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Bereshith Rabba

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is the title of a midrash or commentary on Genesis, composed in Palestine in the 6th century. The last five chapters, commencing with the section וִיְחַי (Genesis 47:12 sq.), hence also called Vaichi Rabba, are more modern, probably of the 11th century. A careful examination of this midrash proves that its author made use of Bar-Sira or Ben-Sira, Mishna, Tosephta, Sifre, Sifri, Mechilta, Seder Olam, the Onkelos Version and Jonathan Targum, etc. This midrash is now accessible to students in the German translation published by. A. W. Vimsche, in his Bibliotheca Rabbinica (Leips. 1880). Besides Zunz, Goftesdienstliche Vortrdye, p. 174-179, 254-256, see especially the prize-essay of M. Lerner, Anlage des Bereschith Rabba und seine Quellen, published in Berliner and Hoffmann's Magaziniiur die Wissenschaft des Judenthums, 1880, iii, 157 sq.; 4:197 sq.; 1881, i, 30 sq. (B. P.)