Yesterday’s article, titled “פרי ראש השנה יום הכיפורים, והוא תכלית הכול” taught us an interesting expression about the year cycle known to the Rishonim and explained what it meant.
There is something interesting, however, you may have missed:
האימרה מובאת בספר הדרושים “נהר פישון” לרבי יצחק אבוהב… ונאמר שם כי היא נמצאת במסכת יומא. ברם אין זכר לה בגמרות שלנו. רבי אברהם ב”ר שבתי הלוי, אביו של רבי ישעיה הורוויץ, בעל השל”ה, מקדיש בספרו “ברית אברהם” פרק שלם, המשתרע על כמה עמודים, לפירוש אימרה זו, שלפי דבריו היא מדרש. דומה עלי כי גם איננה במדרשים שבידינו.
Of course, it’s not a Medrash! And yet, there were those who would call post-Chazalic creations a “Medrash” to increase their stature (see Rashi Pesachim 112a), although this phenomenon was unknown even to scholars, such as Tuvia Preschel (because no one ever spelled it out). Although there are certainly Midrashim which were known in the past, and then lost, such as ושכנתי בתוכו… בתוך כל אחד ואחד.
We have written about this horror elsewhere. I highly recommend you read it slowly.
If that sounds bad, and looks awful and seems wrong, that’s because it is. I’m in no mood these days to spell out what this all means, but you can figure it out for yourselves. This is nowhere near the Septuagint deception…
This might also explain why the Medrash of כל שאינו אומר דבר בשם אומרו was famously attributed to a Gemara, which then fooled the Magen Avraham, see this.
[Likewise, but not in the same category, there are books with the word “Medrash” in their name, but aren’t, like “Medrash Talpiyot”, etc. (or “Yalkut Re’uveni”).]