Halakah and Aggadah

Now concerning virgins, I have no command of the Lord, but I am offering direction as one who by the mercy of the Lord is trustworthy.  1 Corinthians 7:25  NASB

Offering direction – The English translation misguides.  It ignores the Jewish context of Paul’s statement.  How does it do this?  By translating gnṓmē as “direction” rather than “opinion.”  Why does this matter?  Paul is giving directions.  Isn’t that enough?  No, not really.  You see, gnṓmē, as “opinion,” is really Greek for aggadah, that is, for the opinion of a Jewish rabbi to a Jewish audience.  Paul is really saying that there is no Torah-based prescription concerning this matter.  If there were, he would give it.  It would be halakah, a command that required obedience.  But in this particular case, there is no halakah, so he gives his Jewish, informed opinion.  That’s what aggadah is—the opinion of someone who is seeped in Torah.  The NASB removes the Jewish context, making it appear as if Paul is simply providing pastoral direction.  The NASB does this because it assumes that Paul is a Christian, not a Jewish rabbi any longer.

Now that we’ve noticed this in Paul, we would expect it to occur rather consistently in other Jewish contexts, for example, in the writings of the other disciples and in Yeshua’s own teaching.  In fact, the Jewish Sages had a lot to say about the absolute necessity of the combination of halakah and aggadah.  Abraham Heschel wrote:

“And in the opinion of R. Huna, ‘Whoever engages exclusively in the study of Torah is like an atheist.’  Thus, the extraordinary efforts on the part of the Sages to guard the ramparts of the tradition by creating fences and hedges to protect the observance of the mitzvot.”[1]

Gordon Tucker adds a footnote to Heschel that captures just how important this distinction really is: “The strength of the English formulation captures the sense of the Hebrew that such a person recognizes no divine authority.  The reason is, apparently, that such a person approaches Torah as an intellectual exercise rather than as a mandate for how to live.”[2]

Heschel goes on:

“To find the true meaning of Aggadah, search deeply into each interpretation.  You will find there struggles, worries, and yearnings, eternal problems and contemporary questions, the travails of community and individual that vexed both the Sages and the nation as a whole.”[3]

Why does this matter so much to us?  Because the scholar’s approach to Scripture contains a danger not always apparent.

“Whoever seeks to separate [Halakhah and Aggadah] extinguishes the light of Judaism in the flame.  In sum, one who says, ‘I hold only Aggadah’ cannot grasp Aggadah itself.”[4]

“The Sages promulgated the principle ‘Not the study of but the performance of mitzvot is the essence of virtue.’  ‘One whose wisdom is more abundant than his deeds—to what is he compared?  To a tree whose branches are abundant but whose roots are few.  A wind can come, uproot it, and overturn it . . . but one whose deeds are more abundant that his wisdom—to what is he comparable?  To a tree whose branches are few but whose roots are abundant.  All the winds in the world may blow against it, yet be unable to move it.’”[5]

Deeds—then study, but never deeds without study.  Biblical wisdom entails enactment.  It does not exist without doing.

Topical Index: halakah, aggadah, opinion, gnṓmē, Heschel, Huna, 1 Corinthians 7:25

[1] Abraham Heschel, Heavenly Torah as Refracted through the Generations, p. 3, citing BT Avodah Zarah 17b.

[2] Gordon Tucker, in Abraham Heschel, Heavenly Torah as Refracted through the Generations, p. 3, fn. 15.

[3] Abraham Heschel, Heavenly Torah as Refracted through the Generations, p. 7.

[4] Ibid., p. 3.

[5] Ibid.