rabbinic literature

Rabbinic literature, in the broadest sense, can mean the entire spectrum of Judaism's rabbinic writing/s throughout history. However, the term often used is an exact translation of the Hebrew term Sifrut Hazal (ספרות חז"ל; "Literature [of our] Sages, [of] blessed memory"), where the latter usually refers specifically to literature from the Talmudic era. The latter, more specific, sense is how the term is normally used in medieval and modern rabbinic writing (where Hazal normally refers only to the sages of the Talmudic era), and in contemporary academic writing (where "rabbinic literature" refers to Talmud, Midrash, and related writings, but hardly ever to later texts, such as those from the medieval and modern periods). The term meforshim, or parshanim, is also used in modern-day yeshivas (Talmudical academies), denoting the "rabbinical commentaries" of the "commentators".
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