Aggadah ( Aramaic אגדה: tales, lore; pl. Aggadot ) refers to the homiletic and non-legalistic texts in classical rabbinic literature - particularly as recorded in the Talmud and Midrash. Other terms for this body of teachings are Aggadata (אגדתא) lit.“the” aggada, and the Hebrew Haggadah (הגדה), pl. Haggadot. In general, the aggadot are presented as folklore, historical anecdotes, moral exhortations, and business and medical advice, and often refer to mythical creatures, and incredible historical events. Aramaic is a Semitic language with a 3,000-year history. ... Rabbinic literature, in the broadest sense, can mean the entire spectrum of rabbinic writing throughout history. ... The first page of the Talmud, in the standard Vilna edition. ... Midrash (pl. ... The Modern Hebrew language is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family. ...

As part of the Jewish oral law

The Aggadah is part of Judaism's Oral law (תורה שבעל פה) - the traditions providing the authoritative interpretation of the Written Law. In this context, the widely held view in Rabbinic literature, is that the aggadah is in fact a medium for the transmission of fundamental teachings (Homiletic Sayings - מאמרים לימודיים) or for explanations of verses in the Tanakh ( Exegetic Sayings - מאמרים ביאוריים). In Rabbinic thought, therefore, much of the Aggadah is understood as containing a hidden, allegorical dimension, in addition to its overt, literal sense. In general, where a literal interpretation contradicts rationality, the Rabbis seek an allegorical explanation. The Star of David, a common symbol of Jews and Judaism Judaism is the religion and culture of the Jewish people and one of the first recorded monotheistic faiths. ... An oral law is a code of conduct in use in a given culture, religion or other regroupement, by which a body of rules of human behaviour is transmitted by oral tradition and effectively respected, or the single rule that is verbally transmitted. ... Torah, (תורה) is a Hebrew word meaning teaching, instruction, or especially Law. ... Rabbinic literature, in the broadest sense, can mean the entire spectrum of rabbinic writing throughout history. ... 11th century Targum Tanakh [תנ״ך] (also spelt Tanach or Tenach) is an acronym for the three parts of the Hebrew Bible, based upon the initial Hebrew letters of each part: Torah [תורה] (The Law; also: Teaching or Instruction), Chumash [חומש] (The five, also Pentateuch or The five books of... Exegesis (Greek ἐξηγεῖσθαι to lead out) is an extensive and critical interpretation of any text, or especially of a holy scripture, such as of the Old and New Testaments of the Bible, the Talmud, the Midrash, the Koran, etc. ...

Interpretation of the Aggadah

Maimonides in his preface to the tenth chapter of Mishnah Sanhedrin ("Perek Chelek") describes three possible approaches to the interpretation of the Aggadah. [1]  (http://www.biu.ac.il/JH/Parasha/eng/vayechi/elkayam.html) Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon (Hebrew: רבי משה בן מיימון; Arabic: Mussa bin Maimun ibn Abdallah al-Kurtubi al-Israili; March 30, 1135—December 13, 1204), commonly known by his Greek name Maimonides, was a Jewish rabbi, physician, and philosopher. ... The Mishnah (Hebrew משנה, Repetition) is a major source of rabbinic Judaisms religious texts. ... Sanhedrin is the name given in the mishna to the body of seventy-one sages who constituted the supreme court and legislative body in Judea during the Roman period. ...

• The first approach is to accept the Aggadah as literally true, without admission of any hidden, allegorical explanation - even where a literal interpretation runs counter to common sense. Maimonides is dismissive of this approach.

• The second approach is to assume that anything said by the Sages was intended literally, and to therefore reject, as imposssible, non-rational or fantastic teachings (and to consequently consider the Sages as "simpletons and ignoramuses"). Maimonides does not entirely reject rationalist interpretation, but he opposes an exegetical approach which denies the Aggadah a hidden rationality. "The sages presented their "drashot" in a style by which the mind of a fool will reject them because of his way of thinking; it is improper to assign any deficiency to the "drash" - one may rather suspect that the deficiency is a result of his intellectual shortcomings" (Introduction to Commentary on the Mishnah). This attitude is widespread in rabbinic thought, thus, for example, "none of these sometimes mind-boggling “stories” are devoid of profound meaning; if anyone is devoid of understanding, it is the reader…" (Isaiah Horowitz Shnei Luchot Habrit, introduction).

