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The Intersection of Halakha and Aggada at the Heart of Early Rabbinic Judaism

Mon, December 17, 10:30am to 12:00pm, Seaport Hotel & World Trade Center, Federal 1 Complex

Abstract

Some scholars have recently suggested that the categories "halakha" (law) and "aggada" (narrative) should be abandoned in the study of rabbinic literature since they are so porous (law as narrative and narrative as law) as to misrepresent the nature of rabbinic legal and narrative discourse. I will argue that the categories and the distinctions between them are "native" to early rabbinic literature (in a way that other imposed dichotomies are not, e.g., realism and nominalism), and, therefore, should not be too readily discarded. The distinction between midrash halakha and midrash aggada is a worthwhile one to retain, even if reconfigured. The very porousness of the categories should be highlighted, as, I will argue, they are in several early rabbinic texts, especially midrashic ones, to be explored in this talk. I shall analyze texts that themselves emphasize the dynamic intersection of the two modes of midrashic (and by extension, mishnaic) discourse. In short, I will argue that "difference" can and should be celebrated without it becoming "dichotomy."

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