What Shall We Do with Myth: History and Midrash in the Retelling of the Exodus Story by an Israeli Writer

In her novella The Miracle Hater (Sone hanissim), Israeli writer Shulamith Hareven presents a reading of the biblical story of the Exodus that comes across as both history and midrash. Hareven's blending of historical and midrashic elements in The Miracle Hater corresponds to what she considered to be the only appropriate way to approach Israeli national myths. She believed that each myth must be submitted to an historical-critical approach that questions the factual nature of the myth and seeks to discern something of the historical reality behind the mythic narrative, but that such a myth must also be developed by means of a midrashic approach that transforms it into a contemporary myth that sheds light on the meaning and significance of contemporary Israeli existence.