Midrash Esfah

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[ Talmudic literature ] Mishna Tosefta Jerusalem Talmud Babylonian Talmud Minor tractates [ Halakhic Midrash ] Mekhilta Mekhilta de-Rabbi Shimon Mekilta le-Sefer Devarim Sifra Sifre Sifre Zutta [ Aggadic Midrash ] —— Tannaitic —— Alphabet of Akiba ben Joseph Seder Olam Rabbah —— 400–600 —— Genesis Rabbah Lamentations Rabbah Leviticus Rabbah Pesikta de-Rav Kahana Midrash Tanhuma Seder Olam Zutta —— 650–900 —— Midrash Proverbs Ecclesiastes Rabbah Shir ha-Shirim Rabbah Ruth Rabbah Deuteronomy Rabbah Pesikta Rabbati Avot of Rabbi Natan Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer Tanna Devei Eliyahu —— 900–1000 —— Midrash Psalms Exodus Rabbah Ruth Zuta Lamentations Zuta —— 1000–1200 —— Midrash Tadshe Sefer ha-Yashar —— Later —— Yalkut Shimoni Midrash ha-Gadol Ein Yaakov Numbers Rabbah Smaller midrashim See also: Targums

Midrash Esfah (Hebrew: מדרש אספה) is one of the smaller midrashim, which as yet is known only from a few excerpts in Yalḳuṭ and two citations in Sefer Raziel and Ha-Roḳeaḥ. It receives its name from Num. xi. 16: "Gather unto me ["Esfah-li"] seventy men of the elders of Israel."

In Yalḳ. i, § 736 is found a citation relating to the same verse, which cannot be traced to any other midrash, and is doubtless taken from Midrash Esfah. To this midrash may possibly be referred a passage in the Halakot Gedolot (ed. Warsaw, p. 282b) and a fragment on Num. xvii. 14, xx. 1-3, in Wertheimer, Batte Midrashot, iii. 8-10, which agrees in its concluding words with the excerpt in Yalḳ., Num. 763 on Num. xx. 3 (found also ib. 262, on Ex. xvii. 2, which begins with the same words). The name of the midrash shows that it must have begun with Num. xi. 16. The other excerpts in the Yalḳuṭ from the Midrash Esfah, §§ 737, 739, 742, 764, 773, and 845, are based on Num. xi. 24, xii. 3-7, xii. 12, xxi. 9, xxvi. 2 (found also ib. 684, on Num. i. 2, which begins with the same words), and Deut. vi. 16; the extent of the midrash, however, can not be determined.

The interesting extract in Yalḳ., Num. on Num. xi. 16 names the seventy elders in two of its recensions (a third recension of this passage is furnished by a Vatican library manuscript); and one of these versions concludes with a noteworthy statement which justifies the inference that the midrash was taught in the academy or Ḥanina Gaon by Rabbi Samuel, brother of Rabbi Phinehas. It would seem, therefore, that the midrash was composed in Babylon in the first half of the 9th century.

[edit] Jewish Encyclopedia bibliography

• Zunz, G. V. pp. 279 et seq.;
• Chones, Rab Pe'alim, pp. 36 et seq.;
• J.L. Rapoport, Kerem Ḥemed, vi.;
• Weiss, Dor, iv. 41, 216;
• S. Buber, in Keneset Yisrael, i.;
• Müller, Einleitung in die Responsa, 1891, p. 73;
  • Wertheimer, Batte Midrashot, Introduction, pp. 5 et seq. The excerpts from the Midrash Esfah have been collected by Buber (l.c.) and by Chones (l.c. pp. 147-153; comp. Buber, Yeri'ot Shelomoh, pp. 13 et seq.).

[edit] External links

• Jewish Encyclopedia article for Midrash Esfah

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