Chronicles of Yerachmiel?

Question

Shalom aleichem Rabbi Lauffer. Thank you for answering my last question. Is “Chronicles of Yerachmiel” (Chronicles of Jerahmeel) considered a reliable midrash, or do any reputable seforim quote from it? Thanks a lot.

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Answers

  1. The Just Ask! - AskTheRabbi.org Team

    Actually, I must confess to never having heard of it before. I ran a search and apparently it belongs to the Apocrypha. There are several “books” that have been written at various times. For example, Sefer “Hashmonaim”, “Igeret Irmiyahu”, “Hahmat Shlomo”, “Yehudit”, “Ben Sira”, “Shoshana”, “Baruh”, “Tuviya” etc. These are in fact known as Apocrypha or in Hebrew as Hagiogripha or as Sefarim Hitzonim, which means External Books, see Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 100b, Yerushalmi Sanhedrin 50b. These books are not treated as holy by the Jewish community they were not cared for and preserved with the exactness of the Tanach. One book which is considered as original Hebrew is The Scroll of Antiochus – it is printed in the Siddur Otzar Hatefilot and also in the Philip Birenbaum Siddur.

    They were not included in Tanach because they were not prophetic and were not written with Ruach Hakodesh, see Tosefta Yadaim. In addition, there are elements of the books that contain ideas contrary to Judaism, see Rashi, Sanhedrin 100b. However, since there is some wisdom in these books that does not contradict the Torah, they are quoted.

    Best wishes from the AskTheRabbi.org Team