Midrash Temurah (
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
: 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
The ''Tao Te Ching'' (, ; ) is a Chinese classic text written around 400 BC and traditionally credited to the sage Laozi, though the text's authorship, date of composition and date of compilation are debated. The oldest excavated portion d ...
'', 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
Ecclesiastes (; hbo, קֹהֶלֶת, Qōheleṯ, grc, Ἐκκλησιαστής, Ekklēsiastēs) is one of the Ketuvim ("Writings") of the Hebrew Bible and part of the Wisdom literature of the Christian Old Testament. The title commonly use ...
3:1 etc. are enumerated and are paralleled with
Psalms
The Book of Psalms ( or ; he, תְּהִלִּים, , lit. "praises"), also known as the Psalms, or the Psalter, is the first book of the ("Writings"), the third section of the Tanakh, and a book of the Old Testament. The title is derived ...
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
Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus ( el, Κλαύδιος Γαληνός; September 129 – c. AD 216), often Anglicized as Galen () or Galen of Pergamon, was a Greek physician, surgeon and philosopher in the Roman Empire. Considered to be one of ...
'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.
[''B. H.'' i. 106-114]
References
Its bibliography:
*
Zunz Zunz ( he, צוּנְץ, yi, צונץ) is a Yiddish surname:
* (1874–1939), Belgian pharmacologist
* Sir Gerhard Jack Zunz (1923–2018), British civil engineer
* Leopold Zunz (Yom Tov Lipmann Tzuntz) (1794–1886), German Reform rabbi an ...
, G. V. p. 118;
*Rab Pe'alim, pp. 123 et seq.;
*
A. Jellinek, B. H. i., pp. xx. et seq.
{{Authority control
Smaller midrashim