Ways of the Aggadot and Homilies

The words of the wise are subtle and contain interior secrets. When it is said that one should keep these matters within his heart, it does not mean they are unworthy of study or contemplation as expressions of wisdom and mystery. Rather, one should learn from the scripture those pleasant and yearned-for hints. The Holy One, blessed be He, has elevated the Torah above the hardships of all who follow after their own desires. If a person trains himself in the wisdoms, he will understand them according to his intellect. One should not take the wisdom or its quality and effort lightly, but rather investigate the matters without cynicism, pray for understanding, and contemplate the intent and the secrets concealed within, just as King David, peace be upon him, prayed for this in his supplication (Psalm 119): "Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things from Your Torah." When the Holy One, blessed be He, opens a person's eyes, He shows him only what is appropriate for him to reveal, as we have said. A person should not teach this to everyone, but only to one who possesses a perfect intellect and knows the truth, as they have clarified and revealed in many stories in the Talmud.

Therefore, it is not fitting for a person to reveal what he knows of the secrets except to one who is greater than him, or his equal. He must not reveal them to a fool, even if that fool is insistent, for it will not be viewed favorably. Therefore, the wise man said (Proverbs 23): "Do not speak in the ears of a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of your words." Furthermore, they said to guard the secret as one who keeps a chest, including all the types, the seventy names, and the shorthand notations likely referring to cryptographic or mnemonic systems used in kabbalistic literature, over everything. If they reflect and understand the nature of those hints, they will succeed. To this matter, Solomon, peace be upon him, alluded when he said (Proverbs 1): "To understand a proverb and a figure; the words of the wise and their riddles." For these reasons, the Sages of the Academy excavated their words into homilies in a manner that would capture the mind of the fool according to his own thoughts. It is not fitting to attribute the deficiency to the person who composed the writing, for it is not a deficiency in his speech; rather, the light is difficult for the fool according to his interpretation. He ought to be ashamed of his own intellect for not understanding the matter, given his error in the homilies and his assumption of error where there is value. This follows the words of the Torah which warn against it. As we have seen, the temperament of one man is more upright than another; there is wisdom in one that is not perceived by another. There is no doubt that an ignorant mind does not know a noble matter; he considers it trivial in his interpretation and deems the wise man a fool. Because of this, there are matters that are to some people the absolute truth and clarity, while to others who are distant in their level of wisdom, they appear impossible.

One might say to you, by way of example, that which explains the confusion found in their minds regarding the wisdom of dialectics, calculation, and astronomy, and the removal of the wisdom of nature and understanding. This is more precious than the reward of labor or the science of the stars. It is said to them, "Why are you keeping these vessels?"—those who hide the treasures we see. If one sees a small circle and wonders that it is a spherical body, and the size of the sphere is as large as the orbit of the Earth, one hundred and sixty-seven and some fraction times, and the Earth's sphere as it appears to our eyes is measured as twenty-four thousand miles, then in this way, one might stir up opinions as to how many types exist in the appearance of light. The one who has said "it is small"—there is no doubt that the pure light of inquiry, which the one who has mastered the wisdoms has understood from all we have said, will find a place in his soul to sustain this belief. All of this is a matter that appears distant to his eyes without discipline. The argument that comes through the Torah in this thought is in the form of a mystery. For how is it possible for a person to be in a place according to this [measurement] which is from the Earth, and to know the measurement of the sun's cycle,

and its circumference and the measure of its wisdom, until his mind includes the investigation just as it includes the measurement of a part of the Earth?

Moreover, one will ask: How is this possible, when the sun's cycle is in the heavens at the ultimate distance? If it were possible for us to see the sun's cycle correctly, we would not grasp it except for a mere glimmer. How, then, can a person reach a level where he can model it and detail its measurement by three types of fractions? This is a profane thing, the likes of which do not exist. There will be no doubt in his heart that this argument is problematic. It can only be resolved when he disciplines his soul in the study of books of character and the sciences that are appropriate in terms of clarity and other values in relation to one another. From there, he will proceed to the book delivered on this matter and those similar to it, namely, the book on the Tikkun ha-Galgalim Calculation of the Spheres by Rabbi Yehoshua the Prince of Elnavesky. There, this argument will be clarified for him, and the argument of truth—which has no doubt—will be opened to him, and there will be proofs for it. There will be no doubt in his heart between the body of the sun being equal in size or the sun being [something else]. He will learn in his soul to believe in the thing that is removed by a great distance, and he will believe in it with a complete faith. This is possible, and his return to agreement upon the sanctification of the beginning of this matter—which is missing from the other sciences—is the breaking of the pride of the intellect and the hand of nature and the intellect.

