I will open my mouth with a parable;





I will utter dark sayings concerning days of old;





That which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us,





We will not hide from their children, telling to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and His strength, and His wondrous works that He hath done. -PSALM 78:2-4





Midrash Sinim: Hasidic Legend and Commentary on the Torah, author Yong Zhao explores the Scripture in light of Jewish tradition, archaeology, history, linguistics, literature, sociology, mathematics, geology, and so on. He offers thoughtful and intelligent commentaries, for example,





Prior to creating the world, G-d kept the Sabbath.





Adam's first prayer was for a help meet for him and the tree of life was actually an atonement tree.





By means of the flood, G-d destroyed the heaven and the earth, and re-created a new world.





Compared with Joseph, Judah was the real hero. Genesis 38 has a narrative function within the wider Joseph narrative, but far more is involved.





"Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars" (Prov. 9:1). The seven pillars refer to seven books (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Talmud and Zohar) and seven righteous men (Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Amram and Moses).





In Exodus event the aliens converted to Judaism on a large scale.





While many other works on the Scriptures exist solely to relay content to readers, Midrash Sinim is found provocative and intriguing, much interesting food for thought. It unveils numerical codes, deciphers long-term puzzles, solves controversial questions and provides gripping tales of Biblical figures, through which the profundity of the Torah and Jewish traditions shines with even greater brilliance.