Book
Midrash Tanchuma מדרש תנחומא
A midrash on the whole Torah in which almost every section opens with a question of law and ends in consolation.
The Tanchuma has a recognisable shape: a section opens with the words "Yelamdenu rabbenu"—"let our master teach us"—and a question of law; out of the answer grows a homily, and the homily ends with words about the redemption to come. These are the traces of living synagogue preaching, written down later.
The book's name comes from Rabbi Tanchuma bar Abba, the last great aggadist of the Land of Israel, whose expositions it cites especially often. But the book itself took shape after him and has come down in several recensions, noticeably different from one another.
On the timeline
Related
Sources
Chazal: Mishnah, Talmud, midrash, Zohar
- Midrash Tanchuma, Bereshit 1 — «let our master teach us»
- Midrash Tanchuma, Noach 3 — a homily grown out of a question of law
Basis: documents and evidence.