Legends and Myths
The midrash contains a number of stories, legends, parables, proverbs, and sentences, with many ethical and halakic maxims. Of the interesting myths may be mentioned that of Remus and Romulus, to whom God sends a she-wolf to suckle (Midr. Teh. to Ps. x. 6; Buber, l.c. p. 45a), and the legend of Emperor Hadrian, who wished to measure the depth of the Adriatic Sea (Midr. Teh. to Ps. xciii. 6; Buber, l.c. p. 208a, b). Among the proverbs which are found only in this midrash may be mentioned the following:
- Walls have ears (Midr. Teh. to Ps. vii. 1; Buber, l.c. p. 31b), i.e., care should be taken in disclosing secrets even in a locked room (comp. Rashi in Ber. 8b, who quotes this proverb).
- Woe to the living who prays to the dead; woe to the hero who has need of the weak; woe to the seeing who asks help of the blind; and woe to the century in which a woman is the leader (Midr. Teh. to Ps. xxii. 20; Buber, l.c. p. 96b).
Many a custom may be traced to this midrash, e.g., that of not drinking any water on the Sabbath before the evening (Ṭur and Shulḥan Aruk, Oraḥ Ḥayyim, 291; comp. Midr. Teh., ed. Buber, p. 51b, note 48).
Read more about this topic: Midrash Tehillim
Famous quotes containing the words legends and/or myths:
“a child’s
Forgotten mornings when he walked with his mother
Through the parables
Of sunlight
And the legends of the green chapels
And the twice-told fields of infancy”
—Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)
“What passes for identity in America is a series of myths about one’s heroic ancestors. It’s astounding to me, for example, that so many people really seem to believe that the country was founded by a band of heroes who wanted to be free. That happens not to be true. What happened was that some people left Europe because they couldn’t stay there any longer and had to go someplace else to make it. They were hungry, they were poor, they were convicts.”
—James Baldwin (1924–1987)