Midrash Esfah
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Midrash Esfah (
Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') 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 אספה) 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 ...
, which as yet is known only from a few excerpts in ''
Yalkut Shimoni The ''Yalkut Shimoni'' (), or simply ''Yalkut'', is an aggadic compilation on the books of the Hebrew Bible. It is a compilation of older interpretations and explanations of Biblical passages, arranged according to the sequence of those portions ...
'' and two citations in '' Sefer Raziel'' and ''
Ha-Roḳeaḥ Eleazar of Worms (אלעזר מוורמייזא - also מגרמייזא of Garmiza or Garmisa) (c. 1176–1238), or Eleazar ben Judah ben Kalonymus, also sometimes known today as Eleazar Rokeach ("Eleazar the Perfumer" אלעזר רקח) from t ...
''. It receives its name from
Numbers A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The most basic examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers can ...
11:16: "Gather unto me Esfah-li"seventy men of the elders of Israel." In
Yalkut Shimoni The ''Yalkut Shimoni'' (), or simply ''Yalkut'', is an aggadic compilation on the books of the Hebrew Bible. It is a compilation of older interpretations and explanations of Biblical passages, arranged according to the sequence of those portions ...
§736 a citation relating to this verse appears, which cannot be traced to any other midrash and is undoubtedly taken from Midrash Esfah. To this midrash may possibly be referred a passage in the ''Halakot Gedolot'' and a fragment on Numbers 17:14, 20:1-3, which agrees in its concluding words with the excerpt in Yalkut Shimoni Numbers §763 on Numbers 20:3 (found also §262, on
Exodus Exodus or the Exodus may refer to: Religion * Book of Exodus, second book of the Hebrew Torah and the Christian Bible * The Exodus, the biblical story of the migration of the ancient Israelites from Egypt into Canaan Historical events * Ex ...
17:2, which begins with the same words). The name of the midrash shows that it must have begun with Numbers 11:16. The other excerpts in Yalkut Shimoni from Midrash Esfah - §§ 737, 739, 742, 764, 773, and 845 - are based on Numbers 11:24, 12:3-7, 12:12, 21:9, 26:2 (found also at §684, on Numbers 1:2, which begins with the same words), and
Deuteronomy Deuteronomy (; ) is the fifth book of the Torah (in Judaism), where it is called () which makes it the fifth book of the Hebrew Bible and Christian Old Testament. Chapters 1–30 of the book consist of three sermons or speeches delivered to ...
6:16. However, the extent of the midrash cannot be determined. The interesting extract in Yalkut Shimoni Numbers on Numbers 11:16 names the seventy elders in two of its recensions (a third recension of this passage is furnished by a
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manuscript); and one of these versions concludes with a noteworthy statement which justifies the inference that the midrash was taught in the academy of
Ḥanina Gaon Hanina ben Pappa () was a Jewish Talmudist living in the Land of Israel, halakhist, and aggadist who flourished in the 3rd and 4th centuries (third generation of amoraim). His name is variously written "Ḥanina", "Hananiah", and "Ḥinena". ...
by
Rabbi Samuel A rabbi (; ) is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi—known as ''semikha''—following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of t ...
, brother of
Rabbi Phinehas A rabbi (; ) is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi—known as ''semikha''—following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of t ...
. It would seem, therefore, that the midrash was composed in
Babylon Babylon ( ) was an ancient city located on the lower Euphrates river in southern Mesopotamia, within modern-day Hillah, Iraq, about south of modern-day Baghdad. Babylon functioned as the main cultural and political centre of the Akkadian-s ...
in the first half of the 9th century. According to modern scholar Anat Raizel, the work is a ninth century Italian collection.


References


Jewish Encyclopedia bibliography

*
Zunz Zunz (, ) is a Yiddish surname: * (1874–1939), Belgian pharmacologist * Sir Gerhard Jack Zunz (1923–2018), British civil engineer * Leopold Zunz (Yom Tov Lipmann Tzuntz) (1794–1886), German Reform rabbi and writer, the founder of academi ...
, G. V. pp. 279 et seq.; *Chones, Rab Pe'alim, pp. 36 et seq.; *
J.L. Rapoport Solomon Judah Loeb Rapoport (; June 1, 1786 – October 15, 1867) was a Galician and Czech rabbi and Jewish scholar. Rapoport was known by an acronym "Shir", שי"ר occasionally שיל"ר, formed by the initial letters of his Hebrew n ...
, Kerem Ḥemed, vi.; *
Weiss, Dor Isaac (Isaak) Hirsch Weiss, also Eisik Hirsch Weiss () (9 February 1815 – 1 June 1905), was an Austrian Talmudist and historian of literature born at Groß Meseritsch, Habsburg Moravia. After having received elementary instruction in Hebre ...
, iv. 41, 216; *
S. Buber Salomon (or Solomon) Buber (2 February 1827 – 28 December 1906) was a Jewish Galicia (Central Europe), Galician scholar and editor of Hebrew literature, Hebrew works. He is especially remembered for his editions of Midrash and other medieval Je ...
, 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.). {{Authority control Smaller midrashim Lost Jewish texts