A lost homily on Gehenna and repentance in Midrash Tehillim

This article offers philological and conceptual analyses of a series of derashot from Midrash Tehillim which address the judgement of the wicked at the entrance to Gehinnom. The analysis shows that the version preserved in printed editions is missing a single, conceptually significant derashah. This lost derashah was preserved in just one witness, a unique manuscript of eastern provenance. This derashah, attributed to R. Berekhya, presents a unique depiction of the dialogue between God and the wicked at the entrance to Gehenna and apparently grapples with the long-standing theological tension between opposing understandings of the nature of the sentencing of the wicked to Gehenna.