Midrash Tanhuma (Hebrew: מִדְרָשׁ תַּנְחוּמָא, romanized: miḏraš tanḥumā), also known as Yelammedenu, is the name given to a homiletic midrash on the entire Torah, and it is known in several different versions or collections. Tanhuma bar Abba is not the author of the text but instead is a figure to whom traditions are frequently attributed to (indicated by the formula "Thus began R. Tanḥuma" or "Thus preached R. Tanḥuma"), though he may have preserved a collection of midrashim used by other midrash editors.[1] The name Yelammedenu derives from the Hebrew phrase yelammedenu rabbenu, which initiates a typical textual unit in the text.[2]
The earliest manuscript may be from the late 8th or 9th century.[3] The most significant publication on the text so far was an edited volume of studies by Nikolsky and Atzmon from 2022.[4]
^Berman, Samuel (1996). Midrash Tanhuma-Yelammedenu: An English Translation of Genesis and Exodus from the Printed Version of Tanhuma-Yelammedenu With an Introduction, Notes, and Indexes. pp. 11–12. Concerning the date of the completion of this text, we may assume from the inclusion of She'iltot passages and the references to heretics (i.e., the Karaites) that the earliest manuscript of this text was completed in the late eighth or the ninth century.
^Nikolsky, Ronit; Atzmon, Arnon (2022). Studies in the Tanhuma-Yelammedenu literature. The Brill reference library of Judaism. Leiden Boston (Mass.): Brill. ISBN978-90-04-46918-1.
