Smaller midrashim

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Rabbinic Literature
Talmudic literature Mishnah • Tosefta Jerusalem Talmud • Babylonian Talmud Minor tractates Halakhic Midrash Mekhilta de-Rabbi Yishmael (Exodus) Mekhilta de-Rabbi Shimon (Exodus) Sifra (Leviticus) Sifre (Numbers & Deuteronomy) Sifre Zutta (Numbers) Mekhilta le-Sefer Devarim (Deuteronomy) Baraita of Rabbi Ishmael Aggadic Midrash —— Tannaitic —— Seder Olam Rabbah Alphabet of Akiba ben Joseph Baraita of the Forty-nine Rules Baraita on the Thirty-two Rules Baraita on Tabernacle Construction —— 400–600 —— Genesis Rabbah • Eichah Rabbah Pesikta de-Rav Kahana Esther Rabbah • Midrash Iyyov Leviticus Rabbah • Seder Olam Zutta Midrash Tanhuma • Megillat Antiochus —— 650–900 —— Avot of Rabbi Natan Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer Tanna Devei Eliyahu Alphabet of Ben-Sira Kohelet Rabbah • Canticles Rabbah Devarim Rabbah • Devarim Zutta Pesikta Rabbati • Midrash Samuel Midrash Proverbs • Ruth Rabbah Baraita of Samuel • Targum sheni —— 900–1000 —— Ruth Zuta • Eichah Zuta Midrash Tehillim • Midrash Hashkem Exodus Rabbah • Canticles Zutta —— 1000–1200 —— Midrash Tadshe • Sefer ha-Yashar —— Later —— Yalkut Shimoni • Yalkut Makiri Midrash Jonah • Ein Yaakov Midrash ha-Gadol • Numbers Rabbah Smaller midrashim Rabbinic Targum —— Torah —— Targum Onkelos Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Fragment Targum • Targum Neofiti —— Nevi'im —— Targum Jonathan —— Ketuvim —— Targum Tehillim • Targum Mishlei Targum Iyyov Targum to the Five Megillot Targum Sheni to Esther Targum to Chronicles

A number of midrashim exist which are smaller in size, and generally later in date, than those dealt with in the articles Midrash Haggadah and Midrash Halakah. Despite their late date, some of these works preserve material from the Apocrypha and Philo of Alexandria. These small works, were in turn used by later larger works, such as Sefer haYashar (midrash) and Zohar^{[citation needed]}. Important editors and researchers of this material include Abraham ben Elijah of Vilna, Adolf Jellinek, and Solomon Aaron Wertheimer.

The chief of these are:

[edit] Midrash Abba Gorion

[edit] Midrash Abkir

[edit] Midrash Al Yithallel

[edit] Midrash Aseret ha-Dibrot

[edit] Dibre ha-Yamim shel Mosheh

[edit] Midrash Eleh Ezkerah

[edit] Midrash 'Eser Galiyyot

[edit] Midrash Esfah

[edit] Midrash Hallel. See Midrash Psalms

[edit] Midrash Leku Nerannena

[edit] Midrash Ma'aseh Torah

[edit] Midrash Peṭirat Aharon

[edit] Midrash Peṭirat Mosheh

[edit] Midrash Ṭa'ame Ḥaserot we-Yeterot

[edit] Midrash Tadshe (called also Baraita de-Rabbi Pineḥas b. Ya'ir)

[edit] Midrash Temurah (called by Me'iri Midrash Temurot)

[edit] Midrash Wa-Yekullu

[edit] Midrash Wayissa'u

[edit] Midrash Wayosha'

[edit] Survey of Collections

The more recent (circa 1900) collections of small midrashim referred to above and in Midrash Haggadah are the following:

A. Jellinek, B. H. parts i.-iv., Leipsic, 1853-57; parts v.-vi., Vienna, 1873-78;
Ḥayyim M. Horowitz, Agadat Agadot, etc., Berlin, 1881;
idem, Bet 'Eḳed ha-Agadot: Bibliotheca Haggadica, 2 parts, Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1881;
idem, Kebod Ḥuppah, ib. 1888;
idem, Tosefta Attiḳta: Uralte Tosefta's, i.-v., ib. 1889-90;
S. A. Wertheimer, Batte Midrashot, i.-iv., Jerusalem, 1893-97;
idem, Leḳeṭ Midrashim, ib. 1903;
L. Grünhut, Sefer ha-Liḳḳuṭim, Sammlung Aelterer Midraschim. etc., i-vi., ib. 1898-1903; comp. also Abraham Wilna, Rab Pe'alim, ed. S. Chones, pp. 133 et seq., H. L. Strack, in Herzog-Hauck, Real-Encyc. s.v. "Midrasch."

[edit] Other small midrashim and mystical literature

In these collections, especially in A. Jellinek's Bet ha-Midrash, there are many small midrashim, either edited there for the first time or reprinted, as well as a number of works under other names, a discussion of which belongs rather to an article on mystic literature. The following treatises, however, may be mentioned here, the titles being given for the most part according to Jellinek:

Agadat Mashiaḥ (Haggadah of the Messiah; ib. iii. 141 et seq.).
Baraita Ma'ase Bereshit (in S. Chones' addenda to Abraham Wilna's Rab Pe'alim, pp. 47 et seq.); also Seder Rabbah de-Bereshit (in Wertheimer, l.c. i. 1-31).
Gan 'Eden we-Gehinnom (Paradise and Hell; ib. v. 42 et seq.).
Ma'aseh R. Yehoshua' b. Levi (History of R. Joshua b. Levi; ib. ii. 48 et seq.).
Midrash Konen (in B. H. ii. 23-39);
Be-Ḥokmah Yasad (Divine Wisdom; ib. v. 63-69)
Masseket Gehinnom (Tractate of Gehenna; ib. i. 147-149)
Milḥamot ha-Mashiaḥ (War of the Messiah; ib. vi. 117 et seq.)
Misterot R. Shim'on b. Yoḥai (Mysteries of R. Simeon b. Yoḥai; ib. iii. 78 et seq.).
Otiyot de-Rabbi Aḳiba (Alphabetical Midrash of R. Akiba; first and second recensions in B. H. iii. 12-64; comp. ib. v. 31-33; vi., p. xl.; Wertheimer, l.c. ii. 23 et seq.)
Hekalot Rabbati (Great Hekalot; in B. H. iii. 83-108);
Masseket Hekalot (Tractate Hekalot; ib. ii. 40-47; comp. also ib. i. 58 et seq., iii. 161 et seq., vi. 109 et seq.);
Baraita Ma'ase Merkabah (in Wertheimer, l.c. ii. 15-25).
Otiyot Mashiaḥ (Signs of the Messiah; ib. ii. 58-63).
Pirḳe Eliyahu (Sections Concerning the Messiah; ib. iii. 68 et seq.).
Seder Gan 'Eden (Description of Paradise; ib. ii. 52 et seq.; second recension, ib. iii. 131-140; additions, ib. 194-198).
Sefer Eliyahu (Apocalypse of Elijah; ib. iii. 65 et seq.).
Sefer Zerubbabel (Book of Zerubbabel; ib. ii. 54-57; comp. also Wertheimer, l.c. ii. 25 et seq., 29 et seq.).

This article incorporates text from the 1901–1906 Jewish Encyclopedia, a publication now in the public domain.

[edit] Bibliography

Jacob Elbaum. The Hebrew Narrative Anthology in the Middle Ages Prooftexts (2004) pp. 176ff.

[edit] External links

Jewish Encyclopedia article for Smaller Midrashim