Midrash Rabbah English Pdf

[Nella Mcnairy]

Thusthe Venice edition of 1545, in which the midrashim to the Pentateuch and to the Five Scrolls were for the first time printed together, has on the title-page of the first part the words "Midrash Rabbot 'al Hamishah Humshei Torah" (Midrash Rabbah to the Five Books of the Torah), and on that of the second part "Midrash Hamesh Megillot Rabbeta" (Midrash Rabbah of the Five Megillot). The editio princeps of the midrashim to the Pentateuch (Constantinople, 1512) begins with the words "Be-shem El atchil Bereshit Rabba" (In the name of God I shall begin Bereshit Rabbah), and the title of the editio princeps of the midrashim to the megillot (Pesaro, 1519) reads "Midrash Hamesh Megillot" (Midrash of the Five Megillot). Still more inexact and misleading is the term "Midrash Rabbah to the Five Books of the Pentateuch and the Five Megillot," as found on the title-page of the two parts in the much-used Vilna edition. After Zunz, it is not necessary to point out that the Midrash Rabbah consists of 10 entirely different midrashim.

On the manuscript of the Bereshit Rabbah and some of the other rabbot to the Pentateuch, see Theodor.[1] To these must be added the manuscript of Bereshit Rabbah in MSS. Orient. 40, No. 32, in the Landesbibliothek in Stuttgart. According to Solomon Schechter, there are not even six manuscripts of the rabbot to the Pentateuch and the Five Megillot in existence.[2]

The largest volumes of midrash aggadah are often referred to collectively as Midrash Rabbah. This name is actually a misnomer, as this group of texts comprises 10 unrelated collections, compiled over the course of eight or more centuries. Each volume comments on one of the five books of the Torah (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy) or of the five Megillot (Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes and Esther).

Devarim (Deuteronomy) Rabbah is made up of 27 homilies, corresponding to the divisions of the book according to the ancient triennial reading cycle. Scholars have dated this text as early as 450 CE and as late as 800 CE. Each homily in Devarim Rabbah addresses a halakhic (legal) question and each generally concludes with a statement about redemption.

The Rabbah midrashim on the books of Exodus and Numbers were probably compiled in the early medieval period, though each also includes older material and, in some cases, the vestiges of a previously-edited work of midrash.

In keeping with the themes of the book of Eicha, which describes the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BCE, Eicha Rabbah (fifth century) offers a series of homilies that elaborate on the themes of displacement, suffering, and hopelessness. Most striking are the midrashim that depict God as actively destroying Jerusalem in order to punish the Jewish people, and then mourning for the loss of the city and its people. In some of these midrashim figures including the angels, the Torah, and various biblical characters plead with God to save the Jewish people; in others, God retreats into a private mourning, refusing any consolation.

Some have suggested that Kohelet Rabbah, written between the sixth and eighth centuries CE, may originally have served as a school textbook. Through a verse-by-verse commentary on the book of Kohelet, this midrash addresses an unusually wide range of topics, ranging from business practices to the cycles of nature to the character and limits of wisdom. This collection includes a significant amount of material taken from other midrashim and from the Palestinian and Babylonian Talmuds.

The volume known as Esther Rabbah can be divided into two sections. The first half, compiled around 500 CE, is an exegetical commentary on the first two chapters of the book of Esther. Like other midrashim of its time, this collection begins with a number of petihtaot introducing the first line of the biblical book. Given the notable absence of the name of God from the book of Esther, the midrash makes a special effort to find within the biblical text hidden references to divine intervention.

The second part of Esther Rabbah was composed significantly later, perhaps around the eleventh century. This section comments on the remaining chapters of the biblical book. Most surprisingly, this half of Esther Rabbah includes Hebrew translations of several passages of the Septuagint, the first Greek edition of the Bible, published in the third century BCE.

The Rabbahs include midrashim of a variety of styles, themes, and time periods. Though different from each other in many ways, all of these works help to bring the biblical text to life by adding stories and interpretations, and by drawing out of the biblical text lessons for everyday life. Most importantly, these midrashim remind us that the Bible has infinite meanings, and that each individual and each generation reinvigorates it by developing new interpretations.

Pronounced: shah-voo-OTE (oo as in boot), also shah-VOO-us, Origin: Hebrew, the holiday celebrating the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai, falls in the Hebrew month Sivan, which usually coincides with May or June.

Pronounced: sue-KOTE, or SOOH-kuss (oo as in book), Origin: Hebrew, a harvest festival in which Jews eat inside temporary huts, falls in the Jewish month of Tishrei, which usually coincides with September or October.

The term midrash has a specific meaning and a broader one. Specifically, midrash refers to the post Talmudic body of writings (post-500 C.E.) such as Midrash Rabbah and Pirke de-Rabi Eliezer. In broader terms, midrash has come to mean a Jewish story that explains, clarifies, or elaborates on an event or passage in the Torah.

There are many stories in midrasnhic sources that are appropriate and valuable to retell for children. A retelling of the story "Solomon and the Demon King," for instance, can captivate a fifth grader today who plays computer games and rides a skateboard, just as much as it did a shtetl boy who walked barefoot to beder and learned to chant Talmudic passages at age four.

Rabbinic stories are not old and outdated, but alive and timeless. Within these stories, children can find heroic individuals just as brave and daring as the current ones who sport masks and capes and fancy weaponry-people like Rabbi Johanan ben Zaikai and Rabbi Akiva. But these rabbinic heroes provide something many of the television heroes do not-moral and ethical values as a basis for action.

One of the intriguing things about religious texts is how long of a life and how long of an afterlife they have. Once a text becomes a part of a "canon," once it becomes in a way fixed, it becomes open to further discussion and elaboration. Different groups and religious traditions create different genres of interpretation to work with and understand their scriptures according to the needs of their traditions. One form of interpretation involves reopening the Bible and expanding on the narrative of the already canonized text, such as is found in the rabbinic genre of midrash and in Joseph Smith's New Translation (JST) of the Bible.

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