ABSTRACT
Sifre Zuta Deuteronomy (“the small Sifre to Deuteronomy”) is a “new” tannaitic midrash that has come to light in an unusual way. Unlike its more well-known sibling Sifre Zuta Numbers, we have no manuscripts of Sifre Zuta Deuteronomy. Rather, its existence and content are known only through citations by medieval Jewish writers, particularly the commentary to Deuteronomy penned by Yeshua ben Yehuda, a Karaite (who recognized the Hebrew Bible alone as the supreme legal authority) living in eleventh-century Jerusalem. Like the other tannaitic midrashim, Sifre Zuta Deuteronomy provides a line-by-line (and sometimes phrase-by-phrase) commentary on the biblical text.
