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SUMMARIES

The Hebrew Section

The Benefits of Marriage:
A Case Study of the Reception
of Late Midrash in the Genizah

Yachin Epstein

Department of History, Philosophy and Judaic Studies, The Open
University of Israel

Moshe Lavee

Department of Jewish History and the Genizah Research Center,
The University of Haifa

This article surveys the various attestations of a Midrashic enumeration of
twelve different merits of marriage found in the Cairo Genizah. This list
is shown to be a late expansion of earlier and shorter lists documented in
classical rabbinic works. The variety with which it appears in the Genizah may
be representative of various phenomena related to late Midrashic materials
from the Tanhumah-Yelamdenu genre to be discussed in detail.

First, the Genizah versions of this list contain variations in both its order
and details, demonstrating the fluid transmission of late midrashim and, more

Ginzei Qedem 9 (2013)