Sifre Zuta Bemidbar

• Common name – ספרי זוטא במדבר²
• Other names – ספרי, זוטי, ספרי ירושלמי, ספרי של פנים אחרות, מכילתא³
  

3rd century

SifZNum was redacted in Eretz Yisrael.

·         Mishnaic Hebrew

• SifZNum was known in medieval times, lost for centuries, and partially rediscovered and reconstructed in a gradual process beginning in the 19th century.
• Manuscripts – S. Schechter published two leaves from the Genizah containing SifZNum on Matot and Massei. J.N. Epstein published five leaves on Chukat.⁴
• Printings – The first attempted critical edition of SifZNum as a whole⁵ was published by H. Horovitz (Breslau, 1910), based on the fragment published by Schechter and citations in midrashim and Rishonim. Horovitz’s work must be revised based on the fragments published by Epstein, and new manuscripts that have been discovered of certain sources of citations, such as Yalkut Shimoni and Midrash Hagadol. It has also become clear that Horovitz erroneously included many passages that did not originate in SifZNum.⁶
• Textual layers – 

• – 

• – It has been inferred from various sources that SifZNum started with an exposition of Bemidbar 5:2,⁷ skipped 31:25-35:8,⁸ and generally expounded the same verses as did Sifre Bemidbar.⁹
  SifZNum was divided into several large units (the size and names of which are unknown), which were subdivided into numbered parashiyyot.

• – See Introduction to Midreshei Halakhah.

• – SifZNum is cited extensively in Yalkut Shimoni and Midrash Hagadol, and is also cited in Bemidbar Rabbah to Naso.

• – 

• – R. J. Jaskowicz, ספרי זוטא על ספר במדבר¹⁰
  R. E. Garbus, ספרי זוטא על במדמר עם פרוש ספירי אפרים¹¹
  In addition, academic studies of SifZNum have been published by J.N. Epstein¹² and S. Lieberman.¹³