Midrash Eleh Ezkerah (
Hebrew: אֵלֶּה אֶזְכְּרָהʾĒlle ʾEzkərā) is an
aggadic midrash, one of the
smaller midrashim, which receives its name from the fact that a
seliḥah for the
Day of Atonement, which treats the same subject and begins with the words "Eleh ezkerah," recounts the execution of ten famous teachers of the
Mishnah in the time of the persecution by
Hadrian (see
Ten Martyrs). The same event is related in a very ancient source,
Eichah Rabbah.[1]
The version in Eleh Ezkerah
According to the Midrash Eleh Ezkerah, and a brief parallel source in Midrash Mishlei, [2][3] a Roman emperor commanded the execution of the ten sages of Israel to expiate the guilt of the sons of
Jacob, who had sold their brother
Joseph—a crime which, according to
Exodus 21:16, had to be punished with death.
The names of the martyrs are given here, as in the
seliḥah already mentioned (varying in part from
Eichah Rabbah and
Midrash Tehillim), as follows:
Although this midrash employs other sources, borrowing its introduction from the
Midrash Konen, and the account of the conversation of Rabbi Ishmael with the angels in heaven probably from the Hekalot, it forms, nevertheless, a coherent work. It was edited, on the basis of a Hamburg codex, by
A. Jellinek[4] and, according to another manuscript, by
S. Chones, in his Rav Pe'alim.[5] A second and a third recension of the midrash were edited, on the basis of manuscript sources, in Jellinek's B. H.,[6] and a fourth is contained in the Spanish liturgical work Bet Av.[7] According to Jellinek, "the fourth recension is the oldest, since it has borrowed large portions from the Hekalot; next to this stand the second and the third; while the youngest is the first, which, nevertheless, has the advantage of real conformity with the spirit of the race and represents this the best of all." The martyrdom of the ten sages is also treated in the additions to the Hekalot[8] and in the
ḳinah for the
Ninth of Ab.
Midrash Eleh Ezkerah (
Hebrew: אֵלֶּה אֶזְכְּרָהʾĒlle ʾEzkərā) is an
aggadic midrash, one of the
smaller midrashim, which receives its name from the fact that a
seliḥah for the
Day of Atonement, which treats the same subject and begins with the words "Eleh ezkerah," recounts the execution of ten famous teachers of the
Mishnah in the time of the persecution by
Hadrian (see
Ten Martyrs). The same event is related in a very ancient source,
Eichah Rabbah.[1]
The version in Eleh Ezkerah
According to the Midrash Eleh Ezkerah, and a brief parallel source in Midrash Mishlei, [2][3] a Roman emperor commanded the execution of the ten sages of Israel to expiate the guilt of the sons of
Jacob, who had sold their brother
Joseph—a crime which, according to
Exodus 21:16, had to be punished with death.
The names of the martyrs are given here, as in the
seliḥah already mentioned (varying in part from
Eichah Rabbah and
Midrash Tehillim), as follows:
Although this midrash employs other sources, borrowing its introduction from the
Midrash Konen, and the account of the conversation of Rabbi Ishmael with the angels in heaven probably from the Hekalot, it forms, nevertheless, a coherent work. It was edited, on the basis of a Hamburg codex, by
A. Jellinek[4] and, according to another manuscript, by
S. Chones, in his Rav Pe'alim.[5] A second and a third recension of the midrash were edited, on the basis of manuscript sources, in Jellinek's B. H.,[6] and a fourth is contained in the Spanish liturgical work Bet Av.[7] According to Jellinek, "the fourth recension is the oldest, since it has borrowed large portions from the Hekalot; next to this stand the second and the third; while the youngest is the first, which, nevertheless, has the advantage of real conformity with the spirit of the race and represents this the best of all." The martyrdom of the ten sages is also treated in the additions to the Hekalot[8] and in the
ḳinah for the
Ninth of Ab.