The Encyclopaedia Judaica tells us that the Agadah, which is translated as “the narrative,” is usually defined in a negative way, as that part of the teachings of the rabbis that are neither laws nor religious regulations. For this reason, and although it is part of the Talmud, the Oral Torah, the Agadah does not have the normative quality that the Halacha has, whose precepts are obligatory.

However, we have to understand that the Agadot are moral and ethical teachings that deal with matters of faith and the art of living. It is therefore didactic. The truth of its teachings surpasses historical reality. The value of an Agadah is, on one hand, its ethical principles that teach us the art of living and, on the other, its poetic way of transmitting it.

The Agadot are mainly the creation of the Jews of Eretz Israel who wrote them down in the Talmud Jerusalmi, unlike the Talmud Babli which, although it has them, mostly are not from Babylon but from Jerusalem. The form it takes are narratives, legends, doctrines, warnings about good conduct, words of encouragement or consolation, expressions of hope for a better future.

Abraham Joshua Heschel, in his book Between God and Man, tells us: Halachah deals with laws, Agadah with the meaning of laws. Halachah gives us norms for acting, Agadah gives us the vision of the purpose of our lives. Halachah prescribes, Agadah suggests. Halachah decrees, Agadah inspires.

Heschell continues: Agadah deals with man’s relationship with God, with other men and with the world. It deals with life and religion as a great whole. The Agadah is what reminds us that the purpose of mitzvoth is to transform the one who observes them in order to achieve a spiritual goal.

For example, the Agadah is what tells us that he who saves a single life is as if he had saved the entire world. The Halachah would say that saving two is more than saving one, because mathematically two is more than one.

There is no Halachah without Agadah and there is no Agadah without Halachah. We must neither despise the body nor sacrifice the spirit. The body is discipline, order, law. The spirit is inner devotion, spontaneity, freedom. Therefore, performing a mitzvah implies discipline and inspiration, obedience and happiness, it is both a yoke and a prerogative. To maintain that the essence of Judaism is only the Halacha is as wrong as saying the same about the Agadah. The interrelation of both is the true spirit of Judaism. Our task is to maintain the balance. Neither of them should win.

By Marcos Gojman

Bibliography: Works cited.