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January 10, 2003/Shevat 7 5763, Vol. 55, No. 20
Jewish expression takes many forms
Torah study
DR. NEIL GILLMAN
Bo/Exodus 10:1-13:16
"Pan-Halachism." That term was coined by Abraham Joshua Heschel to characterize a tendency in some Jewish circles to insist that Halacha, the system of Jewish law, is the only authentic form of Jewish religious expression. The implication of that claim is that the Aggada, broadly defined as all Jewish religious expressions that are not explicitly statements of law, is inauthentic and not worth serious study.
"The outstanding expression of the anti-aggadic attitude," Heschel continues, "is contained in a classic rabbinic question with which Rashi opens his famous commentary on the Book of Genesis." Rashi asks why the Torah begins with the story of creation. Where should it have begun? With a verse from this week's Torah reading, with Exodus 12:1, the verse that opens the passage outlining the laws of Passover. Why begin the Torah here? Because it is the first set of laws addressed to all of Israel.
"The premise and implications of this question are staggering," Heschel argues, for it suggests that the entire book of Genesis, together with the story of our ancestors' enslavement and redemption from Egypt, do not belong in the Torah. There are no legal codes in that material.
Heschel reads this attitude as an attack on the role of theology in Judaism. It was an attitude that he encountered throughout his career, as did his students. How often did a student of his hear teachers say, "It doesn't really matter much what you have to say about God. The most important question is, do you observe Halacha?"
What fascinates me is that just as there are pan-halachists in our midst, there are also "pan-aggadists." Martin Buber, for example, in an essay titled "Jewish Religiosity," suggests that one of his purposes is to liberate Judaism from "the rubble of rationalism and rabbinism," and by "rabbinism," he includes Halacha, which he felt was an obstacle to authentic faith in God.
Heschel was surely not a pan-aggadist. Nor was Chayim Nahman Bialik, Israel's foremost national poet, who, in the essay, "Halacha ve-Aggada," wrote that these two forms of Jewish religious expression are completely interdependent.
Heschel devotes page after page to delineating that interdependence. Halacha provides discipline and form to religious life. Aggada provides its spirit, meaning and drama.
Our Torah portion is the best example of that interdependence. Yes, Exodus 12 does contain the first code of law addressed to all of Israel. But this code of law is embedded in an Aggada, a narrative, and it derives its power from that narrative. If there had been no oppression and no redemption, then there would be no Passover Halacha, no matzo, no bitter herbs, no cups of wine, no Haggada, no seder.
We reexperience that interdependence each year. We prepare our homes for Passover according to Jewish law, but when we finally sit down to observe the seder, what do we do? We tell the story. Telling the story is the primary Passover mitzvah. That itself is a halachic requirement that is fulfilled through an aggadic expression.
And of course, this story has a great deal to say about the nature of God and the role of God in Israel's history. Without God, there would be no redemption, no Passover festival.
I personally feel the lure of pan-aggadism, but I also know that I must resist it. I also pray that my friends and colleagues who spend their careers immersed in the study of the Halacha will also resist the seductive power of pan-halachism.
Rabbi Neil Gillman is Professor of Jewish Philosophy at the Jewish Theological Seminary.
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