Abstract
Jeffrey S Shoulson University of Miami WHEN CRITICS REFER TO Milton as a Hebraic writer, they frequently cite the God of Paradise Lost as prime example of the poet's ongoing fascination with the Jewish tradition that gave birth to Christianity. Collections of rabbinical homilies and pronouncements spanning hundreds of years, Midrash Aggadah consists of longer and shorter narratives and textual amplifications that do not have direct bearing on prescribed normative behavior, but which do concern themselves with finding ways to apply the lessons of Scripture to contemporary life. The latter sat utterly confused [tohe u-vohe], and said 'We were bought for the same price, yet why is this one fed by the public treasury, while I have to work for my food?' Similarly, the land sat utterly confused [tohe u-vohe], saying, 'The upper world and the lower world were created simultaneously, yet the upper world is nourished by the splendor of God's presence, while the lower creatures will not eat unless they work."' R. Yehudah the son of R. Simon said, "It is like a king who purchased two 4. Noting that "nothing was more characteristic of the Roman emperorship than the imperial cult, a fact that did not escape the Rabbis," Stern goes on to describe how the rabbis "enthusiastically exploited the emperor as a symbolic figure for God; they did not even hesitate to borrow from the imperial cult some of its most singularly idolatrous features in order to use them as symbols for various subjects."