Deuteronomy Rabbah - Analysis of Contents

Analysis of Contents

According to its original composition, this midrash includes the following homilies (the passages marked with an asterisk are sedarim):

1. Parashah i. Nos. 1-9 (according to the Wilna ed.), on * Deut. i. 1;
2. ib. Nos. 10-14, on Deut i. 10;
3. ib. Nos. 15-20, on *Deut. ii. 2;
4. ib. Nos. 21-25, on *Deut. ii. 31;
5. par. ii. Nos. 1-9, on *Deut. iii. 23;
6. ib. Nos. 10-17, on Deut. iv. 7;
7. ib. Nos. 18-24, on *Deut. iv. 25;
8. ib. Nos. 25-30, on *Deut. iv. 41;
9. ib. Nos. 31-37, on *Deut. vi. 4;
10. par. iii. Nos. 1-7, on *Deut. vii. 12;
11. ib. Nos. 8-11, on *Deut. ix. 1;
12. ib. Nos. 12-17, on *Deut. x. 1;
13. par. iv. Nos. 1-5, on Deut. xi. 26;
14. ib. Nos. 6-11, on *Deut. xii. 20;
15. par. v. Nos. 1-7, on *Deut. xvi. 18;
16. ib. Nos. 8-11, on *Deut. xvii. 14;
17. ib. Nos. 12-15, on *Deut. xx. 10;
18. par. vi. Nos. 1-7, on *Deut. xxii. 6;
19. ib. Nos. 8-14, on Deut. xxiv. 9;
20. par. vii. Nos. 1-7, on *Deut. xxviii. 1;
21. ib. Nos. 8-12, on Deut. xxix. 1; (par. viii. No. 1, merely a halakic exordium, doubtful if belonging to *Deut.xxix.9);
22. par. viii. Nos. 2-7, on *Deut. xxx. 11:
23. par. ix. Nos. 1-9, on *Deut. xxxi. 14;
24. par. x. Nos. 1-4, on *Deut. xxxii. 1;
25. par. xi. Nos. 1-5, and probably 7-8, on Deut. xxxiii. 1 (ib.. No. 6 is an interpolated second halakic exordium; No. 8 probably closes the homily and the Midrash, the remaining pieces being additions borrowed from the Midrash on the death of Moses).

These homilies, which in a new edition of the Midrash should be marked as its proper components, evince a great regularity of workmanship in their composition and execution. Each homily begins with a halakic exordium, has one or more proems, followed by the commentary—in which, however, only the first verse, or a few verses from the beginning of the section read, are treated—and ends with an easily recognizable peroration containing a promise of the Messianic future or some other consolatory thought, all concluding with a verse of the Bible. The comments referring only to the first verses of the lesson characterize Debarim Rabbah as a Midrash of homilies in which even the proems are rather independent homilies than introductions to the comment on the Scriptural section; and the exordiums show, further, that Debarim Rabbah is very similar to the Tanḥuma Midrashim.

In the halakic exordium (an essential of the haggadic discourse which is found neither in Pesiḳta and Wayiḳra Rabbah nor in Bereshit Rabbah) an apparently irrelevant legal question is put, and answered with a passage from the Mishnah (about twenty times) or Tosefta, etc. Such answers are generally introduced in Debarim Rabbah by the formula כך שנו חכמים though the formula usual in Tanḥuma, כך שנו רבותינו, occurs twice (in parashah i. Nos. 10 and 15). Then follow other halakic explanations (compare parashah v. No. 8; par. vii. Nos. 1 and 8; par. ix. No. 1; par. xi. No. 1) and haggadic interpretations, the last of which are deduced from the Scriptural section of the Sabbath lesson. Thus, a connection between the halakic question and the text or the first verse of the lesson is found, and the speaker can proceed to the further discussion of the homily, the exordiums closing generally with the formula מנין ממה שקרינו בענין, followed by the first words of the Scriptural section. The formula occurs 18 times as cited; twice as מנין שכתוב בענין; once as מנין שכך כתוב; twice as מנין שנאמר; it is lacking altogether in only a few of the homilies.