Midrash ha-Ḥefez (lit. "Midrash of desire"), or "Commentary of the Book of the Law",[1] is a
Hebrewmidrash written by the physician and Rabbi, Yihye ibn Suleiman al-Dhamari, otherwise known as
Zechariah ben Solomon ha-Rofé, which he began to write in 1430 in
Yemen and concluded some years later.[2] The work contains commentaries and homilies on the
Pentateuch,
Book of Esther, and
Book of Lamentations, as well as a commentary on the
haftarot, written in a mixture of
Hebrew,
Aramaic and
Judeo-Arabic. A commentary exists under the name "al-Durra al-Muntakhaba".[3]
Content
The midrash covering the Five Books of Moses is characterized as both a midrash and as a commentary. It is full of philosophical and scientific topics, as was common during the
Middle Ages in Yemen. The author was greatly influenced by all of
Maimonides' books, but especially by his philosophical thought. Many of the homilies contained in the midrash are written in the form of an allegory which, in this case, differs from the literary style of Maimonides. The work is written mostly in
Judeo-Arabic, like much other Jewish scholarship at the time.
According to
S. Schecter, other materials once comprised the work Midrash ha-Hefez, such as the riddles posed by the
Queen of Sheba to
King Solomon, although these excerpts are not found in the edition of Midrash ha-Hefez published by Meir Havazelet. Schecter published his findings in a different publication,[4] and which are now a part of the manuscript collections in the
British Library (with four copies: Or. 2351, Or. 2380, Or. 2381 and Or. 2382). The
Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford (see Dr. Neubauer’s Catalogue, No. 2492) and the
Royal Library in Berlin also possess copies of this Midrash (The Riddles of Solomon).
The midrashic work contains a wisdom contest between King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. It is noted as part of a long literary tradition about these figures, and for its inclusion of a number of
Hebrew riddles:
There is an enclosure with ten doors: when one is open nine are shut; when nine are open, one is shut. — The
womb, the
bodily orifices, and the
umbilical cord.
Living, moves not, yet when its head is cut off it moves. — A ship in the sea (made from a tree).
What was that which is produced from the ground, yet produces it, while its food is the fruit of the ground? — A wick.[5]
Editions and translations
The Midrash ha-Ḥefez was translated into Hebrew by Rabbi Dr. Meir Havazelet, and published by
Mossad Harav Kook in Jerusalem (1990) - Genesis and Exodus; and in 1992 - Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, and contains an Introduction by Rabbi
Yosef Qafih.
Hebrew University National Library of Israel at the Hebrew University campus in Jerusalem, Ms. no. 40759
British Museum Ms. (described in Margalioth's catalogue of Hebrew manuscripts, vol. 2, p. 2351, under no. 363, and containing only the midrash for the Book of Genesis, with its
Haftara sections. Dated to the 16th-century.)
Sassoon Ms. no. 262 (lacking many pages)
Sassoon Ms. no. 900 (lacking many pages)
Qafih Ms. (partially corrupt with many copyist errors)
^Based on the Yemenite interpretation of these words. See
Ratzaby, Yehuda[in Hebrew] (1978). Dictionary of the Hebrew Language used by Yemenite Jews (Osar Leshon Haqqodesh shellivne Teman) (in Hebrew). Tel-Aviv. p. 101.
OCLC19166610.{{
cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
link), s.v. חפץ, def. 2
^Zechariah ha-Rofé (1990). Havazelet, Meir (ed.). Midrash ha-Ḥefez (in Hebrew). Vol. 1. Jerusalem:
Mossad Harav Kook. p. 4, note 28 (Zechariah ha-Rofe's Introduction).
OCLC23773577.. At Zechariah ha-Rofé's own admittance, he began to write his commentary, Midrash ha-Ḥefez, in anno mundi 5190 (הק"ץ ליצירה), a year corresponding with 1430
CE. A misplaced colophon appearing in another work of Zechariah ha-Rofé, a work which included the Midrash ha-Ḥefez, shows the date 1427 as the completion of the work (see Zechariah ha-Rofé 1990:12 [Preface]), but which can only be understood to imply that the other work was completed in that year - excluding Midrash ha-Ḥefez. Midrash ha-Ḥefez would have been completed some years later, as Zechariah ha-Rofé mentions in the Torah section, Parashat Bo (Zechariah ha-Rofé 1990:311, note 69) that in the year 1747 of the
Seleucid era (corresponding with year 1436 CE) there was a plague in Yemen which devastated many of their cities' populations.