Midrash Chamesh Megilloth Rabatha [on the Five Scrolls]

(MIDRASH)

Justinian-Adelkind

Venice

1545

First word of each Book within elaborate woodcut design. Printed in double columns. A few Hebrew marginalia in an old Italian hand. On final page, censor’s signature, “Visto per me Gio[vanni] Dominico Carretto 1688.” Cf. Wm. Popper, The Censorship of Hebrew Books (1969), bet. pp. 130-1, pl. 7

Vinograd, Venice 242; Steinschneider 3756

Traditionally each of the Five Scrolls is reserved for a different occasion in the Jewish year: The Song of Songs is read on Passover; Ruth on Shavu’oth; Esther on Purim; Lamentations on the Fast of the Ninth of Av; and Ecclesiastes on Sukoth. The first of the five Midrashim, Shir ha-Shirim Rabbah, was also known in medieval times as “Midrash Chazitha” on account of the first keyword of the text, a citation of the verse in Proverbs 22:29, “Chazitha ish mahir bi-melachto.” The Midrash on Lamentations is preceded by a long overture, or Pethichatha. It begins “Rabbi Abba bar Kahana pathach” (Rabbi Abba bar Kahana opened). In Chassidic circles it was playfully interpreted that the rabbi named, opened a “tzinor” or conduit of divine inspiration. The Aramaic of the Midrashim is chock-full of obscure words and is a challenging text to absorb. Traditionally each of the Five Scrolls is reserved for a different occasion in the Jewish year: The Song of Songs is read on Passover; Ruth on Shavu’oth; Esther on Purim; Lamentations on the Fast of the Ninth of Av; and Ecclesiastes on Sukoth. The first of the five Midrashim, Shir ha-Shirim Rabbah, was also known in medieval times as “Midrash Chazitha” on account of the first keyword of the text, a citation of the verse in Proverbs 22:29, “Chazitha ish mahir bi-melachto.” The Midrash on Lamentations is preceded by a long overture, or Pethichatha. It begins “Rabbi Abba bar Kahana pathach” (Rabbi Abba bar Kahana opened). In Chassidic circles it was playfully interpreted that the rabbi named, opened a “tzinor” or conduit of divine inspiration. The Aramaic of the Midrashim is chock-full of obscure words and is a challenging text to absorb.