Abstract
Judaism begins with a story. It is a fantastic story about the genesis of the world. It overflows with awesome deistic powers, curious creatures of all stripes, conflicts between characters, and endless intrigue. This story has been told and retold for thousands of years and now enjoys global recognition because other religious traditions now claim this story to be their own.
The Torah—how is it written? Upon white fire, in black fire.1
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Notes
Lifshitz (2007): 17, argues that aggadah means “that which is tied up, or, in other words, hidden and mysterious”; aggadah, by contrast, is more akin to midrash insofar as it “is a form of biblical interpretation” (28). Since Borowitz’s (2006) overall project is to demonstrate the theology hidden within aggadah, he probably would like Lifshitz’ distinction of these terms even though he himself conflates the terms (see pp. 7–8, 26).
For a history of the early scholarship that bisected halakhah and aggadah, see Lorberbaum (2007). Despite characterizing law as severe and story as lively in his famous “Halakhah and Aggadah” essay of 1917, Chayim N. Bialik nonetheless understands them to be like two faces of the same coin, like the two façades of a literary Janus.
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© 2013 Jonathan K. Crane
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Crane, J.K. (2013). Narratives, Norms, and Deadly Complications. In: Narratives and Jewish Bioethics. Palgrave Macmillan’s Content and Context in Theological Ethics. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137021090_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137021090_2
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
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