Midrash ha-Ḥefez (
midrash of desire / business) is a
Hebrew text of 1430 about a wisdom contest between
King Solomon
King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king.
*In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...
and
The Queen of Sheba
The Queen of Sheba ( he, מַלְכַּת שְׁבָא, Malkaṯ Šəḇāʾ; ar, ملكة سبأ, Malikat Sabaʾ; gez, ንግሥተ ሳባ, Nəgśətä Saba) is a figure first mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. In the original story, she brin ...
. It is noted as part of a long literary tradition about these figures, and for its inclusion of a number of
Hebrew riddles:
* There is an enclosure with ten doors: when one is open nine are shut; when nine are open, one is shut. — The
womb, the
bodily orifices, and the
umbilical cord.
* Living, moves not, yet when its head is cut off it moves. — A ship in the sea (made from a tree).
* What was that which is produced from the ground, yet produces it, while its food is the fruit of the ground? — A wick.
Midrash ha-Hefez is also the title of a book by physician Rabbi Yahya bin Suleiman el-Israili (Zachariah bin Solomon ha-Rofeh), ca. 1430. The work contains homilies and
haftarot on the
Pentateuch,
Book of Esther
The Book of Esther ( he, מְגִלַּת אֶסְתֵּר, Megillat Esther), also known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as "the Scroll" ("the wikt:מגילה, Megillah"), is a book in the third section (, "Writings") of the Judaism, Jewish ''Tanak ...
, and
Book of Lamentations, written in a mixture of Hebrew and Arabic. A commentary exists under the name "al-Durra al-Muntakhaba".
References
Midrashim
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