I feel like there's more of a stress to learn other commentaries, and midrash rabbah and tanchuma are just nice things extra if you want to. I see amazing droshos in the midrash, and was wondering why it's not seized as a pearl.
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1Rashi's commentary on the Chumash draws extensively from the midrashim.– James ReadJun 15, 2022 at 19:20
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2Midrash can easily be seriously misunderstood if learned the wrong way.– ChatzkelJun 15, 2022 at 19:41
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2From what I know about the history of Rashi's commentary, before Rashi - most people learned straight from midrashim to understand Tanach. However, midrashim, while nice, are often very long and contain many, many ideas on each verse, sometime contradictory or seemingly so.– Harel13Jun 15, 2022 at 19:56
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Also, as the centuries passed, less and less people could properly understand the language. Came Rashi with a solution: Condensing the midrashim by choosing the most key ideas + occasional French or German translations for some of the tougher words. And from their the ball started rolling and Rashi's commentary became very popular. He wasn't the first commentator, but I think he was the first to do an expansive yet simple version for Anglo-Franco-Germanic Jews and from there it spread across Europe.– Harel13Jun 15, 2022 at 19:57
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2It depends where you look. Yalkut Meam Loez was for centuries the most widely printed and studied commentary on the Torah and is probably 60% made up of midrash rabbah– יהושע קJun 15, 2022 at 20:08
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