• The third approach is to recognise that many Aggadot are intended to teach profound truths, and that the teachings thus operate on two levels: "overt" and "hidden". Thus any impossible assertion was, in fact, intended as a parable; further, where aggadot can be understood literally, they may be taken on this level. This is the view of the Rabbis. “It is proper… to carefully analyse [the aggadot]… when any of these seem far-fetched we must immerse ourselves in the various branches of knowledge until we understand the concepts.” (Maimonides, Introduction to Commentary on the Mishnah).

Exegesis (Greek ἐξηγεῖσθαι to lead out) is an extensive and critical interpretation of any text, or especially of a holy scripture, such as of the Old and New Testaments of the Bible, the Talmud, the Midrash, the Koran, etc. ... Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon (Hebrew: רבי משה בן מיימון; Arabic: Mussa bin Maimun ibn Abdallah al-Kurtubi al-Israili; March 30, 1135—December 13, 1204), commonly known by his Greek name Maimonides, was a Jewish rabbi, physician, and philosopher. ...

Literal-allegorical transmission

Moshe Chaim Luzzatto examines the reason for the above, two-tiered, literal-allegorical mode of transmission in his well known Discourse on the Haggadot. The Oral Law in fact comprises two components, the legal component (חלק המצוות), discussing the mitzvot and halakha; and "the secret" component (חלק הסודות), discussing the deeper teachings. The aggadah, along with the Kabbala, falls under the latter. The rabbis of the Mishnaic era, realized the danger of recording the deeper teachings in explicit, mishnah-like, medium. Rather, they would be conveyed in a "concealed mode" and via "paradoxes". (Due to their value, these teachings should not become accessible to those "of bad character" and due to their depth they should not be made available to those "not schooled in the ways of analysis".) This mode of the transmission was nevertheless based on consistent rules and principles such that those "equipped with the keys" would be able to unlock their meaning; to others they would appear as non-rational or fantastic. Moshe Chaim Luzzatto (also Moses Chaim, Moses Hayyim, also Luzzato) (1707-1746), also known by the Hebrew acronym as the RAMCHAL, was a prominent Italian Jewish rabbi, mystic, and philosopher best remembered today for his ethical treatise Mesillat Yesharim (Path of the Just). ... Mitzvah מצוה is Hebrew for commandment (plural mitzvot; from צוה, tzavah - command). ... Halakha (הלכה in Hebrew or Halakhah, Halacha, Halachah) is the collective corpus of Jewish law, custom and tradition regulating all aspects of behavior. ... Kabbala may refer to; Kabbala Village, in the Karnataka State of India Kabbalah, is a religious philosophical system claiming an insight into divine nature. ... The Mishnah (Hebrew משנה, Repetition) is a major source of rabbinic Judaisms religious texts. ...

Shmuel ha-Nagid’s, in his introduction to the Talmud, states that “Aggada comprises any comment occurring in the Talmud on any topic which is not a commandment (i.e. which is not halachic) and one should derive from it only that which is reasonable.” Commenting on this Rabbi Aryeh Carmell writes "We are told to use our commonsense to decide whether an aggada is to be taken literally or not." (Carmell, 2005)

