INTRODUCTION
25
Pentateuch and the five Megilloth
(i.e.
Ruth, Esther,
Lamentations, Song of Songs, and Ecclesiastes).
The ten Midrashim are of very various date, and
were not gathered into one great collection till as
late as the thirteenth century. Other Midrashim, of
similar character, are Tanhuma, or Jelam'denu, on
the Pentateuch, Pesiqta on selected passages, and
Jalqut Shim'oni on the whole of the O.T.,
being a vast collection of extracts from earlier
Midrashim. For details concerning these and many
similar works, I refer the reader to the books of
Zunz, Hamburger, and others mentioned above. My
object in this introduction is not to give a biblio-
graphy of Rabbinical literature, but to indicate the
general scope and method of that literature, so that
the reader may have some idea of the sources whence
the passages, which will presently be given, have
been extracted.
It will now be possible, as it is highly desirable, to
attempt an answer to the question, What is the
value, as historical evidence, of the Rabbinical
literature? Can any reliance be placed upon
statements found in works whose main purpose was
not to impart exact knowledge of facts, but to give
religious and moral teaching?
Nothing is easier than to pick out from the
Talmud and the Midrash statements in regard to
historical events, which are palpably and even
monstrously false, and that, too, when the events
referred to were not very far removed from the
lifetime of the author of the statements. And the
conclusion is ready to hand, that if, in regard to
events almost within living memory, such error
was
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