[2], 240; [1], 241-324; [1], [325] - 392; [1], 393-544; [1], 545-762, [1] pp., octavo, 195:130 mm., nice margins, light age staining, on thin tissue paper. A very good copy bound in the original boards.

Midrash Rabbah with the commentary Matnot Kehunah of R. Judah Gedalia, commentary Yedei Moshe, Rashi and others. The midrash is the largest, most popular, most important, and earliest collection of Midrashim on the Pentateuch and five Megillot, hence its name, Rabbah (large), here on the Torah only. Midrash Rabbah, recording the sayings of tannaim and amoraim, primarily from Erez Israel, is not, in fact, a unitary work but rather a collection of independent Midrashim written at different times, with individual styles, assembled together under a single title. The parts comprising the Midrash on the Pentateuch are Genesis Rabbah (Bereshit Rabbah); Exodus Rabbah (Shemot Rabbah); Leviticus Rabbah (Va- Yikra Rabbah); Numbers Rabbah (Bemidbar Rabbah); and Deuteronomy Rabbah (Devarim Rabbah). The combined work was already known as Midrash Rabbah by the beginning of the thirteenth century.

Genesis and Leviticus Rabbah are among the earliest amoraic Midrashim, dating to the fifth century. They are in Mishnaic Hebrew, with Western Aramaic and Greek, possibly contemporaneous with the completion of the Jerusalem Talmud. Deuteronomy Rabbah, too, is a relatively early work. Exodus Rabbah is comprised of two separate works, known as Exodus Rabbah I and II, written respectively no earlier than the tenth and ninth centuries. Numbers Rabbah (Bemidbar Rabbah), also in two parts, Numbers Rabbah I and II, was compiled, respectively, in the eleventh and ninth centuries. These Midrashim differ: Leviticus and Deuteronomy Rabbah are homiletic; Genesis and Exodus Rabbah are exegetical. Numbers Rabbah, with elements of both, is primarily homiletic.

Hebrew Description

... עם פירוש רש"י... מתנות כהונה... ידי משה... יפה תאר...משנת רבי אליעזר... זרע אברהם...