[2] Though Moshe ha-Darshan was considered a rabbinical authority,[3] he owes his reputation principally to the fact that together with Tobiah ben Eliezer he was the most prominent representative of midrashic-symbolic Bible exegesis (derash) in the 11th century.
Probably the non-preservation of the work was due to an excess of the foreign element in its composition, causing it to be regarded with disfavor.
Moreover, as has recently been ascertained by A. Epstein, it was not a systematically arranged work, but merely a collection of notes made by Moses.
[4] The Midrash Bereshit Rabbah Major or Bereshit Rabbati, known through quotations by Raymund Martin in his Pugio Fidei, has many aggadot and aggadic ideas which recall very strongly Moses ha-Darshan's teachings; it is claimed by Zunz[5] that the midrash was actually the work of Moses.
Nathan ben Jehiel was certainly a student of Moses, whose explanations of Talmudical words and passages he cites.