The Shunammite, the Shulamite and the Professor between Midrash and Midrash

This article intends to show the part the Hebrew Bible and the midrashic tools play in the life of modern Israeli society. It describes a debate published in a daily newspaper in 1997. The participants were a lecturer in Talmud who presented and analyzed a midrashic interpretation of 2 Kgs 4.27, a public figure who responded to that interpretation, and a biblical scholar who criticized the latter. While this debate illuminates the biblical story and its different interpretations (derash and peshat), it also shows that interest in the Hebrew Bible and its scholarship remains very much alive to this day.