In the Talmud and Midrash

The aggadah is today recorded in the Talmud and the Midrash. Throughout the Talmud, aggadic and halakhic material are interwoven – legal material comprises around 90%. The Talmudic aggada, generally, convey the "deeper teachings" - though in concealed mode, as discussed. The Ein Yaakov is a compilation of the aggadic material in the Babylonian Talmud together with commentaries. Tractate Avoth, which has no gemara, deals exclusively with non-halakhic material, though is not regarded as aggadic in that it is focused, largely, on character developement. In the Midrash, the aggadic and halakhic material are compiled as two distinct collections: the Aggadic Midrashim, generally, are explanatory aggada, deriving the "sermonic implications" from the biblical text; the Halakhic Midrashim derive the laws from the text. The first page of the Talmud, in the standard Vilna edition. ... Midrash (pl. ... Ein Yaakov is a compilation of all the Aggadic material in the Talmud together with commentaries. ... Pirkei Avoth (Hebrew: Chapters of the Fathers, פרקי אבות ) or simply Avoth is a tractate of the Mishna composed of ethical maxims of the Rabbis of the Mishnaic period. ... The Gemara are the Rabbinical commentaries and analysis on the Mishnah, undertaken in the Academies of Palestine and Babylon over a 300 year period to about 500CE. The Mishnah is the core text, and the gemara is the analysis and commentary which “completes” the Talmud (from gamar גמר, to complete). ... Midrash halakha was the ancient rabbinic Jewish method of verifying the traditionally received laws by identifying their sources in the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible), and by interpreting these passages as proofs of the laws authenticity. ...

Well known works interpreting the Aggadot in the Talmud include:

• Chiddushei Aggadot (Novellae on the Aggadot) by Samuel Edels "the Maharsha"
• Yehoyada and MeKabtziel (from 2 Samuel 23:20  (http://www.mechon-mamre.org/e/et/et08b23.htm)) by Yosef Chaim "the Ben Ish Chai"
• Beur Aggadot (Clarification of the Aggadot) and Perush al Kamma Aggadot (Commentary on several Aggadot) by Elijah ben Solomon "the Vilna Gaon"
• Chiddushei Aggadot (Novellae on the Aggadot) by Judah Loew "the Maharal", as well as most other works by Loew

Note that many of the Torah commentaries interpret the Torah text in the light of Aggadic statements, and hence contain much material on Aggadah interpretation. Samuel Edels (1555–1631), was a renowned rabbi and Talmudist famous for his commentary on the Talmud, Chiddushei Halachot. ... The Books of Samuel, also referred to as [The Book of] Samuel ( Hebrew: שְׁמוּאֵל), are (two) books in the Hebrew Bible ( Judaisms Tanakh and originally written in Hebrew) and the Old Testament of Christianity. ... The Ben Ish Chai, Son [of] Man [who] Lives, (actual Hebrew name Yosef Chaim) was a Sephardic Judaism rabbi (chacham) who lived in (Baghdad from 1832 to 1909). ... Elijah ben Solomon, the Vilna Gaon Elijah (Eliyahu) ben Solomon Kremer (born April 23, 1720, Vilna, Lithuania; died there October 9, 1797). ... Judah Low ben Bezalel (1525 — 1609) was a Jewish scholar and rabbi, most of his life in Prague. ... Meforshim is a Hebrew word meaning commentators (or roughly meaning exegetes), and is used as a substitute for the correct word perushim which means commentaries. In Judaism this term refers to commentaries by the commentators on the Torah (five books of Moses), Hebrew Bible, the Mishnah, the Talmud, responsa, even...

Development of the Aggadah

The Aggadah has been preserved in a series of different works, which, like all works of traditional literature, have come to their present form through previous collections and revisions. Their original forms existed long before they were reduced to writing.

The first traces of the midrashic exegesis are found in the Bible itself; while in the time of the Soferim the development of the Midrash Haggadah received a mighty impetus, and the foundations were laid for public services which were soon to offer the chief medium for the cultivation of Bible exegesis.

Much Aggadah, often mixed with foreign elements, is found in the Apocrypha, the Pseudepigrapha, the works of Josephus and Philo, and the remaining Judæo-Hellenistic literature; but aggadic exegesis reached its highest development in the great epoch of the Mishnaic-Talmudic period, between 100 and 550 C.E. In Judeo-Christian theologies, apocrypha refers to religious Sacred text that have questionable authenticity or are otherwise disputed. ... Pseudepigrapha (from the Greek words pseudos = lie and epigrapho = write) is a text or a number of texts whose claimed authorship or authenticity is incorrect. ... Josephus, also known as Flavius Josephus (c. ... Philo (20 BCE - 40 CE) was an Alexandrian Jewish philosopher born in Alexandria, Egypt. ...

