Midrash Rabbah und Rashi Die sogenannte Midrash Rabbah oder B'reshith Rabba ist eine Sammlung exegetischer Texte (Mi- drash, Pl. Midraschim) zum ersten Buch der Bibel und der Tora (lateinisch Genesis, hebräisch B'reshith). Die Sammlung entstand wahrscheinlich im vierten oder fünften Jahrhundert, enthält aber auch ältere Midraschim und wurde später verschiedentlich ergänzt. Die in der unten wieder- gegebenen Passage erwähnten Gelehrten Jeremiah ben Leazar und Samuel ben Nahman waren be- kannte Exegeten des 3. Jahrhunderts. Rabbi Shelomoh ben Yitshak (Schlomo ben Jizchak), oder Rashi, aus Troyes war einer der einfluss- reichsten mittelalterlichen Exegeten sowohl des Tanach wie auch des Talmud; er gilt als berühm- tester jüdischer Exeget des Mittelalters. Im Mittelalter waren seine Schriften sehr weit verbreitet, auch christliche Theologen wie Nikolaus von Lyra nutzten diese intensiv.
Edition/Übersetung: 1. The Kleinman Edition Midrash Rabbah, 4 Bde., New York 2010; Midrash Rabbah: Genesis, translated by Harry Freedman and Maurice Simon, 2 Bde., London 1939, hier Bd. 1, 54; 2. The book of Genesis. A new English translation of the text, Rashi, and a commentary digest, hg. von A. J. Rosenberg, 3 Bde., New York 1998; auch online verfügbar: http://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/8165/showrashi/true. Literatur: 1. Maryanne Cline Horowitz, The image of God in man – is woman included?, in: Harvard Theological Review 72 (1979), 175–206; Jewish Encyclopedia, 12 Bde., New York 1901-1906, s.v. androgynos;2.Avraham Grossman, The school of literal Jewish exegesis in Northern France, in: Hebrew Bible / Old Testament. The history of its interpretation. Vol. 1: From the beginnings to the Middle Ages (until 1300). Part 2: The Middle Ages, hg. von Magne Sæbø, Göttingen 2000, 321– 370. Link: http://intersex.hypotheses.org/137
1. Midrash Rabba, VIII Bereshit
1. And God said : Let us make man etc. (1, 26). […] R. Jeremiah b. Leazar said: When the Holy One, blessed be He, created Adam, He created him an hermaphrodite [Bi-sexual], for it is said, Male and female created He them and called their name Adam. R. Samuel b. Nahman said : When the lord 5 created Adam He created him double-faced, then he split and made him of two backs, one back on this side and one back on the other side.
2. Rashi (ca. 1040–1105)
“Male and female He created them”: Yet further Scripture states: “And He took one of his ribs, etc.” The Midrash Aggadah explains that He 10 originally created him with two faces, and after- wards, He divided him. The simple meaning of the verse is that here Scripture informs you that they were both created on the sixth [day], but it does not explain to you how they were created, 15 and it explains [that] to you elsewhere.