Midrash Rabbah

Midrash Rabbah ("the Great Midrash") is a set of ten midrashic works: one on each of the five books of the Torah and one on each of the Five Megillot (Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes and Esther). They were written centuries apart. Genesis Rabbah, Leviticus Rabbah and Lamentations Rabbah come from the Galilee of the Amoraim, around 400–500. Others, such as Exodus Rabbah and Numbers Rabbah, reached their final form only around 1000–1200. The name probably comes from the opening words of Genesis Rabbah, which quote Rabbi Hoshaya Rabbah.

Printers turned the ten into one collection: the Torah volumes appeared in Constantinople in 1512 and the Megillot in Venice in 1545. The midrashim are full of parables, sermons and legends. Genesis Rabbah 1:1 opens with the image of God as an architect who looked into the Torah, as into a blueprint, to create the world. Countless later sermons, commentaries and Shabbat-table teachings draw on these collections.