json/Jewish Thought/Modern/Halakhah and Aggadah/English/Sefaria Community Translation.json

{
    "language": "en",
    "title": "Halakhah and Aggadah",
    "versionSource": "https://www.sefaria.org",
    "versionTitle": "Sefaria Community Translation",
    "actualLanguage": "en",
    "languageFamilyName": "english",
    "isBaseText": false,
    "isSource": false,
    "direction": "ltr",
    "heTitle": "הלכה ואגדה",
    "categories": [
        "Jewish Thought",
        "Modern"
    ],
    "text": [
        "For the halakha -- a frown; for the aggada -- a smile. The one is strict, harsh, unyielding as iron -- the quality of justice. The other is permissive, softer than oil -- the quality of mercy. The one gives orders without exception -- her allowance is an allowance and her proscription is a proscription; the other gives advice relevant to each's strength and knowledge; allowance and proscription and moderation are hers. The one -- the shell, the body, the act; the other -- the interior, the soul, the intent. Here is cemented orthodoxy, obligation, indenture; there is continual renewal, freedom, permission. Until here -- I spoke of halakha and aggada in life; and in literature there are more: Here is the dryness of prose, a formal and permanent style, the language of gray monochrome -- the sovereignty of the mind; and there is the lushness of poetry, a current and ever-changing style, the language of rainbow polka-dots -- the sovereignty of the heart.",
        "On these opposite appellations, which contrast halakha and aggada, I could add more infinitely, and it is obvious that in each there would be a bit of truth, but is there nothing to learn from this -- the popular position -- that the halakha and the aggada are two enemies, one thing and its reverse?",
        "Those who say this are confusing fundamental nature with outside appearance -- to whom are these similar? To the one who decides that the river's ice and water are two distinct materials. The halakha and the aggada are not in fact anything except two halves of the same whole, two faces of the same creature. The connection between the two of them is like that from speech to thought and feeling, or from action and tangible form to speech. The halakha is the crystallization, the final and inevitable result of the aggada; the aggada is the core of the halakha. ",
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        "\"We may only teach in the Hebrew language, this is the view of the sages. Ploni (i.e., so-and-so) states: [We may teach] in Hebrew and in [Aramaic] translation, and in any language. Almoni (i.e., a different so-and-so) states: Jewish topics [must be taught] in Hebrew, topics not of a Jewish nature [may be taught] in any language. Rabbi Palmoni (yet another so-and-so) states: We may only teach in the Jewish language\" - and the future interpreter [of the text] will interpret: \"In the Jewish language, meaning Yiddish, as it was spoken by Jews in the time of Rabbi Palmoni. And obviously, this is not the original Jewish language of the Jews from the Biblical age, which is Hebrew. For if it was so, what would be the difference between the view of Rabbi Palmoni and the first opinion [of the sages]?\""
    ],
    "sectionNames": [
        "Paragraph"
    ]
}