Vayeshev | The Apocrypha and the Midrash

Vayeshev | The Apocrypha and the Midrash, by Rav Yitzchak Etshalom

Is there anything legitimately "Jewish" about apocryphal Midrashim?

We are accustomed to thinking of the Apocrypha (the "hidden" or "buried" writings of the 3rd century BCE through the first century CE) as external to our Rabbinic tradition and to reflecting purely sectarian approaches and interpretations. Yet - we sometimes find a common thread between the interpretive approaches taken in these somewhat esoteric books and those found in our "mainstream" Midrashic literature. We examine an unusual passage in the apocryphal "Testament of Judah" and find a curious commonality appearing nearly a millennium later in Midrash Bereishit Rabbati.

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