Midrash Rabbot

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Rabbinical Literature (Beta — in use)
[ 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 Rabbot (Hebrew: מדרש רבות) refers to a collection of aggadic midrashim on the books of the Tanach, generally having the term "Rabbah" (רבה), meaning "great," as part of their name. These midrashim are as follows:

The designation "Rabbah" was first applied to the midrash to Bereshit, and then applied to the midrashim to the other books of the Pentateuch, as Wayiḳra Rabbah, Shemot Rabbah, etc., which were copied, with Bereshit Rabbah, even in (later) manuscripts. This collection eventually came to be called "Midrash Rabbot" (i.e., "Midrash of the Rabbot"), to which the midrashim most in use during divine service—to Canticles, Book of Ruth, Book of Esther, Lamentations, and Ecclesiastes—were subsequently added.

Thus the Venice edition of 1545, in which the midrashim to the Pentateuch and to the Five Rolls were for the first time printed together, has on the title-page of the first part the words "Midrash Rabbot 'al Ḥamishshah Ḥumshe Torah" (Midrash Rabbah to the Five Books of the Torah), and on that of the second part "Midrash Ḥamesh 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 atḥil Bereshit Rabba" (In the name of God I shall begin Bereshit Rabbah), and the title of the editio princeps of the midrashim to the Five Rolls (Pesaro, 1519) reads "Midrash Ḥamesh 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 Rolls," as found on the title-page of the two parts in the much-used Wilna edition. After Zunz, it is not necessary to point out that the Midrash Rabbah consists of 10 entirely different midrashim.

[edit] Manuscripts

On the manuscript of the Bereshit Rabbah and some of the other rabbot to the Pentateuch see Theodor in Monatsschrift, xxxvii. 170 et seq. 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 Rolls in existence (comp. Midrash ha-Gadol, Preface, xi.).