The Haggadah of the Amoraim (sages of the Talmud) is the continuation of that of the Tannaim (sages of the Mishna). The final edition of the Mishnah, which was of such signal importance for the Halakah, is of less significance for the Haggadah, which, in form as well as in content, shows the same characteristics in both periods.

Exegetic and Homiletic Aggadah

It is important to emphasize the fundamental difference in plan between the midrashim forming a running commentary (מאמרים ביאוריים) to the Scripture text, and the homiletic midrashim (מאמרים לימודיים). When the scholars undertook to edit, revise, and collect into individual midrashim the immense array of haggadot, they followed the method employed in the collections and revisions of the halakot and the halakic discussions. The form which suggested itself was to arrange in textual sequence the exegetical interpretations of the Biblical text as taught in the schools, or the occasional interpretations introduced into public discourses, etc., and which were in any way connected with Scripture. Since the work of the editor was often merely that of compilation, the existing midrashim show in many passages the character of the sources from which they were taken. This was the genesis of the midrashim which are in the nature of running haggadic commentaries to single books of the Bible, as Bereshit Rabbah, Eikah Rabbati, the midrashim to the other Megillot, etc. See Midrash for more details. Midrash (pl. ...

Aggadah compilations

• The Ein Yaakov is a compilation of the aggadic material in the Babylonian Talmud together with commentary.
• Sefer Ha-Aggadah (The Book of Legends) is a classic compilation of aggadah from the Mishnah, the two Talmuds and the Midrash literature. It was edited by Hayim Nahman Bialik and Yehoshua Hana Ravnitzky. Bialik and Ravnitky worked to compile a comprehensive and representative overview of aggadah; they spent three years compiling their work. When they found the same aggadah in multiple versions, from multiple sources, they usually selected the later form, the one found in the Babylonian Talmud. However they also presented a great some aggadot sequentially, giving the early form from the Jerusalem Talmud, and later versions from the Babylonian Talmud, and from a classic midrash compilation. In each case each every aggadah is given with its original source. In their original edition, thy translated the Aramaic aggadot into modern Hebrew. Sefer Ha-Aggadah was first published in 1908-11 in Odessa, Russia, then reprinted numerous times in Israel. In 1992 it was translated into English as The Book of Legends, by William G, Braude.
• Legends of the Jews, by Rabbi Louis Ginzberg, is an original synthesis of a vast amount of aggadah from the Mishnah, the two Talmuds and Midrash. Ginzberg had an encyclopedic knowledge of all rabbinic literature, and his masterwork included a massive array of aggadot. However he did not create an anthology which showed these aggadot distinctly. Rather, he paraphrased them and rewrote them into one continuous narrative that covered five volumes, followed by two volumes of footnotes that give specific sources.
• Mimekor Yisrael, by Micha Yosef (bin Gorion) Berdichevsky. Berdichevsky was interested in compiling the folklore and legends of the Jewish people, from the earliest times up until the dawn of the modern era. His collection included a large array of aggadot, although they were limited to those he considered within the domain of folklore.
• The collected works of Dov Noy. According to Peninnah Schram, "Dov Noy is the fourth major figure in the renaissance of preserving and perpetuating the Jewish oral tradition. While he has published many books and important essays (including the entry “Folklore” in The Encyclopedia Judaica), his two main contributions are: 1) he applied an international classification system to Jewish traditional narrative; and 2) he established the Israel Folktale Archives....In 1954, Noy established the Israel Folktale Archives and Ethnological Museum at Haifa University. Presently, this archive contains over 23,000 folktales, classified according to tale types and motifs, country of origin, informant, etc. These folktales have been collected from all the various ethnic communities who live in Israel."

