Aggadot from Hamivtar Rabbi Yitzchak Blau If you have comments or questions please feel free to e-mail Rabbi Blau at: nyz@netvision.net.il

"Halakha And Aggadah"

R. Ami and R. Assi were sitting in front of R. Yitzhak Nafha. One said to him: “Let the master teach halakha.” The other said to him: “Let the master teach aggadah.” He began to teach aggadah and one student did not let him proceed. He began to teach halakha and the other student did not let him proceed. He said to them: “I will give you a parable to compare to this matter. A man had two wives, one older and one younger. The younger wife plucked out his white hairs. The older wife plucked out his black hairs. He emerged bald on both accounts.” He said to them: “If so, I will teach something that will please both of you. ‘If a fire goes out and burns thorns.’ (Shemot 22:6) If the fire goes out on its own, the person who kindled the fire must pay. The Holy One, Blessed be He, says: I must pay for the fire that I kindled. I lit a fire in Zion as it says ‘He kindled a fire in Zion and it consumed the foundations’ (Eikha 4:11). I will in the future rebuild it with fire as it says: ‘And I will be for her a surrounding wall of fire and will be the glory in her midst.’” (Bava Kama 60b)

The teacher, R. Yitzhak Nafha, was stymied by a voting deadlock. One student insisted on hearing halakha, matters of Jewish law. The other student demanded aggadah, the stories and maxims of a non – legal nature. After stating his parable, R. 
Yitzhak continued to a compromise solution, an idea that incorporated both halakhic (found in the continuation of the gemara above) and aggadic material. Let us focus on the parable. Is this just a striking image or does a deeper correspondence lie between mashal (the parable) and nimshal (the moral)?

R. Yehial Yaakov Weinberg offers a fantastic reading of this story in his Lefrakim. He begins by contrasting the qualities of halakha and aggadah. The former represents tradition and consistency. Jews practice the same daily rituals that our ancestors have been practicing for centuries. These rituals provide the bedrock of stability upon which to build our Jewish lives. Aggadah, on the other hand, represents freshness and fiery enthusiasm. While Judaism does have a set of concrete unchanging beliefs, philosophical expression often employs the idiom of the time to convey Jewish ideals. Thus, the aggadah will allow for novelty in a way that halakha does not. 

The older woman represents the halakha as she insists on the consistency and stability of tradition. The younger woman represents the aggadah as she champions the freshness and vitality of new insights as well as the inner soul of the observance. R. Yitzhak explained to his students that each one had adopted a too narrow view of Torah. Lacking halakha, we will not have the solid foundation upon which to build a Jewish life. The grand ideas of the aggadah would not find translation into concrete practice. Bereft of aggadah, the halakha would remain dry, soulless and lacking energy. The closing verse of his parable emphasizes the need for this integration of the two. God speaks of a “wall of fire.” The protective wall of the halakha and the burning flame of the aggadah jointly provide the framework for a Jewish life that combines tradition with novelty and stability with enthusiasm. 

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