Here's an oldie but goodie from my blog, for Parashat Vayigash.

I'm generally a p'shat (literal interpretation) kind of person, and tend to take midrashim with a grain, if not a box, of salt--sometimes looking at the text directly makes more sense, and/or reading midrashim takes one so far from the original text that it's barely recognizable.  So my Thursday, December 20, 2007 post, Shim'on, here. Remember me? is about as close to writing a midrash as I've ever gotten.  😀 

 

For an example of how ignoring the midrashim actually clarifies the text, see here.