Footnote 1 – Beasts or Bugs?

Midrash (plural midrashim, from the Hebrew for “search, investigate”) is a genre of rabbinic literature that seeks to interpret the biblical text. The direction of midrash often results in elaborate—and sometimes fantastic—expansions of the biblical story. In the present instance, however, it is simply a matter of two rabbis attempting to elucidate the plain meaning of a difficult word in the text.