A 13-session course on why and how midrash happens, with the basic point that Judaism is not the religion of the Torah, but the religion of the Torah as interpreted and renewed by the rabbis. Realistically it took us 18 sessions, due to discussion and the type of material. The course covers midrash in three forms: aggadic, halachic and (a little of) "running midrash", which is the retelling of the Torah story with midrash woven in the text.
Midrash on the rebellious son and the rebellious elder. Rabbis as mitigating Torah's simple reading on the first case, and maintaining the power of the majority on the second, but creating limits to power as well.
The rabbinic take on "an eye for an eye" is actually that the whole world goes blind. So they begin by the assumption that the text cannot be saying what it appears to say. Midrash as the first try out of halachah.