Rabbinic literature, in its broadest sense, is the entire spectrum of rabbinic writings throughout Jewish history. However, the term often refers specifically to literature from the Talmudic era (70–640 CE), as opposed to medieval and modern rabbinic writings, and thus corresponds with the Hebrew term Sifrut Chazal (Hebrew: ספרות חז״ל "Literature [of our] sages", where Hazal normally refers only to the sages of the Talmudic era). This more specific sense of "Rabbinic literature"—referring to the Talmudim, Midrashim (Hebrew: מדרש), and related writings, but hardly ever to later texts—is how the term is generally intended when used in contemporary academic writing. The terms mefareshim and parshanim (commentaries/commentators) almost always refer to later, post-Talmudic writers of rabbinic glosses on Biblical and Talmudic texts. Source: Wikipedia (en)