Genesis Rabbah
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Hebrew: בְְּרֵאשִׁית רַבָּה, B'reshith Rabba) is a religious text from Judaism's classical period. It is a midrash comprising a collection of ancient rabbinical homiletical interpretations of the Book of Genesis (B'reshith in Hebrew).
It is expository midrash to the first book of the Torah, assigned by tradition to the amora Hoshaiah (or Osha'yah) who flourished in the third century in Christian Palestine. The midrash forms an aggadic commentary on Genesis, in keeping with the midrashic exegesis of that age. In a continuous sequence, broken only toward the end, the Biblical
text is expounded, verse for verse, often word for word. Only
genealogic passages and passages that furnish no material for exposition
(as the reiterated account of Abraham's servant in Genesis 24:35-48) are omitted.
It is expository midrash to the first book of the Torah, assigned by tradition to the amora Hoshaiah (or Osha'yah) who flourished in the third century in Christian Palestine. The midrash forms an aggadic commentary on Genesis, in keeping with the midrashic exegesis of that age. In a continuous sequence, broken only toward the end, the Biblical
text is expounded, verse for verse, often word for word. Only
genealogic passages and passages that furnish no material for exposition
(as the reiterated account of Abraham's servant in Genesis 24:35-48) are omitted.
Contents
Its simplicity
Genesis Rabba contains many simple explanations of words and sentences, often in the Aramaic language,suitable for the instruction of youth. It also contains varied haggadic
expositions popular in the public lectures of the synagogues and
schools. The editor of the midrash has strung together various longer or
shorter explanations and haggadic interpretations of the successive
passages, sometimes anonymously, sometimes citing the author. The editor
adds to the running commentary longer haggadic disquisitions or
narratives, connected in some way with the verse in question, or with
one of the explanations of it — a method not unusual in the Talmud
and in other midrashim. The first chapters of Genesis, on the creation
of the world and of man, furnished especially rich material for this
mode of exegesis. Whole sections are devoted to comments on one or two
verses of the text. Many references to contemporary philosophical
thought are made with the purpose of refuting the opinions of
nonbelievers. References to contemporaneous conditions and historical
events also occur. It is characteristic of the midrash to view the
personages and conditions of the Bible by the light of the contemporary
history of the time. Though the stories embraced in Genesis furnished
little occasion for comments on legal topics, Genesis Rabba contains a
few short legal (or halakic) sentences and quotations taken from the Mishnah
and other sources. This midrash is rich in sublime thoughts and finely
worded sentences, in parables, and in foreign words, especially Greek.
Form
This extensive and important midrash, which forms a completecommentary on Genesis, and exemplifies all points of midrashic exegesis,
is divided into sections. Prefaces head these sections. It is by these
means distinguished from the tannaitic midrashim to the other books of the Torah, such as Mekilta, Sifra, and Sifre.
Every chapter of the Genesis Rabba is headed by the first verse of the
passage to be explained, and is introduced, with few exceptions, by one
or more prefatory remarks starting from a verse taken from another
Biblical passage as text — generally from the Writings or Ketuvim.
By various explanations of these texts, a transition is effected to the
exposition of the particular verse of Genesis heading the section.
There are in the Genesis Rabba about 230 of these passages. About 70 are
cited with the name of the Rabbi with whom they originated or whose
explanation of the verse in question was used as an introduction to the
section of Genesis Rabba.
Introductory passages
Most of these passages are anonymous and may perhaps be ascribed inpart to the author of Genesis Rabba. They begin with the verse of the
text, which often stands at the head of the proem without any formula of
introduction. The structure of the prefatory passages varies. In some,
only the introductory text is given, its application to the verse of
Genesis to be expounded being self-evident or being left to a later
working out. The single prefaces, of which there is a large number,
contain explanations of their text which refer entirely or in its last
part to the verse or passage of Genesis to be expounded in that section.
The composite introductions consist of different expositions of the
same Biblical verse, by different haggadists, strung together in various
ways, but always arranged so that the last exposition — the last link
of the introduction — leads to the exposition of the passage of Genesis,
with the first verse of which the introductions often close. For these
introductions, which are often quite lengthy, the material for the
several expositions was ready at hand. The original work on these
passages consisted principally in the combining and grouping of the
several sentences and expositions into a coordinate whole, arranged so
that the last member forms the actual introduction to the exposition of
the section. Definitely characterized as they are in their beginning by
these introductions, the sections of Genesis Rabba have no formal
ending, although several show a transition to the Biblical passage that
is expounded in the following section.
The principle of division
In the manuscripts, as well as in the editions, the sections are consecutively numbered. Many quotations in the Shulchan Aruchmention the passage of Genesis Rabba by the number of the section. The
total number of the sections, both in the manuscripts and in the
editions, varies from 97 to 101. Nearly all the manuscripts and editions
agree in counting 96 chapters. The principle of division followed in
the sections of Genesis Rabba was evidently that of the Biblical text
itself as fixed at the time of the compilation of this midrash, in
accordance with the open and closed paragraphs (פתוחות and סתומות) in
the Hebrew text of Genesis. There are separate sections in the midrash
for almost all these sections as they are still found in Genesis, with
the exception of the genealogical passages. But there are sections that
bear evidences of relation to the Torah portions ("sedarim") of the
Palestinian triennial cycle, and a careful investigation of these may
lead to the discovery of an arrangement of sedarim different from that
heretofore known from old registers. However, there are sections,
especially in the beginning of the midrash, in which only one or a few
verses at a time are expounded. The Torah portions of the customary
one-year cycle are not regarded at all in the divisions of Genesis
Rabba, neither are they marked in the best manuscripts or in the editio
princeps of the midrash; the sections, therefore, can not be regarded as
mere subdivisions of the sedarim, as which they appear in later
editions of this midrash.
