y belong in the true sense to
Jewish literature. Parables, on the other hand, were an essential and
characteristic branch of that literature.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

MIDRASH.

Schiller-Szinessy.--_Encycl. Brit._, Vol. XVI, p. 285.

Graetz.--II, p. 328 [331] _seq._

Steinschneider.--_Jewish Literature_, pp. 5 _seq._,
36 _seq._

L.N. Dembitz.--_Jewish Services in Synagogue and Home_
(Jewish Publication Society of America, 1898), p. 44.

FABLES.

J. Jacobs.--_The Fables of AEsop_ (London, 1889), I,
p. 110 _seq._

Read also Schechter, _Studies in Judaism_, p. 272 [331];
and _J.Q.R._, (Kohler), V, p. 399; VII, p. 581;
(Bacher) IV, p. 406; (Davis) VIII, p. 529; (Abrahams) I, p. 216;
II, p. 172; Chenery, _Legends from the Midrash_ (_Miscellany
of the Society of Hebrew Literature_, Vol. II).

CHAPTER V

THE LETTERS OF THE GAONIM

Representative Gaonim:
Achai, Amram, Zemach, Saadiah, Sherira, Samuel, Hai.

For several centuries after the completion of the Talmud, Babylonia or
Persia continued to hold the supremacy in Jewish learning. The great
teachers in the Persian schools followed the same lines as their
predecessors in the Mishnah and the Talmud. Their name was changed more
than their character. The title _Gaon_ ("Excellence") was applied to the
head of the school, the members of which devoted themselves mainly to
the study and interpretation of the older literature. They also made
original contributions to the store. Of their extensive works but little
has been preserved. What has survived proves that they were gifted with
the faculty of applying old precept to modern instance. They regulated
the social and religious affairs of all the Jews in the diaspora. They
improved educational methods, and were pioneers in the popularization of
learning. By a large collection of Case Law, that is, decisions in
particular cases, they brought the newer Jewish life into moral harmony
with the principles formulated by the earlier Rabbis. The Gaonim were
the originators or, at least, the arrangers of parts of the liturgy.
They composed new hymns and invocations, fixed the order of service, and
established in full vigor a system of _Minhag_, or Custom, whose power
became more and more predominant, not only in religious, but also in
social and commercial affairs.

The literary productions of the Gaonic age open with the _Sheeltoth_
written by Achai in the year 760. This, the first independent boo