The View from Jacob's Ladder: One Hundred Midrashim

In Judaism, Midrash originally referred to a collection of rabbinic commentaries on the Hebrew Bible written between A.D. 400 and 1200. In practice, however, midrash refers to any narrative or poetic commentary on any text from the Hebrew Bible. Thus, poet Curzon (Modern Poems on the Bible, 1994) here produces his own set of midrashim, or brief commentaries, on selected biblical texts. In addition, Curzon offers commentaries on selections from the Talmud and the Midrash. The selections are so arranged that Curzon's midrashim appear on pages facing selections from the Hebrew texts. For example, Curzon comments on Job 1:8-12, the passage in which Satan asks God's permission to afflict Job, that ""it was curiosity that prompted God to let Satan experiment on Job and his family. After all, God's omniscience has its limits."" Curzon's pithy, almost aphoristic, midrashim are lyrical attempts to penetrate the mysterious and often perplexing world of biblical literature. (Sept.)