Midrash Abkir

Midrash Abkir (Hebrew: מדרש אבכיר) is one of the smaller midrashim, the extant remains of which consist of more than 50 excerpts contained in the Yalḳuṭ and a number of citations in other works. It dealt, according to all accessible evidence, only with the first two books of the Pentateuch.

Midrash Abkir derived its name from the formula אבכיר = אמן בימינו כן יהי רצון with which all these homilies closed, according to the testimony of R. Eleazar of Worms in a manuscript commentary on the prayer-book, and according to a codex of A. De Rossi. It is possible that these religious discourses were arranged in the order of the sedarim of Genesis and Exodus, the beginnings of the sedarim being Gen. i. 1, ii. 4, iii. 22, vi. 9, xii. 1, xvii. 1, xviii. 1, xxii. 1, xxvii. 1, xliv. 18; Ex. iii. 1, xvi. 4, and xxv. 1, to which belong the excerpts in Yalḳ., Gen. 4, 17, 34, 50, 63, 81, 82, 96, 120, 150, and in Yalḳ., Ex. 169, 258, and 361. If it may be assumed that in these homilies of the Midrash Abkir the expositions are not confined to the first verses, the fact that certain passages are not connected with the beginning of any seder need cause no surprise.

The language of this midrash is pure Hebrew, while its contents and discussions recall the works of the later haggadic period. As in the Pirḳe Rabbi Eli'ezer, angels are frequently mentioned (comp. the excerpts in Yalḳ. 132, 234, 241, and 243). Shemḥasai (Samyaza) and Azael, according to the account in the Midrash Abkir, descended to earth to hallow the name of God in a degenerate world, but could not withstand the daughters of man. Shemḥasai was entrapped by the beauty of Istahar, who, through the marvelous might of the Divine Name, which she had elicited from him, ascended to heaven. As a reward for her virtue she was placed among the Pleiades, while the angel did penance before the Flood, and in punishment of his seduction of the daughters of men was suspended head downward between heaven and earth.

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