Smaller Midrashim - Other Small Midrashim and Mystical Literature

Other Small Midrashim and Mystical Literature

In these collections, especially in A. Jellinek's Bet ha-Midrash, there are many small midrashim, either edited there for the first time or reprinted, as well as a number of works under other names, a discussion of which belongs rather to an article on mystic literature. The following treatises, however, may be mentioned here, the titles being given for the most part according to Jellinek:

  • Agadat Mashiaḥ (Haggadah of the Messiah; ib. iii. 141 et seq.).
  • Baraita Ma'ase Bereshit (in S. Chones' addenda to Abraham Wilna's Rab Pe'alim, pp. 47 et seq.); also Seder Rabbah de-Bereshit (in Wertheimer, l.c. i. 1-31).
  • Gan 'Eden we-Gehinnom (Paradise and Hell; ib. v. 42 et seq.).
  • Ma'aseh R. Yehoshua' b. Levi (History of R. Joshua b. Levi; ib. ii. 48 et seq.).
  • Midrash Konen (in B. H. ii. 23-39);
  • Be-Ḥokmah Yasad (Divine Wisdom; ib. v. 63-69)
  • Masseket Gehinnom (Tractate of Gehenna; ib. i. 147-149)
  • Milḥamot ha-Mashiaḥ (War of the Messiah; ib. vi. 117 et seq.)
  • Misterot R. Shim'on b. Yoḥai (Mysteries of R. Simeon b. Yoḥai; ib. iii. 78 et seq.).
  • Otiyot de-Rabbi Aḳiba (Alphabetical Midrash of R. Akiba; first and second recensions in B. H. iii. 12-64; comp. ib. v. 31-33; vi., p. xl.; Wertheimer, l.c. ii. 23 et seq.)
  • Hekalot Rabbati (Great Hekalot; in B. H. iii. 83-108);
  • Masseket Hekalot (Tractate Hekalot; ib. ii. 40-47; comp. also ib. i. 58 et seq., iii. 161 et seq., vi. 109 et seq.);
  • Baraita Ma'ase Merkabah (in Wertheimer, l.c. ii. 15-25).
  • Otiyot Mashiaḥ (Signs of the Messiah; ib. ii. 58-63).
  • Pirḳe Eliyahu (Sections Concerning the Messiah; ib. iii. 68 et seq.).
  • Seder Gan 'Eden (Description of Paradise; ib. ii. 52 et seq.; second recension, ib. iii. 131-140; additions, ib. 194-198).
  • Sefer Eliyahu (Apocalypse of Elijah; ib. iii. 65 et seq.).
  • Sefer Zerubbabel (Book of Zerubbabel; ib. ii. 54-57; comp. also Wertheimer, l.c. ii. 25 et seq., 29 et seq.).

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Jewish Encyclopedia. 1901–1906.

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