Commentary on Midrash Rabba in the Sixteenth Century: The Or ha-Sekhel of Abraham ben Asher

The ʾOr ha-Sekhel of Abraham ben Asher (Venice, 1567) is of great importance in the history of the study of midrash. It is the first book in which Genesis Rabba was accompanied by commentaries, one spuriously attributed to Rashi and the other written by Abraham ben Asher himself. In the mid-sixteenth century, writing commentaries on midrashim was something of a novelty; immediate precedents are hard to identify. Yet the ʾOr ha-Sekhel was among the first of a new outpouring of such expositions. The need for correct texts and explanations of obscure vocabulary was foremost in the minds of interpreters such as Issachar Berman of Poland. However, the importance of midrash in the sermons of the Iberian immigrants to the Ottoman Empire inspired the composition of more discursive commentaries. An analysis of Abraham ben Asher’s expositions shows that his interpretations should be seen in this latter context. By publishing homiletic discourses on midrashim in the ʾOr ha-Sekhel along with a medieval commentary attributed to Rashi, Abraham ben Asher grounded his innovative endeavour to expound Genesis Rabba in the work of the most celebrated commentator on the Bible and the Babylonian Talmud. He thereby presented this midrash as a text requiring dedicated study and the guidance of learned commentators. By printing the text of Genesis Rabba along with two commentaries in the ʾOr ha-Sekhel, Abraham ben Asher provided readers with a comprehensive resource to accomplish this task.