PĒSIQTHĀ'. – Title of homiletic midrashic works (v. MIDHRĀŠ). The P. dē-rabh Kahanā', previously known only through fragmentary citations, was edited by S. Buber, Lyck 1868 (German translation by Wünsche, Leipzig 1885). It is a collection of homilies for various feasts and Sabbaths. Both the date of its origin and the sequence of the chapters are disputed.
Similar in content, but with a different sequence of the chapters, is the collection P. rabbathī (“P. the Great”), edited by Friedmann, Vienna 1880.
BIBL.: H. L. Strack, Einleitung in Talmud und Midral, 5th ed., Munich 1921, pp. 202 ff., 205 ff. Eugenio Zolli