Q&A: The Attitude Toward Aggadah as Mere Joking Talk
The Attitude Toward Aggadah as Mere Joking Talk
Question
In one of the comments on the recent columns, it was brought in the name of the Hatam Sofer (without a source) that the aggadot in the Talmud were written as “mili de-bedikhuta” — light humorous remarks — and not as a binding Torah component.
Since I too remembered something along those lines, and out of gratitude to the Rabbi and the site, and because the online Otzar HaChochma has been opened to every quarantined and definitively quarantined leper, I searched and indeed found what my soul loves, and copied it here.
Rabbi Yedaya HaPenini HaBardashi (cited in the responsa of the Rashba and referred to there as Hakham Abonit) holds that there are many aggadot with no meaning at all, and that their role is only to introduce some humorous material and give relief from the burden of concentrated analysis. This is his wording:
The third category is all the statements that relate some novelty departing from the ordinary course of things, and generally some alteration of nature, from which no evident benefit follows for us in matters of faith, nor any reinforcement, but which are mentioned merely by way of narrative, for the benefit and relaxation of the students and the need to engage them with light humorous talk, to relieve the burden of analysis and the toil of study. This is the case with the stories of Rabbah bar bar Hana and many others like them. We will certainly explain such language and remove it from its literal sense, even though it is undoubtedly possible within the power of God, and no well-known harm to faith follows from it.
(Cited in the responsa of the Rashba, no. 418)
And so too the Rashbatz wrote in his commentary on Tractate Avot, elaborating on the praise of aggadot as serving to broaden a person’s mind. This is his wording:
And when he finds his body weakened from study and needs to stroll a bit in the markets and streets, he should intend by this to broaden his heart so that he can return to his learning, as our Rabbis of blessed memory said (Shabbat 30), “When the sages became weary from their learning, they would say humorous things” — and this is the point of the strange aggadot found in the Talmud. (Magen Avot on Tractate Avot, chapter 2, mishnah 17):
Answer
Yedaya HaPenini gets smacked down there in that very passage by the Rashba (for the sin of allegorism). But the Tashbetz is indeed interesting.
Discussion on Answer
I once saw on the Otzar HaChochma forum that Yehoshua Enbal wrote that in several passages there are parallels between the Babylonian Talmud and the Jerusalem Talmud in aggadot that are integrated into the halakhic passage (because they deal with the same general subject as the Jewish law discussion), and that implies that in the study hall they were actually accustomed to attach specifically those passages to those aggadot. If it was just for a break, then ostensibly it would be independent of the halakhic content.
Joshua, it makes sense that the aggadot would be connected to the Jewish laws
Israel, this postmodern nonsense is old and can be found among many commentators. Didn’t the Sages say that Job never existed and was never created? And didn’t Maimonides say that the angels appeared in a night dream? Not to mention the various Hasidim.
It could be that the passages were transmitted together with the breaks (just as it came down to us in the Talmud). Beyond that, the question is how many such cases there are, and why in others this is not so.
[I found the post on the Otzar HaChochma forum. Linking in case someone is interested. The use of this for the matter of breaks is not written there, and I accept that it’s a weak point and also requires systematic examination. https://tinyurl.com/tuxmt3d ]
Ibn Ezra says this too
The problem with Yedaya HaPenini, (at least according to what is claimed about him), is that he held that the “aggadah” sections in Scripture are allegory (Abraham and Sarah as matter and form, the 12 tribes as the 12 zodiac signs, and other postmodern nonsense…