darash to “investigate” a scriptural passage. Of this halakhic Midrash we possess that on Exodus, called Mekhilta, that on Leviticus, called Sifra, and that on Numbers and Deuteronomy, called Sifrē. All of these were drawn up in the period of the Amorāīm, the order of teachers who succeeded the Tannāīm, from the close of the Mishnah to about A.D. 500. The term Midrash, however, more commonly implies agada, i.e. the homiletical exposition of the text, with illustrations designed to make it more attractive to the readers or hearers. Picturesque teaching of this kind was always popular, and specimens of it are familiar in the Gospel discourses. It began, as a method, with the Sōpherīm (though there are traces in the Old Testament itself), and was most developed among the Tannāīm and Amorāīm, rivalling even the study of halakhah. As the existing halakhōth were collected and edited in the Mishnah, so the much larger agadic material was gathered together and arranged in the Midrashīm. Apart from the agadic parts of the earlier Mekhilta, Sifra and Sifrē, the most important of these collections (which are anonymous) form a sort of continuous commentary on various books of the Bible. They were called Rabbōth (great Midrashīm) to distinguish them from preceding smaller collections. Bereshīth Rabba, on Genesis, and Ēkhah Rabbatī, on Lamentations, were probably edited in the 7th century. Of the same character and of about the same date are the Pesīqta, on the lessons for Sabbaths and feast-days, and Wayyiqra R. on Leviticus. A century perhaps later is the Tanḥūma, on the sections of the Pentateuch, and later still the Pesīqta Rabbatī, Shemōth R. (on Exodus), Bemidhbar R. (on Numbers), Debharīm R. (on Deuteronomy). There are also Midrashīm on the Canticle, Ruth, Ecclesiastes, Esther and the Psalms, belonging to this later period, the Pirqē R. Eliezer, of the 8th or 9th century, a sort of history of creation and of the patriarchs, and the Tanna debē Eliyahū (an ethical work of the 10th century but containing much that is old), besides a large number of minor compositions.[1] In general, these performed very much the same function as the lives of saints in the early and medieval church. Very important for the study of Midrashic literature are the Yalqūṭ (gleaning) Shimʽōnī, on the whole Bible, the Yalqūṭ Mekhīrī, on the Prophets, Psalms, Proverbs and Job, and the Midrash ha-gadhōl,[2] all of which are of uncertain but late date and preserve earlier material. The last, which is preserved in MSS. from Yemen, is especially valuable as representing an independent tradition.
Meanwhile, if agadic exegesis was popular in the centuries following the redaction of the Mishna, the study of halakhah was by no means neglected. As the discussion of the Law led up to the compilation of the Mishnah, so the Mishnah itself became in turn the subject of further discussion. Talmud. The material thus accumulated, both halakhic and agadic, forming a commentary on and amplification of the Mishnah, was eventually written down under the name of Gemara (from gemar, to learn completely), the two together forming the Talmud (properly “instruction”). The tradition, as in the case of the Targums, was again twofold; that which had grown up in the Palestinian Schools and that of Babylonia. The foundation, however, the Mishnah, was the same in both. Both works were due to the Amoraim and were completed by about A.D. 500, though the date at which they were actually committed to writing is very uncertain. It is probable that notes or selections were from time to time written down to help in teaching and learning the immense mass of material, in spite of the fact that even in Sherira’s time (11th century) such aids to memory were not officially recognized. Both Talmuds are arranged according to the six orders of the Mishnah, but the discussion of the Mishnic text often wanders off into widely different topics. Neither is altogether complete. In the Palestinian Talmud (Yerushalmī) the gemara of the 5th order (Qodashīm) and of nearly all the 6th (Ṭohōrōth) is missing, besides smaller parts. In the Babylonian Talmud (Babhlī) there is no gemara to the smaller tractates of Order 1, and to parts of ii., iv., v., vi. The language of both gemaras is in the main the Aramaic vernacular (western Aramaic in Yerushalmī, eastern in