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One of the six known manuscript versions of the Tosafist work Hadar Zekeinim. This one dates around the 15th century. |
Introduction
This article—based extensively on the research by Rabbi Dr Zvi Ron[1]—examines various Midrashim that have been rejected by an unofficial form of collective rabbinic consensus. These include Midrashim from lesser known sources as well as, surprisingly, those from classical Midrashic sources such as Mechilta, Sifra, Sifri, Midrash Raba and Midrash Tanchuma.
Midrashic ‘status’
Not all Midrashim are cut from the same cloth and there appears to be a hierarchy of Midrashic sources. Rav Hai Gaon (939-1038), for example, suggests that those Midrashim that made it into the corpus of the Talmud, are of a superior quality to those that remained in the anthologies of Midrashic works alone. He maintains that the Midrashim not found in the Talmud can be rejected if they do not seem plausible: