Midrash Tadshe (Hebrew: מדרש תדשא) is a small midrash which begins with an interpretation of Gen. i. 11:
"And God said, Let the earth bring forth" ("Tadshe ha-areẓ"). "Why," asked R. Phinehas, "did God decree that grass and herbs and fruits should grow upon the third day, while light was not created until the fourth? To show His infinite power, which is almighty; for even without the light He caused the earth to bring forth [while now He creates all manner of trees and plants through the operation of the light]."
The name of the author occurs twice (ed. A. Epstein, pp. xxi., xxxi.), and the midrash closes with the words "'ad kan me-dibre R. Pineḥas ben Ya'ir." No other authors are named. This midrash is peculiar in several respects, varying in many statements from other midrashim, and, although written in pure Hebrew, it contains numerous expressions which are not found elsewhere, such as חג העומר and חג השופרות and ככבים שרועים (= "planets," p. xix.). The structure of the midrash is very loose.
The Midrash Tadshe is in the main symbolic in tendency, and it plays much on groups of numbers. Section 2 contains a symbolization of the Tabernacle, and, according to A. Epstein, the central idea of the midrash is the theory of three worlds—earth, man, and the Tabernacle. Section 10 contains a mystic explanation of the numbers mentioned in connection with the offerings of the princes (comp. Num. vii. 12 et seq.). Combinations and parallelisms based on the number ten are found in sections 5 and 15; on seven, in 6, 11, and 20; on six, in 20; on five, in 7; on four, in 20; on three, in 12, 18, etc. Desultory expositions of Gen. ii. 17; iii. 3, 14 et seq.; Ex. vii. 12 et seq., 83 et seq.; Lev. xiii. 2, xiv. 34; Lam. i. 1 et seq.; Num. iv. 3, xxvii. 7; and Deut. xxxii. 12, are contained in sections 7, 10, 17, 20, 21, and 22.