Midrash Esfah

Rabbinic Literature

Talmudic literature Mishnah • Tosefta Jerusalem Talmud • Babylonian Talmud Minor tractates Halakhic Midrash Mekhilta de-Rabbi Yishmael (Exodus) Mekhilta de-Rabbi Shimon (Exodus) Sifra (Leviticus) Sifre (Numbers & Deuteronomy) Sifre Zutta (Numbers) Mekhilta le-Sefer Devarim (Deuteronomy) Baraita of Rabbi Ishmael Aggadic Midrash —— Tannaitic —— Seder Olam Rabbah Alphabet of Akiba ben Joseph Baraita of the Forty-nine Rules Baraita on the Thirty-two Rules Baraita on Tabernacle Construction —— 400–600 —— Genesis Rabbah • Eichah Rabbah Pesikta de-Rav Kahana Esther Rabbah • Midrash Iyyov Leviticus Rabbah • Seder Olam Zutta Midrash Tanhuma • Megillat Antiochus —— 650–900 —— Avot of Rabbi Natan Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer Tanna Devei Eliyahu Alphabet of Ben-Sira Kohelet Rabbah • Canticles Rabbah Devarim 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 • Canticles Zutta —— 1000–1200 —— Midrash Tadshe • Sefer haYashar —— Later —— Yalkut Shimoni • Yalkut Makiri Midrash Jonah • Ein Yaakov Midrash HaGadol • Numbers Rabbah Smaller midrashim Rabbinic 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 v · d · e

Midrash Esfah (Hebrew: מדרש אספה) is one of the smaller midrashim, which as yet is known only from a few excerpts in Yalḳuṭ and two citations in Sefer Raziel and Ha-Roḳeaḥ. It receives its name from Num. xi. 16: "Gather unto me ["Esfah-li"] seventy men of the elders of Israel."

In Yalḳ. i, § 736 is found a citation relating to the same verse, which cannot be traced to any other midrash, and is doubtless taken from Midrash Esfah. To this midrash may possibly be referred a passage in the Halakot Gedolot (ed. Warsaw, p. 282b) and a fragment on Num. xvii. 14, xx. 1-3, in Wertheimer, Batte Midrashot, iii. 8-10, which agrees in its concluding words with the excerpt in Yalḳ., Num. 763 on Num. xx. 3 (found also ib. 262, on Ex. xvii. 2, which begins with the same words). The name of the midrash shows that it must have begun with Num. xi. 16. The other excerpts in the Yalḳuṭ from the Midrash Esfah, §§ 737, 739, 742, 764, 773, and 845, are based on Num. xi. 24, xii. 3-7, xii. 12, xxi. 9, xxvi. 2 (found also ib. 684, on Num. i. 2, which begins with the same words), and Deut. vi. 16; the extent of the midrash, however, can not be determined.

The interesting extract in Yalḳ., Num. on Num. xi. 16 names the seventy elders in two of its recensions (a third recension of this passage is furnished by a Vatican library manuscript); and one of these versions concludes with a noteworthy statement which justifies the inference that the midrash was taught in the academy or Ḥanina Gaon by Rabbi Samuel, brother of Rabbi Phinehas. It would seem, therefore, that the midrash was composed in Babylon in the first half of the 9th century.

Jewish Encyclopedia bibliography

• Zunz, G. V. pp. 279 et seq.;
• Chones, Rab Pe'alim, pp. 36 et seq.;
• J.L. Rapoport, Kerem Ḥemed, vi.;
• Weiss, Dor, iv. 41, 216;
• S. Buber, 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.).

External links

• Jewish Encyclopedia article for Midrash Esfah

This article incorporates text from the 1901–1906 Jewish Encyclopedia, a publication now in the public domain.