30 June 2025 The Future is the Product of the Past

Using Algorithms, Researchers Reassemble Jewish Text Lost Centuries Ago

Using new technology, researchers were able to comb a 19th-century text for the original study of a Bible interpretation attributed to disciples of Rabbi Yishmael, which is thought to have been lost.

For centuries, a fundamental text of Jewish culture was thought to be lost forever. Quotes from it have appeared throughout the years, but they have been intermingled with subsequent passages, making it hard to tell which pieces are the original.

The work in question is Mekhilta le-Sefer Devarim, a midrash on the Book of Deuteronomy that serves as interpretation and commentary. It is attributed to a group of scholars who formed around Rabbi Yishmael, one of the most prominent of the Tannaim rabbis, in the first and second centuries C.E. in the land of Israel, a period when Jewish culture and the legacy of the Jewish sages crystallized.

With the help of advanced technology, researchers have managed to once again track down the text.

A fragment from Rabbi David Adani of Yemen's Midrash HaGadol. Credit: Israel's National Library
A fragment from Rabbi David Adani of Yemen’s Midrash HaGadol. Photo: Israel’s National Library

The midrash was edited in the third century B.C.E. and was lost for generations. In the 19th century, though, a researcher found that a sage by the name of Rabbi David Adani, who lived in Yemen in the 13th century, was familiar with the lost text and had quoted extensively from it in the Midrash HaGadol. Adani, however, combined parts of the original midrash with quotes from other books, changing it to the point where it was impossible to identify the source.

A previous attempt to reconstruct the midrash using conventional tools was only partially successful. Now, Bar-Asher Siegal and Dr. Avi Shmidman of the Hebrew Literature Department at Bar Ilan University have distilled the original midrash from the later version. To do so, they used textual analysis algorithms developed by Shmidman together with the DICTA center.

“This is a Jewish cultural heritage asset that was simply lost, disappeared,” says Prof. Michal Bar-Asher Siegal, a scholar of rabbinic Judaism at Ben Gurion University. “Now we have brought it back to life.” The midrash will be presented to the public for the first time in January, at a conference to be held at Bar Ilan University.

A Talmud researcher from Yale, Prof. Christine Hayes, confirmed that the text originated in the third century. She said that it also contained earlier sources. Hayes tells Haaretz that this inter-disciplinary collaboration “ fills a significant gap in our knowledge, bringing us one step closer to a fuller understanding of the foundational texts of the tradition and the evolution of rabbinic Judaism.”

Cover Photo: The midrash will be presented to the public for the first time in January, at a conference to be held at Bar Ilan University. Photo: Israel’s National Library

Related Articles

First European farmers’ heights did not meet expectations

9 April 2022

9 April 2022

A combined study of genetics and skeletal remains shows that the switch from primarily hunting, gathering and foraging to farming...

2,300-year-old Buddhist temple discovered in Pakistan

23 December 2021

23 December 2021

Remains of a 2300 years old Buddhist Temple have been discovered in Northwest Pakistan by a joint team of Pakistani...

First Human Traces Buried in an Ancient Gold Mine in Eastern Sahara

2 May 2021

2 May 2021

Some of the earliest signs of human life dating back 1.8 million years have been discovered in an old gold...

New Study Disproves Roman Massacre at Maiden Castle, Revealing Complex Iron Age Conflicts

30 May 2025

30 May 2025

Bournemouth University Archaeologists Challenge 90-Year-Old Roman Conquest Narrative at Maiden Castle with Fresh Forensic and Radiocarbon Analysis A landmark study...

Ancient city “Germanicia” lost in 73 years

8 July 2021

8 July 2021

The presence of the ancient city of Germanicia, discovered during an illegal excavation in the southeast Turkish province of Kahramanmaraş...

Antikythera underwater excavation digs up new discoveries “huge marble head”

20 June 2022

20 June 2022

The second phase of underwater archaeological research (May 23 to June 15, 2022) on the Antikythera shipwreck resulted in the...

The Basilica cistern, which is said to have the sarcophagus of Medusa or the Mysterious Snake Woman, was restored

21 July 2022

21 July 2022

The Basilica Cistern, one of the magnificent ancient structures of Istanbul, was restored. Besides being the greatest work of the...

Anatolia’s Trade Secrets: The Unveiling of a Rare Neolithic Obsidian Mirror Manufacturing Hub

25 February 2025

25 February 2025

A recent study has applied a techno-functional approach to investigate the production and use of obsidian mirrors found at Tepecik...

8,000-year-old Musical Instrument found in northwest Turkey

4 July 2021

4 July 2021

Archaeologists in northwestern Turkey’s Bilecik on Tuesday discovered a musical instrument that dates back to an estimated 8,000 years. During...

Syria uncovered a large intact mosaic that dates back to the Roman era

12 October 2022

12 October 2022

Syria uncovered a large intact mosaic that dates back to the Roman era, in the central town of Rastan, describing...

Scottish Archaeologists unearth ‘missing’ Aberdeenshire monastery linked to first written Gaelic

19 November 2023

19 November 2023

One of the biggest mysteries in Scottish archaeological history has been solved with the discovery of the monastery site where...

Huge funerary building and Fayoum portraits discovered in Egypt Fayoum

4 December 2022

4 December 2022

The Egyptian archaeological mission working in the Gerza archaeological site in Fayoum revealed a huge funerary building from the Ptolemaic...

First direct evidence of drug use as part of Bronze Age ritual ceremonies in Europe

6 April 2023

6 April 2023

An analysis of human hair strands recovered from a burial site in Menorca, Spain, reveals that ancient human civilizations used...

Slavic settlement and burial ground with two unusual graves discovered in Saxony-Anhalt

7 August 2024

7 August 2024

Archaeologists from the State Office for Monument Preservation and Archaeology (LDA) of Saxony-Anhalt have uncovered a wealth of medieval treasures,...

Two monumental sculpted Roman heads unearthed in Carlisle, northern England

25 May 2023

25 May 2023

Two monumental statue heads believed to be dated to the early 3rd century have been unearthed during excavations at a...