CHAPTER IV.
THE MIDRASH AND ITS POETRY Mechilta, Sifra, Sifre, Pesikta, Tanchuma, Midrash Rabbah, Yalkut .-- Proverbs .-- Parables .-- Fables.
In its earliest forms identical with the Halachah, or the practical and legal aspects of the Mishnah and the Talmud, the Midrash, in its fuller development, became an independent branch of Rabbinical literature.

Like the Talmud, the Midrash is of a composite nature, and under the one name the accumulations of ages are included.

Some of its contents are earlier than the completion of the Bible, others were collected and even created as recently as the tenth or the eleventh century of the current era.
Midrash ("Study," "Inquiry") was in the first instance an _Explanation of the Scriptures_.

This explanation is often the clear, natural exposition of the text, and it enforces rules of conduct both ethical and ritual.

The historical and moral traditions which clustered round the incidents and characters of the Bible soon received a more vivid setting.