Rabbinic literature other hand, the terms "meforshim" and "parshanim" (commentaries/commentators) almost always refer to later, post-Talmudic writers of rabbinic glosses on Biblical and Talmudic texts. This article discusses rabbinic literature in both senses. It begins with the classic rabbinic literature of the Talmudic era ("Sifrut Hazal"), and then adds a broad survey of rabbinic writing from later periods. The Mishnah and the Tosefta (compiled from materials pre-dating the year 200 CE) are the earliest extant works of rabbinic literature, expounding and developing Judaism's Oral Law, as well as ethical teachings. Following these came the two Talmuds: Midrash (pl. "Midrashim") is a Hebrew
Sephardic Bnei Anusim purpose of marriage is solely to remove any doubt relating to any possibility of a broken maternal lineage (which religiously might affect the status of offspring borne to that marriage), and it in no way infers that the Sephardic Bnei Anusim are otherwise of Jewish ancestry. Although not halakhically Jewish as a collective group, Sephardic Bnei Anusim are broadly categorized as Zera Yisrael (זרע ישראל, literally "Seed of Israel"). Zera Yisrael are the Halakhically non-Jewish descendants of Jews who, for practical purposes, are neither Jews nor completely gentile. According to some of the most prominent medieval Jewish sages, the designation