Cant. R.

Shir ha-Shirim Rabbah (Hebrew: שיר השירים רבה) is a Haggadic midrash on Song of Songs, quoted by Rashi under the title "Midrash Shir ha-Shirim" (commentary on Cant. iv. 1, viii. 11). It is called also Agadat Ḥazita, from its initial word "Ḥazita" (Nathan ben Jehiel, in the Aruk, s.v. טפף), or Midrash Ḥazita (Naḥmanides, commentary on Ex. iv. 28; Simon Duran, Tashbaẓ, part iii., No. 37).

Simon Duran, in quoting this midrash, says that it is a Judean haggadic collection (ib.). The sources which it uses directly are from the Jerusalem Talmud. No direct borrowing from the Babylonian Talmud appears, and, although it contains many interpretations and comments found in this source, most of them vary greatly in form, the agreement being confined to their contents. This agreement, moreover, may be explained on the ground that the comments and interpretations in question are very old, and were included both in the Babylonian Talmud and in the Palestinian sources used by the redactor of the Shir ha-Shirim midrash (see below; comp. also Theodar, Zur Composition der Agadischen Homilien, in Monatsschrift, 1879, p. 343).

The date of composition of this midrash cannot be exactly determined. Canticles was interpreted haggadically at a very early time, and certain rules for this haggadic interpretation were formulated, as, for instance, the rule adopted by Judah ben Ilai (Cant. R. i. 12, ii. 4) and the rule (in Sheb. 35b) for the interpretation of the name for Solomon used in Canticles. Upon these rules are based the interpretations of the verses of Canticles which are contained in the Seder Olam, in the Sifra, and, with especial frequency, in the Sifre and the Mekilta, as well as in the Talmud, which has an exegesis for almost every verse of the book. The majority of the interpretations in the last-named work were taken from public lectures on Canticles, or from various haggadah collections (comp. Er. 21b). Some scholars (I.H. Weiss, Dor iii. 263-264; and Adolf Jellinek, in a letter to Theodor, reprinted in Monatsschrift, 1879, pp. 237 et seq.), moreover, have assumed a direct connection between such ancient discourses and the present Canticles Rabbah, regarding this midrash as an old collection of these discourses, increased by various later additions.

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