Ein Yaakov is a compilation of all the Aggadic material in the Talmud together with commentaries. ... The first page of the Talmud, in the standard Vilna edition. ... The Mishnah (Hebrew משנה, Repetition) is a major source of rabbinic Judaisms religious texts. ... Midrash (pl. ... Hayyim Nahman Bialik (January 9, 1873–July 4, 1934), also commonly written as Chaim or Haim Nachman Bialik and in the Hebrew language as חיים נחמן ביאליק, was a Jewish poet who wrote in Hebrew. ... The Jerusalem Talmud (In Hebrew Talmud Yerushalmi, in short known as the Yerushalmi), also known as the Palestinian Talmud, (not related to current Palestinian issues at all!), was written in the Land of Israel at the same time of the writing of the the Babylonian Talmud, (which is known as... Aramaic is a Semitic language with a 3,000-year history. ... The Modern Hebrew language is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family. ... ODESSA (German: Organisation der ehemaligen SS-Angehörigen; The Organization of Former SS-Members) was an alleged Nazi fugitive network set up towards the end of World War II by a group of SS officers. ... The State of Israel (Hebrew: מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, transliteration: ; Arabic: دَوْلَةْ اِسْرَائِيل, transliteration: ) is a country in the Middle East on the eastern edge of the Mediterranean Sea. ... 1992 is a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Rabbi Louis Ginzberg (November 28, 1873, Kovno, Lithuania - November 11,1953, New York City) was one of the outstanding Talmudists of the twentieth century. ... The word Jew ( Hebrew: יהודי) is used in a wide number of ways, but generally refers to a follower of the Jewish faith, a child of a Jewish mother, or someone of Jewish descent with a connection to Jewish culture or ethnicity and often a combination of these attributes. ... 1954 was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ...

External links

• Halakha/Aggadata/Midrash (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/Halakha_&_aggadata_&_midrash.html), jewishvirtuallibrary.org
• Midrash Haggadah (http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=587&letter=M), jewishencyclopedia.com
• Haggada  (http://66.1911encyclopedia.org/H/HA/HAGGADA.htm), 1911encyclopedia.org
• Discourse on the Haggadot (http://www.daat.ac.il/daat/mahshevt/agadot/hagada2-2.htm) (Hebrew), Moshe Chaim Luzzatto

The Modern Hebrew language is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family. ... Moshe Chaim Luzzatto (also Moses Chaim, Moses Hayyim, also Luzzato) (1707-1746), also known by the Hebrew acronym as the RAMCHAL, was a prominent Italian Jewish rabbi, mystic, and philosopher best remembered today for his ethical treatise Mesillat Yesharim (Path of the Just). ...

References

• Freedom to Interpret, Aryeh Carmell, 2005
• Introduction to the commentary on the Mishnah, Maimonides, transl. Zvi Lampel (Judaica Press, 1998). ISBN 1880582287
• Discourse on the Haggadot, Moshe Chaim Luzzatto
• The Infinite Chain : Torah, Masorah, and Man, Nathan T. Lopes Cardozo, (Philipp Feldheim, 1989). ISBN 0944070159
• The Juggler and the King, Aharon Feldman, (Philipp Feldheim, 1991). ISBN 0873065573
• The Talmud: A Reference Guide, Adin Steinsaltz, (Random House, 1996). ISBN 0679773673
• Mimekor Yisrael: Classical Jewish Folktales, Micha Joseph bin Gorion, translated by I. M. Lask, Trans. Three volumes. Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1976
• Mimekor Yisrael: Classical Jewish Folktales Abridged and Annotated Edition Micha Joseph bin Gorion. This is a one volume abridged and annotated version, with an introduction and headnotes, by Dan Ben-Amos. Indiana University Press. 560 pages. ISBN 0253311586.
• Four Master Folklorists And Their Major Contributions Peninnah Schram, from Opening Worlds of Words, Peninnah Schram and Cherie Karo Schwartz