Midrash Chamesh Megiloth [aggadic complilation on the Five Scrolls]

The collection of Aggadic material on the Five Scrolls are part of the Midrash Rabbah genus of midrashic literature - denominatied “large” (Rabbah) to distinguish them from the smaller collections on these Biblical Books. The time of compilation of the Midrash Rabbah lasted many centuries but the material itself is ancient. The predominance of the sayings, parables, interpretations of verses, stories and proverbs which comprise the Midrashic literature originates with the Palestininan sages although the wisdom of the Babylonian scholars are amply represented. Eicha Rabbah (Midrash on Lamentations0 is the earliest of the group. It is prefaced by a long introduction consisting of thirty-three short homilies on the first verses of Lamentations. The dates of the remaining four works cannot be determined with accuracy though the consensus of scholarship places them earlier than the other Midrashim of the last four books of the Pentateuch. The Five Scrolls were read on the synagoguges on the holidays and as such were the subject of much interpretation and homilies; hence the large quantity of Agadic material centering around these books. See M. Waxman, Vol. I pp. 136-8.