Q&A: Jewish Law and Aggadah
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Jewish Law and Aggadah
Question
Hello, Rabbi Michael Abraham.
How can Jewish law and Aggadah be unified? After all, Jewish law is objective by its very nature, while Aggadah is subjective by its very nature.
Thank you!
Answer
This is a very general question, and it assumes a lot of premises and concepts that need to be defined.
- Who said they need to be unified?
- There is also a subjective dimension in Jewish law as well, as the disputes make clear.
- It is not clear to me whether Aggadah contains an objective component. Maybe.
- Does “subjective” mean that there are several different perspectives, all of which are correct, and each person sees only part of them? Or does it mean that there is no truth at all, and everything is just within us? If there is no truth at all, then study has no value whatsoever, because we are not really studying Torah; we are fantasizing and engaging in our own psychology. But if there is truth, only it is complex, then again we have to ask what the difference is between Jewish law and Aggadah in this respect. Jewish law, too, has a complex truth.