Midrash Eleh Ezkerah ( ''ʾĒlle ʾEzkərā'') is an aggadic midrash, one of the

smaller midrashim A number of midrashim exist which are smaller in size, and generally later in date, than those dealt with in the articles Midrash Haggadah and Midrash Halakah. Despite their late date, some of these works preserve material from the Apocrypha and P ...

, which receives its name from the fact that a seliḥah for the

Day of Atonement Yom Kippur ( ; , ) is the holiest day of the year in Judaism. It occurs annually on the 10th of Tishrei, corresponding to a date in late September or early October. For traditional Jewish people, it is primarily centered on atonement and ...

, which treats the same subject and begins with the words "ʾĒlle ʾEzkərā," recounts the execution of ten famous teachers in the time of the persecution by

Hadrian Hadrian ( ; ; 24 January 76 – 10 July 138) was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. Hadrian was born in Italica, close to modern Seville in Spain, an Italic peoples, Italic settlement in Hispania Baetica; his branch of the Aelia gens, Aelia '' ...

. The same event is related in a very ancient source,

Lamentations Rabbah The Midrash on Lamentations () is a midrashic commentary to the Book of Lamentations. It is one of the oldest works of midrash, along with Genesis Rabbah and the '' Pesikta de-Rav Kahana''. Names The midrash is quoted, perhaps for the first ti ...

, and also in Midrash Tehillim from the fifth and sixth centuries of the common era.

The version in ''Eleh Ezkerah''

According to the Midrash Eleh Ezkerah, and a brief parallel source in Midrash Mishlei, a Roman emperor commanded the execution of the ten sages of Israel to expiate the guilt of the sons of

Jacob Jacob, later known as Israel, is a Hebrew patriarch of the Abrahamic religions. He first appears in the Torah, where he is described in the Book of Genesis as a son of Isaac and Rebecca. Accordingly, alongside his older fraternal twin brother E ...

, who had sold their brother

Joseph Joseph is a common male name, derived from the Hebrew (). "Joseph" is used, along with " Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the modern-day Nordic count ...

—a crime which, according to Exodus 21:16, had to be punished with death. The names of the martyrs are given here, as in the seliḥah (varying in part from Lamentations Rabbah and Midrash Tehillim), as follows: #

Simeon ben Gamliel Simeon ben Gamliel (I) ( or רשב"ג הראשון; c. 10 BCE – 70 CE) was a '' Tanna'' (sage) and leader of the Jewish people. He served as nasi of the Great Sanhedrin at Jerusalem during the outbreak of the First Jewish–Roman War, succ ...

Ishmael ben Elisha ha-Kohen Ishmael ben Elisha HaKohen (, "Rabbi Ishmael ben Elisha Kohen Gadol", lit. "Rabbi Ishmael ben (son of) Elisha heKohen (priest)"; sometimes in short Ishmael HaKohen, lit. "Ishmael the Priest") was one of the prominent leaders of the first generat ...

Rabbi Akiva Akiva ben Joseph (Mishnaic Hebrew: ; – 28 September 135 CE), also known as Rabbi Akiva (), was a leading Jewish scholar and sage, a '' tanna'' of the latter part of the first century and the beginning of the second. Rabbi Akiva was a leadin ...

# Haninah ben Teradion #

Judah ben Bava Judah ben Bava was a rabbi in the 2nd century who semikha, ordained a number of rabbis at a time when the Roman government forbade this ceremony. The penalty was execution for the ordainer and the new rabbis. Rabbi Judah ben Bava was killed by Had ...

# Judah ben Dama # Hutzpit the Interpreter # Hanina ben Hakinai # Jeshbab the Scribe #

Eleazar ben Shammua Eleazar ben Shammua or Eleazar I (Hebrew: אלעזר בן שמוע) was a rabbi of the 2nd century (4th generation of tannaim), frequently cited in rabbinic writings as simply Rabbi Eleazar (Bavli) or Rabbi Lazar רִבִּי לָֽעְזָר (Y ...

Although this midrash employs other sources, borrowing its introduction from the Midrash Konen, and the account of the conversation of Rabbi Ishmael with the angels in heaven probably from the '' Hekalot'', it forms, nevertheless, a coherent work. Based on a Hamburg codex, it was edited by A. Jellinek and, according to another manuscript, by S. Chones, in his ''Rav Pe'alim''. A second and a third recension of the midrash were edited, based on manuscript sources, in Jellinek's ''B. H.'', and a fourth is contained in the Spanish liturgical work ''Bet Av''. According to Jellinek, "the fourth recension is the oldest, since it has borrowed large portions from the ''Hekalot''; next to this stand the second and the third; while the youngest is the first, which, nevertheless, has the advantage of real conformity with the spirit of the race and represents this the best of all." The martyrdom of the ten sages is also treated in the additions to the ''Hekalot''''B. H.'' 5:167 et seq. and in the qinna for

Tisha B'Av Tisha B'Av ( ; , ) is an annual fast day in Judaism. A commemoration of a number of disasters in Jewish history, primarily the destruction of both Solomon's Temple by the Neo-Babylonian Empire and the Second Temple by the Roman Empire in Jerusal ...

References

Its bibliography: * Zunz, G. V. p. 142; * A. Jellinek, B. H. 2:23 et seq.; 5:41; 6:17 et seq.; * Benjacob, Oẓar ha-Sefarim, p. 299. *On the problem of the synchronism of the ten martyrs see Heinrich Grätz, Gesch. iv. 175 et seq., and Monatsschrift, i. 314 et seq. *A German translation by P. Möbius appeared in 1845.

External links

Free download of English translation of Eleh Ezkerah by Rabbi David SedleyEnglish translation of Eleh Ezerah by Rabbi David Sedley
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