Discovery. Comprehensive work on Midrash Rabbah by Rabbi Elazar Landau of Slonim, son of Rav Yaakov Moshe of ...

Discovery. Comprehensive work on Midrash Rabbah by Rabbi Elazar Landau of Slonim, son of Rav Yaakov Moshe of Slonim, grandson of the GR”A.

Complete, comprehensive work on the Midrash Rabbah (excluding Devarim and Megillot) written on the pages of a Midrash Rabbah, by Rav Elazar Landau, great-grandson of the GR”A.

The pages of the Midrash are crowded with elucidations, comments, sources and text corrections in a nice, square, organized hand.

One comment reveals the identity of its writer. Parshat Vayigash (156a) bears the note: מאדוני אבי ז"ל הרב יעקב משה ז"ל נכד הגאון רב י אליהו ז"ל מווילנא (from my father Rav Yaakov Moshe…grandson of the Gaon Eliyahu of Vilna).

In additional notes, he mentions the versions of [ my master, father, grandfather] the GR”A z”l, (Parshat Chayei Sarah, 112a and Parshat Bamidbar 10a).

He also repeatedly mentions versions and elucidations of his [master, his father] z”l (Bereishit 171,a; 171b; 173b; 174b; Shemot 3a; 12a; 21a; Vayikra 5a). The glosses of Rav Yaakov Moshe were printed in the Midrash Rabbah with Eshed B’Nechalim, Vilna 1843-1845.

In his renowned Batei Medrashot (section 1, p. 346), Rabbi Shmuel Aharon Wertheimer copied text corrections on Midrash Rabbah Shir Hashirim from the pages of Rabbi Elazar Landau’s Midrash Rabbah (that he received from his son, Rabbi Eliyahu Landau). He praises his text.

This work is comprised of three elements:

Nuschaot

Rabbi Elazar had an old manuscript Midrash Rabbah that he found in Jerusalem (Refer to Parshat Vayetzei 126a). He also used old prints, and notes variations in the Venice and Mantua prints.

Mesores HaMidrash

With extraordinary expertise, Rabbi Elazar notes parallels in this Midrash and other sources, which he uses to compare and correct the text.

Elucidations

The elucidations include summaries and compilations from the commentaries on the Midrash, thoughts from other authors, his own elucidations, ideas from his father and ideas he heard from other Torah sages, such as on leaf 45a, where he writes that he “heard this idea from Rabbi Mona of Pinsk and I also heard from the elderly…Mordechai Shapiro of Slutzk, in the name of ..Yosef z”l of Slutzk."

Rabbi Elazar Landau (c. 1810-1874) was born in Slonim, the son of Rabbi Yaakov Moshe, the only son of Rabbi Avraham, the son of the GR”A. He used his mother’s maiden name, Landau.

He spent most of his years in Slonim, publishing the writing of the GR”A. He wrote and organized the Tosefet Ma’aseh Rav [which was printed with the Ma’aseh Rav in Jerusalem, 1896, by his son, Rabbi Eliyahu]. He also copied the Biurei HaGra and Haghaot HaGra on Tracate Pe’ah De’mai and Shevi’it, and compilations of the Biur HaGR”A on Choshen Mishpat. He then traveled to Odessa, where he lived for about eight years. In 1868, he decided to fulfill his grandfather’s tzava’ah and move to the Holy Land. He arrived in Elul, 1868, where he was received with much honor. He married a descendant of R’ Saadya, a disciple of the GR”A and one of the first Ashkenazim-Perushim to move to Eretz Israel. (Yeshurun, 5, p. 135).

Midrash Rabbah on Bereishit-Bamdibar. Berlin [1866]. 196: 68: 2-58: 2-90 leaves. 29 cm. Many small worming holes, primarily in the bottom margins.

In addition to Rav Elazar’s glosses, there are additional handwritten glosses, some of which are signed גרשון מפאלצק – who signed with other great Jerusalem rabbis on the Lahat HaCherev kuntress printed to oppose the study of secular subjects in Jerusalem talmidei torah, Jerusalem 1873.