Deuteronomy Rabbah - The Munich Codex

The Munich Codex

The same name is given to the Midrash on Deuteronomy in Cod. Munich, No. 229; this contains for the first pericope, דברים, four entirely different homilies which have but a few points of similarity with those in present editions, but which are likewise composed according to the Tanḥuma form, and are on the same Scriptural sections as the homilies in Debarim Rabbah; namely, on Deut. i. 1, i. 10, ii. 2, ii. 31. The second and third pericopes have also halakic exordiums closing with the words, מנין ממה שקרינו בענין..., in which, however, the question is put without any formula. The Munich manuscript agrees with Debarim Rabbah in the pericopes עקב to נצבים, but has additions to the latter; the remaining pericopes are lacking.

Another manuscript Midrash, which was in the possession of A. Epstein circa 1900, contains not only the same homilies as Cod. Munich for the pericope דברים, but for the pericope ואתחנן has similar homilies, that are entirely different from Debarim Rabbah and are on the sedarim Deut. iii. 23 (not iv. 7), iv. 25, iv. 41, vi. 4; all these four homilies have halakic exordiums. The manuscript also has a different exordium for the beginning עקב. From this point to the pericope כי תבא, it agrees with the print editions (the exordiums, however, are preceded only by the word הלכה, without אדם מישראל); in pericope נצבים and its additions it agrees with the Cod. Munich. For וילך (also on Deut. xxxi. 14) it has a different text; and in the last two pericopes, האזינו and וזאת הברכה, it agrees with the Midrash Tanḥuma in present editions. It may be assumed with certainty that the first one or two pericopes of this manuscript—in which several passages can be pointed out that R. Baḥya (end of the 13th century) quotes from the Midrash Rabbah or from אלה הדברים רבה—belong to a Midrash that originally included the whole of Deuteronomy. What remained of that Midrash was combined in those codices with pericopes from Debarim Rabbah and Midrash Tanḥuma. Among the numerous Midrashim to Deuteronomy there are known to be a number of fragments of a Debarim Zuṭa, the preservation of which is due to the author of Yalḳuṭ.