Midrash Tanchuma. Prague 1612. Unidentified signatures.

Midrash Tanchuma. Prague 1612. Unidentified signatures.

Sefer Midrash Tanchuma, or Midrash Rabbi Tanchuma, named for the Jerusalem Amora of the fifth generation. "And it was named after him because he was an excellent darshan in his time."

Also known as "Midrash Yelammedenu", due to the opening words of the halakhic introductions to the homilies: "Yelammedenu Rabbenu" [May our teacher instruct us].

Midrash Tanchuma deals with the Five Books of the Torah, and is named after the Eretz Yisraeli Amora, Rabbi Tanchuma Bar Abba, many of whose teachings appear within this collection of midrashim. Most of the book was written in Hebrew, but there are also parts in Galilean Aramaic, Greek and Latin. Midrash Tanchuma was compiled in the first half of the 9th century in Eretz Yisrael. Its arrangement is therefore based on the three-year Torah reading cycle that was prevalent in Eretz Yisrael. The division found in the Midrash, following the weekly parashiot according to the one-year reading cycle used in Babylon, is a later, non-original, correction.

Decorative woodcut frames ornament text on the title page and opening words later in the book.

Prague 1612. Ya'akov b. Gershon Bak.

100 leaves. 29.8 cm.

Complete copy, in good condition. Bound in an antique cover, with beautiful old endpapers. Several minor tears. Unidentified signatures on the title page.

Otzar Hasefer Database No. 54977.