Some of the midrashim assume an
aggadic (legendary) character, while others assume halachic (legal) ones.
These things also come to the fore elsewhere in his thought, in his allegorical commentary on the
aggadic tales of the Amora Rabbah bar bar Chana (Bavli, Bava Batra, 73b-74a).
In fact, despite a considerable measure of ambivalence in Mamet's adherence to his Jewish ancestors and faith (Bigsby, 2004), Kane, with an insistence on Mamet's employment of language as "camouflage" (1999: 4), asserts that Mamet's Jewishness, depicted in his implementation of Talmudic concepts, halakhah, Jewish mysticism and
aggadic traditions of narration, has constituted the cornerstone of his oeuvre since 1975.
Comparative Midrash: The Plan and Program of Genesus Rabba and Levitivcus Rabbah (1986) is illustrative of his take on the uses and abuse of
aggadic midrash, that is, nonlegal ethical and hermeneutical pronouncements peppered with philosophical wisdom and a vast amount of folk tradition tied to a historical context, though aspects of it are legal and very close to the halakhic strands of the Talmud.
The messages of these
aggadic comments are that the Jews deserved to be punished for not caring about the Temple during the time of Achashverosh, and that while Achashverosh had a positive relationship with Esther, he still would not go so far as to allow the Temple to be rebuilt.
Western scholars who have studied the "Tale of Harut and Marut" and grappled with its literary analogues have most frequently pointed to the Jewish and Christian parascriptural materials that envelop the enigmatic figure of Enoch and in particular to a curious medieval Jewish
aggadic narrative known as the "Midrash of Shemhazai and 'Azael." (29) This unusual tale, extant in at least four Hebrew versions and one Aramaic rendition, (30) requires our attention at this stage, and I accordingly provide here a translation of what is arguably its earliest written registration, in the eleventh-century midrashic compilation Bereshit Rabbati of R.
The
aggadic portions of the Talmud normally are not utilized in deciding halakhah (NODA B'YEHUDAH, Yoreh Deah 2:161).
She is also discussed in the Kabbalah and in later
Aggadic (Jewish oral history) traditions.
Specifically, the point of departure will be the charge leveled by Christian scholars against the Qur'an that its presentations of "biblical" characters are flawed because they contain "apocryphal" or "
aggadic" elements.
Traditionally, Talmudic statements can be classified into two broad categories: Halakhic and
Aggadic statements.