Exodus Rabbah

Rabbinic literature
Talmud Readers by Adolf Behrman
Talmudic literature
—— Tannaitic —— Mishnah Tosefta —— Amoraic (Gemara) —— Jerusalem Talmud Babylonian Talmud —— Later —— Minor Tractates
Halakhic Midrash
—— Exodus —— Mekhilta of Rabbi Ishmael Mekhilta of Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai —— Leviticus —— Sifra (Torat Kohanim) —— Numbers and Deuteronomy —— Sifre Sifrei Zutta on Numbers (Mekhilta le-Sefer Devarim)
Aggadic Midrash
—— Tannaitic —— Seder Olam Rabbah Alphabet of Rabbi Akiva Baraita of the Forty-nine Rules Baraita on the Thirty-two Rules Baraita on the Erection of the Tabernacle —— 400–600 —— Genesis Rabbah Lamentations Rabbah Pesikta de-Rav Kahana Esther Rabbah Midrash Iyyob Leviticus Rabbah Seder Olam Zutta Tanhuma Megillat Antiochus —— 650–900 —— Avot of Rabbi Natan Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer Tanna Devei Eliyahu Alphabet of Sirach Ecclesiastes Rabbah Shir ha-Shirim Rabbah Deuteronomy Rabbah Devarim Zutta Pesikta Rabbati Midrash Shmuel Midrash Proverbs Ruth Rabbah Baraita of Samuel Targum Sheni —— 900–1000 —— Ruth Zuta Eichah Zuta Midrash Tehillim Midrash Hashkem Exodus Rabbah Shir ha-Shirim Zutta —— 1000–1200 —— Midrash Tadshe Sefer haYashar —— Later —— Yalkut Shimoni Machir ben Abba Mari Midrash Jonah Ein Yaakov Midrash HaGadol Numbers Rabbah Smaller midrashim
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

Exodus Rabbah (Hebrew: שמות רבה, Shemot Rabbah) is the midrash to Exodus, containing in the printed editions 52 parashiyyot. It is not uniform in its composition.

Structure

Exodus Rabbah ia almost purely Haggadic in character. It is probably a compilation of the eleventh or twelfth century.

In parashiyyot i.-xiv. the proems are almost invariably followed by the running commentary on the entire seder or other Scriptural division (the beginnings of the sedarim are distinguished by an asterisk):

1. Parashah i., on *Ex. i. 1-ii. 25;
2. par. ii. and iii., on *Ex. iii. 1-iv. 17;
3. par. iv. and v., Nos.2-8, on *Ex. iv. 18-26;
4. par. v., Nos. 1, 9-23, on Ex. iv. 27-vi. 1;
5. par. vi., on *Ex. vi. 2-12;
6. par. vii., on Ex. vi. 13 et seq.;
7. par. viii., on Ex. vii. 1 et seq. (a Tanḥuma homily);
8. par. ix., on *Ex. vii. 8-25;
9. par x., on Ex. vii. 26-viii. 15;
10. par. xi., on *Ex. viii. 16-ix. 12;
11. par. xii., on Ex. ix. 13-35;
12. par. xiii., on *Ex. x. 1-20;
13. par. xiv., on Ex. x. 21-29

There is no exposition nor, in the Tanḥuma midrashim, any homily to *Ex. xi. 1. Beginning with parashah xv., Exodus Rabbah contains homilies and homiletical fragments to the first verses of the Scripture sections. Many of the homilies are taken from the Tanḥumas, though parashiyyot xv., xvi.-xix., xx., xxx., and others show that the author had access also to homilies in many other sources. In the printed editions the text is sometimes abbreviated and the reader referred to such collections, as well as to the Pesiḳta; in parashah xxxix. the entire exposition of the Pesiḳta lesson Ki Tissa (Ex. xxx. 11) has been eliminated in this fashion.

Such references and abbreviations were doubtless made by later copyists. There is an interesting statement in parashah xliv. regarding the manner of treating a proem-text from the Psalms for the homily to Ex. xxxii. 13. The assumption is justified that Shemot Rabbah down to Ex. xii. 1, with which section the Mekilta begins, is based on an earlier exegetical midrash, constituting, perhaps, the continuation of Bereshit Rabbah. This would explain the fact that in the first part there are several parashiyyot to the open and closed Scripture sections, and that several expressions recall the terminology of the tannaitic midrash. Zunz ascribes the composition of the entire work to the 11th or 12th century; although, immediately following Bereshit Rabbah in the collection of the rabbot, it "is separated from the latter by 500 years" (G. V. p. 256).

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). "^{article name needed}". Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company. 

External links

• Jewish Encyclopedia article for Midrash Aggada, by Isidore Singer and J. Theodor. There is apparently no topic article especially for Shemot Rabbah.