“The Role and Status of Aggada in Halakhic Contexts in the Bavli in Light of Contemporary Talmudic Scholarship”

• In Event: Halakha and Aggada in Rabbinic Literature

Abstract

Although the Babylonian Talmud (BT) is primarily a halakhic composition it contains a significant amount of aggadic -- non-legal- - material. A large part of the aggadic material appears in halakhic contexts, i.e. halakhic sugyot. This raises the question of the role and status of aggadic material in those BT sugyot. Answering this question, even partially, requires a broad perspective on aggada-halakha relationships in the BT. Following several decades of academic studies on aggada in halakhic contexts in the BT, which have provided multiple analyses of different types of halakhic sugyot that contain aggada, we may begin to address the question more generally.
In this paper I will present and demonstrate various models of halakha-aggada relationships that may be identified in BT with close readings and careful analysis of sugyot to develop a taxonomy of these differing relationships. In each of the examples I will examine the status of aggada vis-à-vis the halakhic discussion in which context it appears, as arises from the structure of the sugya and its redaction. In light of the various findings I will ask if there can be one general answer to the question of the role and status of aggadic material vis-à-vis halakhic material in the BT. I will conclude with suggestions for future scholarly pursuit of this question.

Author

• Yonatan Feintuch, Bar-Ilan University