Topics in Tanakh Tanach

I will be posting various topics in Tanakh. ( Tanakh  is the academically accepted spelling.  However the majority of Americans use the spelling Tanach, so I will be using that spelling from here on.  Since orientation is important, I will  state mine.  I am orthodox Jewish. I give primacy to the text.  I am not rigidly slavish to Midrash.  The opinions here are mine although I rely on many varied sources .  And I will name them if I can remember them. I think it is key for understanding of any text is to read it through the eyes of its target audience.  For example, the genealogy of Edom given in Breishit meant one thing to the generation that received the Torah and in the centuries that followed- namely which tranjordanian clans were part of Israel and which were the "cousins".  To Chazal( the Rabbis of the Mishneh and Gemara) who were not big fans of Edom(as it was a symbol of Rome) it meant something entirely different- that based on the names that Edom violated laws of incest.  Each interpretation appropriate for its time, but ask yourself what was the Torah's original intent in including the clans of Edom.
It seems too me that if you go through a Jewish day school education or even if you attend your Rabbi's parshah class, you will for the most part be learning Midrash not text.  This probably a good thing.  Midrash is basically an interpretation which forces you to think in a certain direction.  Organized religion has to put the brakes on totally free thinking otherwise it becomes disorganized religion(Sometimes it seems we're pretty close to that).  So if you ask someone where the Torah was given most people would say Sinai rather than Horeb or the plains of Moab which are also correct.  Similarly Israel's time in Egypt is 210 years rather than 430 years.  Moshes father in law is Yitro rather than Hobab. All these answers because we are taught this since childhood.   I think it is a shortcoming of Jewish day school system that the distinction between text and Midrash is so blurry that even high school students cannot tell the difference.