Pesiḳta ascribed to Rab Kahana

Pesikta de-Rab Kahana (Hebrew: פסיקתא דרב כהנא) is a collection of Aggadic midrash which exists in two editions, those of Solomon Buber (Lyck, 1868) and Bernard Mandelbaum (1962). It is cited in the Aruk and by Rashi. It consists of 33 (or 34) homilies on the lessons forming the Pesikta cycle: the Pentateuchal lessons for special Sabbaths (Nos. 1-6) and for the feast-days (Nos. 7-12, 23, 27-32), the prophetic lessons for the Sabbaths of mourning and comforting (Nos. 13-22), and the penitential sections "Dirshu" and "Shubah" (Nos. 24, 25; No. 26 is a homily entitled "Seliḥot").

The term "pesikta" is an Aramaic cognate of the Hebrew "pasuk" or "verse". The appearance of the name of "Rav Kahana" in the title (in manuscripts as early as the 11th century) is possibly to be explained in two ways (Strack & Stemberger 1991): Zunz and S. Buber consider the title to be due to the phrase "Rav Abba bar Kahana patah..." which opens the longest section of the work, for the Shabbat preceding the 17th of Tammuz. The other opinion (B. Mandelbaum) considers the appearance in two manuscripts of the name "Rav Kahana" at the beginning of the Rosh Hashana chapter—which may have originally been the first chapter—as the more likely explanation for the use of his name in the title of the work. The position of the Rosh Hashana section as the first pesikta is also attested by the Aruk (Strack & Stemberger 1991).

It is unclear, in any case, which particular "Rav Kahana" is referred to in the title and in the work, since all of the six individuals (that we know of) bearing that name lived in Babylonia (Strack & Stemberger 1991), while the Pesikta de-Rav Kahana was probably composed in Palestine.

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