Midrash Esfah

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Midrash Esfah (Hebrew: מדרש אספה) is one of the smaller midrashim, which as yet is known only from a few excerpts in Yalkut Shimoni and two citations in Sefer Raziel and Ha-Roḳeaḥ.

It receives its name from Numbers 11:16: "Gather unto me ["Esfah-li"] seventy men of the elders of Israel." In Yalkut Shimoni §736 appears a citation relating to this 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^[1] and a fragment on Numbers 17:14, 20:1-3,^[2] which agrees in its concluding words with the excerpt in Yalkut Shimoni Numbers §763 on Numbers 20:3 (found also §262, on Exodus 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 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 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 of by , brother of . It would seem, therefore, that the midrash was composed in Babylon in the first half of the 9th century.

According to modern scholar Anat Raizel, the work is a ninth century Italian collection.^[3]

References[]

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). "Midrash Esfah". The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.

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.).

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)