Rabbinic Midrash

"To understand the Rabbinic sages' approach to Scripture in the Midrash compilations, we have to begin with a negative question: how is Rabbinic Midrash unlike contemporary readings of Scripture? People nowadays want Scripture to yield historic facts, not religious truths, except as a byproduct of history. Rabbinic Midrash for its part uncovers the Torah's enduring truths."

Jacob Neusner, Judaism and the Interpretation of Scripture (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2004), 1.