," compiled by The Seminar on Jewish Apocalyptic, Harvard Divinity School, Fall 1988, under the Supervision of Professor Michael E. Stone. Edited by K. William Whitney, Jr.
- Jewish Language Research Site: Hebrew - Summary of the history of the Hebrew language in its biblical and Rabbinic forms as well as modern.
- Hebrew Alphabet - A handy chart of letters in block-letters and cursive. See also Hebrew Script for block-letters, cursive, and Rashi script.
- Hebrew Abbreviations
- Judaism 101: Hebrew Alphabet - Includes a handy chart of Hebrew numbers.
- Research Resources
- RAMBI: Index of Articles in Jewish Studies - This is an invaluable tool for research in Rabbinics and Jewish Studies, a searchable databases of articles (from journals as well as collected volumes) in these and cognate fields. Some links to on-line texts of articles are also included, although less so than ATLAS and JSTOR (on which see below).
- *ATLAS (ATLA religion database with ATLASerial) - Searchable database of articles, books, and reviews in the field of Religious studies, including on-line texts of many articles. It's bit weak on Jewish Studies in general and Rabbinics in particular, such that it needs to be supplemented with RAMBI. However, it does include key journals (esp. Hebrew Union College Annual) and is invaluable in a general sense. Moreover, this is the ideal place to download reviews of books assigned for presentation. Relevant on-line articles, for our purposes, include:
- Ronald Brown, "Midrashim as oral traditions,"HUCA 47 (1976) 181-189.
- Howard Eilberg-Schwartz, "Who's kidding whom: A serious reading of rabbinic word plays,"JAAR 55 (1987) 765-788.
- Jack Lightstone, “Form as meaning in halakic midrash: A programmatic statement,” Semeia 27 (1983) 23-35.
- Joseph Heinemann, “Profile of a Midrash: The Art of Composition in Leviticus Rabbah,” JAAR 39 (1971) 141-150.
- W. Sibley Towner, "Hermeneutical systems of Hillel and the Tannaim : a fresh look," HUCA 53 (1982) 101-135.
- Jacob Zallel Lauterbach, "The arrangement and the division of the Mekilta," HUCA 1 (1924) 427-466.
- Reuven Hammer, "Section 38 of Sifre Deuteronomy: An example of the use of independent sources to create a literary unit," HUCA, 50 (1979) 165-178.
- Marc Hirshman,"The Greek Fathers and the aggada on Ecclesiastes: Formats of exegesis in late antiquity," HUCA 59 (1988) 137-165.
- *JSTOR - A vast database of on-line articles in the Humanities. Although there is no category explicitly dedicated to Jewish Studies quite yet, relevant sources can be found by searching with boxes checked for "History," "Language and Literature," and "Middle Eastern Studies." On-line articles of interest include:
- Daniel Boyarin, "On the Status of the Tannaitic Midrashim," Journal of the American Oriental Society 112 (1992) 455-465. [Review article on Jacob Neusner, The Canonical History of Ideas, The Place of the So-Called Tannaite Midrashim: Mekhilta Attributed to R. Ishmael, Sifra, Sifre to Numbers, and Sifre to Deuteronomy]
- Daniel Boyarin, "Analogy vs. Anomaly in Midrashic Hermeneutic: Tractates Wayyassa and Amaleq in the Mekilta," Journal of the American Oriental Society,, 106 (1986) 659-666.
- Daniel Boyarin, "Language Inscribed by History on the Bodies of Living Beings: Midrash and Martyrdom,"Representations 25. (1989) 139-151.
- On-line journals (with selected articles of interest)
- *Prooftexts
- David Stern, "Vayikra Rabbah and My Life in Midrash," Prooftexts 21 (2001) 23-38.
- Dan Ben-Amos, "Lamentations Rabbah: Trauma, Dreams, and Riddles," Prooftexts 21 (2001) 399-409 - Review of Galit Hasan-Rokem, Web of Life: Folklore and Midrash in
Rabbinic Literature, trans. Batya Stein (Stanford: Stanford UP, 2000)
- *AJS Review
- *Journal for the Study of Judaism in the Persian, Hellenistic, and Roman Periods
- *Dead Sea Discoveries
- Paul Mandel, “Midrashic Exegesis and its Precedents in the Dead Sea Scrolls,” DSD 8 (2001) 149-168
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Moshe J. Bernstein, "Angels at the Aqedah: A Study in the Development of a Midrashic Motif," DSD 7 (2000) 263–291
- *Shofar
- *Nashim: A journal of Jewish women's studies & gender issues
- Jewish Studies: An Internet Journal
- Yaakov Elman, "The Rebirth of Omnisignificant Biblical Exegesis in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries," JSIJ 2 (2003) 199-249.
- Monographs and reference books on-line
- Marcus Jastrow, A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic literature. Volume 1 - Aleph to Caf and VOLUME 2 - Lamed to Tet (London, 1903)
- *Marc Hirshman, A Rivalry of Genius: Jewish and Christian Biblical Interpretation in Late Antiquity (Albany: SUNY Press, 1996)
- Louis Ginzberg, The legends of the Jews, translated from the German manuscript by Henrietta Szold. 7 vols. (Philadelphia: Jewish publication society of America, 1909-38).
- *Louis Jacobs, A concise companion to the Jewish religion (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1999).
- Jewish Encyclopedia - This website contains the complete contents of the 12-volume Jewish Encyclopedia, which was originally published between 1901-1906.
- *Shaye J.D. Cohen, The beginnings of Jewishness: Boundaries, varieties, uncertainties (Berkeley : University of California Press, 1999)
- *José Ignacio Cabezón, ed., Scholasticism: Cross-cultural and comparative perspectives (Albany: SUNY Press, 1998).
- *Miriam B. Peskowitz, Spinning fantasies: Rabbis, gender, and history, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997).