Babhlī), but early halakhic traditions (e.g. of Tannaitic origin) are given in their original form, and the discussion of them is usually also in Hebrew. Babhlī is not only greater in bulk than Yerushalmī, but has also received far greater attention, so that the name Talmud alone is often used for it. As being a constant object of study numerous commentaries have been written on the Talmud from the earliest times till the present. The most important of them for the understanding of the gemara (Babhlī) is that of Rashi[3] (Solomon ben Isaac, d. 1104) with the Tōsafōth (additions, not to be confused with the Tosefta) chiefly by the French school of rabbis following Rashi. These are always printed in the editions on the same page as the Mishnah and Gemara, the whole, with various other matter, filling generally about 12 folio volumes. Since the introduction of printing, the Talmud is always cited by the number of the leaf in the first edition (Venice, 1520, &c.), to which all subsequent editions conform. In order to facilitate the practical study of the Talmud, it was natural that abridgements of it should be made. Two of these may be mentioned which are usually found in the larger editions: that by Isaac Alfasī (i.e. of Fez) in the 11th century, often cited in the Jewish manner as Rif; and that by Asher ben Yeḥīel (d. 1328) of Toledo, usually cited as Rabbenū Asher. The object of both was to collect all halakhōth having a practical importance, omitting all those which owing to circumstances no longer possess more than an academic interest, and excluding the discussions on them and all agada. Both add notes and explanations of their own, and both have in turn formed the text of commentaries.
With the Talmud, the anonymous period of Hebrew literature may be considered to end. Henceforward important works are produced not by schools but by particular teachers, who, however, no doubt often represent the opinions of a school. There are two branches of work which partake Masorah. of both characters, the Masorah and the Liturgy. The name Masorah (Massorah) is usually derived from masar, to hand on, and explained as “tradition.” According to others[4] it is the word found in Ezek. xx. 37, meaning a “fetter.” Its object was to fix the biblical text unalterably. It is generally divided into the Great and the Small Masorah, forming together an apparatus criticus which grew up gradually in the course of centuries and now accompanies the text in most MSS. and printed editions to a greater or less extent. There are also separate masoretic treatises. Some system of the kind was necessary to guard against corruptions of copyists, while the care bestowed upon it no doubt reacted so as to enhance the sanctity ascribed to the text. Many apparent puerilities, such as the counting of letters and the marking of the middle point of books, had a practical use in enabling copyists of MSS. to determine the amount of work done. The registration of anomalies, such as the suspended letters, inverted nūns and larger letters, enabled any one to test the accuracy of a copy. But the work of the Masoretes was much greater than this. Their long lists of the occurrences of words and forms fixed with accuracy the present (Masoretic) text, which they had produced, and were invaluable to subsequent lexicographers, while their system of vowel-points and accents not only gives us the pronunciation and manner of reading traditional about the 7th century A.D., but frequently serves also the purpose of an explanatory commentary. (See further under Bible.) Most of the Masorah is anonymous, including the Massekheth Sōferīm (of various dates from perhaps the 6th to the 9th century) and the Okhlah we-Okhlah, but when the period of anonymous literature ceases, there appear (in the 10th century) Ben Asher of Tiberias, the greatest authority on the subject, and his opponent Ben Naphthali. Later on, Jacob
- ↑ See especially A. Jellinek’s Bet-ha-Midrasch (Leipzig, 1853), for these lesser midrashīm.
- ↑ That on Genesis was edited for the first time by Schechter (Cambridge, 1902).
- ↑ In Hebrew רשי, from the initial letters of Rabbi Shelomoh Yiẓḥaqī, a convenient method used by Jewish writers in referring to well-known authors. The name Jarchi, formerly used for Rashi, rests on a misunderstanding.
- ↑ So Bacher in J.Q.R. iii. 785 sqq.
