Midrash Esfah

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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.).