Anthology

Abstract Yalqut —literally, a collection —is the common name in the Middle Ages for an anthology of midrash, or rabbinic scriptural interpretation. The term yalqut, taken from the title of one such collection, yalqut shimoni (which scholars through the ages have often simply called Yalqut), would indeed seem to be an appropriate name for these works. They are, after all, collections of midrashic tradition as it was preserved in the various collections made during the so-called classical or canonical period of midrash during the Byzantine period in the land of Israel. At first glance, these works also appear absolutely different in character from the classical canon of midrash. The singular literary genres of “authentic” midrash from the classical period, which had retained some vitality even in the collections edited at a relatively late date, no longer appear in their pure form in the yalqutim but are adulterated by disparate elements. So, too, in the yalqutim, the crystalline literary editing and original formulation of classical midrash give way to mere technical arrangement, which seems to have involved nothing more than a hackneyed conglomeration of passages from various sources.