The Rabbinic Legacy: Tannaitic Midrash

The scriptural interpretations of tannaitic (first to early third century CE) sages are gathered in collections known as tannaitic midrashim (sometimes called “halakhic” midrashim despite the presence of a sizable amount of nonhalakhic material). Thus, tannaitic literature as a whole employs two primary forms—the midrashic and the mishnaic. In the mishnaic form, featured prominently but not exclusively in the Mishnah and Tosefta, teachings are formulated as independent statements of law and do not always or even typically cite a biblical text as the source for these teachings. By contrast, in the midrashic form featured in the classic works of tannaitic midrash—the Mekhilta de-Rabbi Ishmael, the Mekhilta de-Rabbi Shimon bar Yoḥai, Sifra, Sifre Numbers, Sifre Deuteronomy, and other related but only partially preserved texts—rabbinic legal teachings are explicitly encoded as arising from the (often creative) sequential interpretation of scripture.