Midrash Vayisau (

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 ויסעו) 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 ...

. This small midrash, "the heroic legend of the sons of Jacob", is based on

Genesis Genesis may refer to: Religion * Book of Genesis, the first book of the biblical scriptures of both Judaism and Christianity, describing the creation of the Earth and of humankind * Genesis creation narrative, the first several chapters of the Bo ...

35:5 and 36:6, and recounts the story of the wars 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 ...

and his sons against the kings of the

Amorites The Amorites () were an ancient Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic-speaking Bronze Age people from the Levant. Initially appearing in Sumerian records c. 2500 BC, they expanded and ruled most of the Levant, Mesopotamia and parts of Eg ...

and against

Esau Esau is the elder son of Isaac in the Hebrew Bible. He is mentioned in the Book of Genesis and by the minor prophet, prophets Obadiah and Malachi. The story of Jacob and Esau reflects the historical relationship between Israel and Edom, aiming ...

and his army. The beginning of its discussion of the Amorite war is as follows: "Our teachers said that although they did not pursue after them this time, yet seven years later all the kings of the Amorites gathered themselves together against the sons of Jacob." That the legends contained in Vayisau are very old may be inferred from the

Book of Jubilees The Book of Jubilees is an ancient Jewish apocryphal text of 50 chapters (1,341 verses), considered canonical by the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, as well as by Haymanot Judaism, a denomination observed by members of Ethiopian Jewish ...

and from the Testament of Judah; the midrash betrays its relationship to these old pseudepigraphical writings in many details. The war against the Amorites is treated at greater length in the Sefer ha-Yashar, pericope "Beshallach." The midrash itself is contained 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 is mentioned by

Naḥmanides Moses ben Nachman ( ''Mōše ben-Nāḥmān'', "Moses son of Nachman"; 1194–1270), commonly known as Nachmanides (; ''Nakhmanídēs''), and also referred to by the acronym Ramban (; ) and by the contemporary nickname Bonastruc ça Porta (; l ...

as "Sefer Milchamot Benei Ya'akov". cite the opinion of G. Schmitt that the work was composed not later than the Bar Kokhba war. The text has been edited according to the

by A. Jellinek, by S. Chones, and by Charles.In his edition of the

, Appendix II., Oxford, 1895

References

.The JE cites the following works: **

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. p. 145; **Rab Pe'alim, pp. 54 et seq.; ** A. Jellinek, B. H. iii., pp. ix. et seq.

Bibliography

*TAMAR ALEXANDER and YOSEF DAN: ''The Complete "Midrash Vayi-sa'u"'' FOLKLORE RESEARCH CENTER STUDIES VOLUME III Edited by ISSACHAR BEN-AMI JERUSALEM 1972 * {{Authority control Smaller midrashim Aggadic Midrashim