ABSTRACT
Midrash of the Ten Commandments (Midrash Aseret ha’Dibberot): A midrash written in the East (Babylon or Persia) during the Gaonic period (eighth to tenth century), explicating the Ten Commandments. The discussion of each biblical verse begins and ends with scanty and unoriginal homiletic sermons. In between, about fifty stories are enclosed, included so as to demonstrate each biblical commandment. The stories comprise the main bulk of the material, and the midrashic aphorisms are secondary. Thus, the compilation is considered to be a transition stage between ancient aggadic literature, in which literary works were an addition to texts of religious (halakhic) law, and medieval literature, in which stories were legitimized for their own right.
