The Path of Righteousness: Selections from the Midrash Tanhuma – Embracing Wisdom, Repentance, and God's Blessings, Part 1 of 2

The Midrash is a collection of texts that interpret the Holy Tanakh, especially the Torah or the first five books of Moses, exploring the deeper meaning of the biblical stories and teachings. Specific midrash texts can also be found throughout the Talmud. The Genesis Rabbah, also known as the B’reshith Rabba, is a midrash undertaken between the 4th and 5th centuries and is a systematic exegesis of the Book of Genesis.

Today, it is an honor to share selections from the “Midrash Tanhuma” in “The Sacred Books and Early Literature of the East, Volume 4: Medieval Hebrew.”

“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 cannot 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. […]

There is no evil that has no remedy, and the remedy for sin is repentance. […] The meaning of the phrase, ‘God made man in his own image,’ is that, like his Maker, a man is to be righteous and upright. Do not argue that evil inclination is innate in you; such argument is fallacious; when you are a child you commit no sin; it is when you grow out of infancy that your evil inclination becomes developed. You have the power of resisting the evil inclination if you feel so inclined, even as you are able to convert the bitter elements of certain foods into very palatable eatables.

Hadrian, King of Rome (Edom), having made great conquests, requested his court in Rome to proclaim him God. In answer to this modest request, one of his ministers said, ‘If your Majesty desires to become God, it will be necessary to quit God's property first, to show your independence of Him. He created Heaven and Earth; get out of these, and you can proclaim yourself God.’ […]”