Hanikra Yelamdeinu [Midrashic homilies to the Pentateuch]. Attributed to Tanchuma bar Abba.

MIDRASH TANCHUMA

Francesco della Donne

Verona

1595

Title within elaborately historiated border. Printer’s devise on f.96r. (cf. Yaari no. 48) and on recto of final leaf.

Vinograd, Verona 7; not in Adams

The Tanchuma-Yelamdainu Midrashic cycle is one of the earliest collections of homilies wherein the Halacha is conjoined to the Agada. Commencing with questions of Halachic matter the discussion whereupon turns to Agada and homiletic interpretation. The name given to the work refers to the numerous homiletic interpretations quoted in the name of Tanchuma, the son of Abba, a Palestinian agadist who lived towards the end of the fourth century. The second name, Yelamdeinu, arises from the fact that a large number of homilies open with the formula “Yelamdeinu Rabbeinu” (“May our master teach us”)