Aggadah

The midrash is a repository of rabbinic wisdom, storytelling, and tradition—often couched within the verses of scripture, which the rabbis mine for layer upon layer of hidden meaning. The term can sometimes refer to specific works, most of which took shap...

Let’s take a story, a really strange one. One that can’t mean what it says, but nevertheless is screaming that it must. Let’s apply what we’ve learned, and see how this one works out.

That which is absolute truth in the world of the child, in your world is an absurd lie. But don’t imagine your world is any closer to the truth than that of the child.

Torah, like any wisdom, has departments. You can’t study literature the same way you study biology, and you can’t critique poetry as you would journalism. So too, you can’t study one department of Torah the same as you study another.

Translations and renditions of stories from the Midrash and the Talmud

There are sections in the Talmud known as Agadata, which relates interesting stories, powerful parables, and coded messages. In this class we look at a truly spectacular tale with Rabba bar bar Chana, where he encounters the generation of the desert.

Gain insight into a completely different section of the Talmud, known as Aggadah or Aggadata, which contains much more than halachic legal discussions and rational analysis. In this introduction to Aggadata, we explore the style, makeup and significance o...

Which world is more real? The world of action, or the world where we perceive the effects of our actions?

The Zohar tells a parable of a beautiful woman who peeks out to her beloved through a small window. Those who love her, find her. Those who don’t, must have patience.

Which is more true, the world of the adult, or the world of the child?