Book
Yalkut Shimoni ילקוט שמעוני
A collection of midrashim on the whole Tanakh, gathered from some hundred and fifty books, many of which would otherwise be lost.
"Yalkut" means "a gathering." The compiler went through the Tanakh verse by verse and collected for each whatever he found in the midrashim, the Talmud and older anthologies, marking the source. The result is a book used as an index.
Its value is not only convenience. Some of the sources it drew on have not come down to us at all—and we know of them only through its extracts. The compiler is held to be Rabbi Shimon haDarshan of Frankfurt; almost nothing certain is known of him, and the book is dated to the thirteenth century.
On the timeline
Sources
Chazal: Mishnah, Talmud, midrash, Zohar
- Yalkut Shimoni, Bereshit 1 — the plan: a verse and the midrashim gathered to it
Acharonim and later rabbinic literature
- Shem HaGedolim, Chida — what is known of the compiler
Basis: documents and evidence.