text · B0043
Midrash Tehillim מדרש תהלים
The midrash of the siddur's own book — centuries of Eretz Yisrael aggadah keyed psalm by psalm to Tehillim. Like the psalter it serves, it grew by accretion; its final chapters were supplied by later hands, and the tradition knows it affectionately by its first words, Shocher Tov.
I. Who
- Hebrew
- מדרש תהלים
- Also known as
- Midrash Shocher Tov
- Era
- geonim
II. When
- Traditional
- aggadah of Eretz Yisrael on the book of Tehillim, gathered over generations
- Civil (computed)
- 4360–4760 AM · 600–1000 CE
- Academic
- core compiled c. 4th–9th c. CE in Eretz Yisrael; the section on Psalms 119–150 is a later supplement
- Duration
- ≈400 years
- Precision
- disputed
IV. What
- Language
- Hebrew and Galilean Aramaic
- Redaction
- Anonymous and accretive — an Eretz Yisrael aggadic compilation that grew over centuries; the material on Psalms 119–150 was supplied later (largely from Yalkut-era sources) and is marked as secondary in the critical edition.
- Structure
- Aggadah arranged psalm by psalm across the book of Tehillim (B0019) — verse-keyed homilies rather than a running commentary. Known as "Shocher Tov" from its opening verse (Mishlei 11:27).
V. How do we know
| Claim | Evidence | Confidence | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| The work is an aggadic midrash arranged on the psalms, transmitted under the title "Shocher Tov" after the Mishlei verse with which it opens; it was known to and cited by the rishonim. | rabbinic tradition | ★★★★☆ | |
| The compilation is layered: Buber's critical edition (1891) showed the material on Psalms 119–150 to be a later supplement absent from the good manuscripts, and scholarship dates the core's compilation broadly between the amoraic aggadah it transmits and a geonic-era assembly — no single redaction year is defensible. | reconstruction | ★★★☆☆ |
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