Midrash Eser Galiyyot (
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ''Ê¿ÃŽbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...
: מדרש עשר גליות) is 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 ...
and treats of the ten exiles which have befallen the
Jews
Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
, counting four exiles under
Sennacherib
Sennacherib ( or , meaning "Sin (mythology), Sîn has replaced the brothers") was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 705BC until his assassination in 681BC. The second king of the Sargonid dynasty, Sennacherib is one of the most famous A ...
, four under
Nebuchadnezzar
Nebuchadnezzar II, also Nebuchadrezzar II, meaning "Nabu, watch over my heir", was the second king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, ruling from the death of his father Nabopolassar in 605 BC to his own death in 562 BC. Often titled Nebuchadnezzar ...
, one under
Vespasian
Vespasian (; ; 17 November AD 9 – 23 June 79) was Roman emperor from 69 to 79. The last emperor to reign in the Year of the Four Emperors, he founded the Flavian dynasty, which ruled the Empire for 27 years. His fiscal reforms and consolida ...
, and one under
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 '' ...
. It contains also many parallels to the
Seder 'Olam, ch. xxii. et seq.
A citation of the commentator R. Hillel on
Sifre
Sifre (; ''siphrēy'', ''Sifre, Sifrei'', also, ''Sifre debe Rab'' or ''Sifre Rabbah'') refers to either of two works of '' Midrash halakha'', or classical Jewish legal biblical exegesis, based on the biblical books of Numbers and Deuteronomy.
...
justifies the inference that the ''Midrash 'Eser Galiyyot '' originally stood at the end of Seder 'Olam; and it is also possible that
Abraham ibn David likewise drew material from it, for an older edition of his ''Sefer ha-Kabbalah'' includes this midrash.
The
aggadah
Aggadah (, or ; ; 'tales', 'legend', 'lore') is the non-legalistic exegesis which appears in the classical rabbinic literature of Judaism, particularly the Talmud and Midrash. In general, Aggadah is a compendium of rabbinic texts that incorporat ...
at the beginning of the midrash, to the effect that the Jews had suffered ten exiles, was cited, with the formula "Our teachers have taught," by R.
Ẓemaḥ Gaon in his letter addressed to the community of
Kairwan in the latter part of the 9th century. The midrash has been edited by
A. Jellinek and, with valuable notes, by
Grünhut.
[''Sefer ha-Liḳḳuá¹im,'' iii. 2-22] A later recension which "cares little about haggadic chronology, but much about haggadic embellishment," was printed in ''B. H.'' v. 113–116.
References
{{JewishEncyclopedia, url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=593&letter=M&search=Al%20Yithallel#1955, title=Smaller Midrashim
Jewish Encyclopedia bibliography
*
A. Jellinek, B. H. iv., p. xii.; v., p. xxxv.;
*Grünhut, ib. 5–13;
*Brüll, in Ben Chananja, 1866, p. 125;
*
A. Epstein, Eldad ha-Dani, pp. 7, 17;
*Ratner, Introduction to the
Seder 'Olam, pp. 49, 123, and notes on the same work, pp. 48a, 51a, 56a.
Smaller midrashim