Material
Far more difficult than any question concerning the outward form ofGenesis Rabba is that of deciding how much of its present contents is
original material included in it, and how much of later addition. The
sections formed the framework that was to contain the exposition of a
number of Biblical verses in continuous succession. But with the
notoriously loose construction of the haggadic exegesis it became easy
to string together, on every verse or part of a verse, a number of
rambling comments; or to add longer or shorter haggadic passages,
stories, etc., connected in some way with the exposition of the text.
This process of accretion took place quite spontaneously in Genesis
Rabba, as in the other works of the Talmudic and midrashic literature.
Between the beginning and the completion of these works — if ever they
were completed — a long period elapsed during which there was much
addition and collection. The tradition that Rabbi Hosha'iah is the
author of Genesis Rabba may be taken to mean that he began the work, in
the form of the running commentary customary in tannaitic times,
arranging the exposition on Genesis according to the sequence of the
verses, and furnishing the necessary complement to the tannaitic
midrashim on the other books of the Torah. The ascription of the Mekilta
to Rabbi Ishmael and of the Jerusalem Talmud to Rabbi Johanan
rests on a similar procedure. Perhaps the comments on Genesis were
originally divided into sections that corresponded with the
above-mentioned sections of the text, and that contained the beginnings
of the simplest introductions, as indeed the first traces of such
introductions are found also in the tannaitic midrash. But the
embellishment of the sections with numerous artistic introductions —
which points to a combination of the form of the running commentary with
the form of the finished homilies following the type of the Pesikta and Tanhuma
Midrashim — was the result of the editing of Genesis Rabba that is now
extant, when the material found in collections and traditions of the
haggadic exegesis of the period of the Amoraim was taken up in the
midrash, and Genesis Rabba was given its present form, if not its
present bulk. Perhaps the editor made use also of different collections
on the several parts of Genesis. The present Genesis Rabba shows a
singular disproportion between the length of the first Torah portion and that of the eleven others. The Torah portion Bereishit
alone comprises 29 sections, being more than one-fourth of the whole
work. It is possible that the present Genesis Rabba is a combination of
two midrashim of unequal proportions, and that the 29 sections of the
first Torah portion — several of which expound only one or a few verses —
constitute the extant or incomplete material of a Genesis Rabba that
was laid out on a much larger and more comprehensive scale than the
midrash to the other Torah portions.
Origin of name
The work may have received its name, "Genesis Rabbah," from thatlarger midrash at the beginning of Genesis, unless that designation was
originally used to distinguish this midrash from the shorter and older
one, which was ascribed to Rabbi Hoshayah. The opinion that the name of
the midrash finds its explanation in the first words, "Rabbi Hosha'yah
rabbah began . . . " as if the word "rabbah" belonged originally to the
name of the amora, and that the name of the work, "Genesis Rabba," is an
abbreviation of "Bereshit derabbi Hoshayah rabbah," is untenable for
the reason that in the best manuscripts — and in a very old quotation —
the name "Rabbi Hoshayah" stands without the addition "rabbah" in the
first preface at the beginning of the midrash. It would be singular if
the authorial designation had been lost and yet the attribute had
remained in the title of the midrash.
Date
It is difficult to ascertain the exact date of the editing of Genesis Rabba. It was probably undertaken not much later than the Jerusalem Talmud(4th to 5th centuries). But even then the text was probably not finally
closed, for longer or shorter passages could always be added, the
number of prefatory passages to a section be increased, and those
existing be enlarged by accretion. Thus, beginning with the Torah
portion Vayishlach, extensive passages are found that bear the marks of the later haggadah, and have points of connection with the Tanhuma
homilies. The passages were probably added at an early date, since they
are not entirely missing in the older manuscripts, which are free from
many other additions and glosses
that are found in the present editions. In the concluding chapters,
Genesis Rabba seems to have remained defective. In the sections of the
Torah portion Vayigash,
the comment is no longer carried out verse by verse; the last section
of this Torah portion, as well as the first of the Torah portion Vayechi,
is probably drawn from Tanhuma homilies. The comment to the whole 48th
chapter of Genesis is missing in all the manuscripts (with one
exception), and to verses 1-14 in the editions. The remaining portion of
this Torah portion, the comment on Jacob's blessing (Gen. 49)
is found in all the manuscripts — with the above-mentioned exceptions —
in a revision showing later additions, a revision that was also used by
the compiler of the Tanhuma Midrash edited by Solomon Buber. The best manuscript of Genesis Rabba is found in the Codex Add. 27,169 of the British Museum. It was used for the critical edition issued by J. Theodor.
Print editions
- Midrash Rabbah: Genesis. Translated by H. Freedman and Maurice Simon, Vols. 1–2. London: Soncino Press, 1939. ISBN 0-900689-38-2.
- Jacob Neusner. Confronting Creation: How Judaism Reads Genesis: An Anthology of Genesis Rabbah. Columbia, S.C.: University of South Carolina Press, 1991. ISBN 0-87249-732-1.
- Artscroll Kleinman Edition Midrash Rabbah Genesis Vol 1-4, English/Hebrew with English elucidation http://www.artscroll.com/Books/mrbr2.html
References
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). "Bereshit Rabbah". Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company.
External links
- Sacred Texts: Judaism: The Bereshith or Genesis Rabba, a selection of sayings from the work translated into English by Samuel Rapaport.
- Midrash Rabbah Genesis Volume I at Internet Archive
- Beresheit Rabba in Hebrew
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