Q&A: Your Level of Trust in the Midrashim and Aggadot of the Sages
Originally published:
This is an English translation (via GPT-5.4). Read the original Hebrew version.
Your Level of Trust in the Midrashim and Aggadot of the Sages
Question
What is your level of trust in them? And assuming it isn’t high, what makes you believe in their halakhic teachings and interpretations?
Answer
There isn’t really any question of trust here at all. Trust relates to comparing the content of a claim or argument to the truth. But here there is no truth in that sense. These are interpretive homilies with various educational aims. Personally, I’m not especially interested in them.
Halakhic interpretation is something else. It is based on tools accepted in the tradition and on interpretive techniques that are, in principle, open to scrutiny (today we’ve lost most of the skill needed to use them).