Midrash HaGadol
14th century compilation of aggadic midrashim on the Torah taken from the two Talmuds and earlier Midrashim of Yemenite provenance.
Midrash HaGadol or The Great Midrash (Hebrew: מדרש הגדול) is a work of aggaddic midrash, expanding on the narratives of the Torah, which was written by David ben Amram Adani of Yemen (14th century).
Its contents were compiled from the Jerusalem and Babylonian Talmud and earlier midrashic literature of tannaitic provenance. In addition, the compiler of the midrash borrows quotations from the Targums, Maimonides, and Kabbalistic writings, Avot of Rabbi Natan, Pesikta Rabbati, Pesikta de-Rav Kahana, Pirke Rabbi Eliezer, Mishnat Rabbi Eliezer [b. Rabbi Yose ha-Galili], and in this aspect is unique among the various midrashic collections.
This important work, the largest of the midrashic collections, came to popular attention in the late 19th century through the efforts of Jacob Saphir, Solomon Schechter and David Zvi Hoffmann. In addition to containing midrashic material that is not found elsewhere, such as part of the Mekhilta of Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai. Most of the Mekhilta of Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai is found in the Midrash HaGadol, which, heretofore, has only been available in scattered and fragmented manuscripts. The Midrash HaGadol, along with the other extant fragmented manuscripts, were used by scholars to reconstruct the ancient Mekhilta. Midrash HaGadol contains what are considered to be more correct versions of previously known Talmudic and midrashic passages.
Discovery and publication
The existence of the Midrash HaGadol was first brought to the attention of Jewish scholarship by Jacob Saphir, who in his Even Sapir (1866) reports seeing a manuscript of the work in the possession of the Chief Rabbi of Yemen.
The public source identifies “Midrash HaGadol” as 14th century compilation of aggadic midrashim on the Torah taken from the two Talmuds and earlier Midrashim of Yemenite provenance. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Midrash, HaGadol and 14th.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q847953. VIAF identifies the subject as 178139503. The Library of Congress control number is nr94026233. None of the 2 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1866.
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This entry incorporates text from “Midrash HaGadol” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.