Yalkut Shimoni

The Yalkut Shimoni (Hebrew: ילקוט שמעוני) or simply Yalkut is an aggadic compilation on the books of the Hebrew Bible. From such older haggadot as were accessible to him, the author collected various interpretations and explanations of Biblical passages, and arranged these according to the sequence of those portions of the Bible to which they referred.

The individual elucidations form an organic whole only insofar as they refer to the same Biblical passage. Lengthy citations from ancient works are often abridged or are only partially quoted, the remainder being cited elsewhere. Since the interpretations of the ancient exegetes usually referred to several passages, and since the Yalḳuṭ endeavored to quote all such explanations, repetitions were inevitable, and haggadic sayings relating to two or more sections of the Bible were often duplicated. In many instances, however, only the beginning of such an explanation is given, the reader being referred to the passage in which it is recorded in its entirety.

The work is divided into sections, which are numbered from Genesis to the end of Deuteronomy, and are numbered anew from the beginning of Joshua, the first non-Pentateuchal book, so that the Yalḳuṭ falls into two parts:

In the arrangement of the Hagiographa the author deviates from the Talmudic order (B. B. l.c.) by placing Book of Esther before Book of Daniel, while the reverse order is followed in the Talmud. The division into sections is arbitrary, and the sections are very unequal in length; Deut. 818, for example, in the Wilna edition containing only five lines, while Deut. 938 comprises eighteen columns. In his exegesis of each passage, often in the text itself, the author indicates the sources from which his explanations are derived. In the Salonica edition they are given at the beginning of each corresponding Biblical passage, although in later editions they were placed in the margin. In many instances, however, the sources are given in an inconvenient place or are entirely eliminated, while some references are even indicated by a later redactor, as, for example, Job 921, where the source (Ex. R.) is a later addition, the original redactor being unacquainted with Exodus Rabbah (comp. A. Epstein, Rabbi Shimeon Ḳara weha-Yalḳuṭ Shim'oni, in Ha-Ḥoḳer, i. 137).

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