And the parable which they have used as a shield—the riddles—is of the degree that one ascends to equate the light and the heavy. This is the case for one who has no wisdom at all and was not guided in wisdom through the path of the mathematical sciences, but rather was in abundance of all that is confusing to the remainder who are in the void, lacking perfection because they were not led in the correct path. There is no doubt that they are far in their understanding of the material of the heavens and beyond. He will receive the ability to understand the word of God, and therefore it is fitting to investigate the hints of the Name with power, purity, and cleanliness, to reflect upon them. One should not use a parable to reject anything from them, but when he laughs in our strength, the kings will rejoice in his people, in the wisdoms, until they align their matters with the thing that is the Name. They will be able to recognize his words; the great thing is that the Sages, even though it is a type of connection to hint and gaze at the inquiry and the righteousness and the path of the esteemed pious, and the distancing of the world in all that is in it, were hesitant to strip the Name from the acts according to what they see. This is what is stated (Eruvin 23): "The majority of the narratives are as the plain meaning of the Torah," and for the latter ones, the explanation is in the parable of the marketplace, and each one according to his heart and his wisdom. We have relied on the valuation of this, as the Holy One, blessed be He, informed us (Isaiah 29): "And the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hidden." The scripture directs each one of us through the thirty things in its Torah, the intellect, and the end of its resolution, and the foolishness of the beginning of the sun, and the rows in the wing of the world regarding the seven evil paths. How can it not be so, when the parable is an advantage for our own sake in our matters, and the worry about it, and the completion of the intellect they knew in this matter, that all their words are clear and clean, and there is no change in them? They were warned not to depart from them, and they said (Gittin 60): "Whoever mocks the words of the Sages is judged in boiling excrement." And there is no boiling [punishment] greater than the foolishness which caused him to be angry. Therefore, anyone who is found in the world rejecting their words is not a man who seeks peace and gives preference to the felt [physical] things; rather, all peace is without the thing [derived] from the judgment of reason.

A Treatise on the Aggadot of the Sages

...a subject or a single place. Anyone who considers that statement inclusive and absolute will stumble and be confused. Many statements appear to contradict one another because they did not explain their conditions. He who knows every matter within its boundary will find them faithful and without any contradiction at all. You will see that this measure applies also to many of the statements regarding laws and commandments, even though the matter was not done with this intent, for there are found in the Talmud statements or Baraitot external Tannaic teachings that were presented absolutely, which do not align with the truth or contradict one another. They explained this in the Talmud by saying, "In what case are we dealing here?" and they placed each one within its boundary, and they were all found to be upright and straight.

The Third Way is the Kallut lightness/simplification. This is when a great and noble principle is hinted at through matters that appear on the surface to be light and insignificant, like the parables of the common folk. They intend by this noble and hinted-at matters, and those light matters are a signpost to one who knows and recognizes these hints. He knows how to judge with his intellect and to raise his thoughts from the revealed matters to the hidden ones, and from the lowly to the high. For example, when they said, "Youth is a garland of roses; old age is a garland of willow." And likewise, "The thorn becomes a cedar in the wilderness," and many like these. Furthermore, you must know that the Sages of blessed memory hinted at many matters of the core secrets through things from nature or astronomy. They made use of the teachings that were taught in those generations by the men of wisdom, nature, and astronomy. However, the essence for them was not that natural or astronomical matter, but rather the secret they wished to hint at through it. Therefore, it neither adds to nor detracts from the truth of the hinted matter whether the metaphorical garment they dressed it in is true or not. For the intent was for that garment to be [one that was] famous in those generations among the wise. That same matter could have been dressed in another garment according to what was famous in other generations. Thus, the author of that statement himself would have dressed it in such a way had he said it in those generations. Regarding all these, you must know that the Sages of blessed memory proceed according to their system: that physical things participate in and are affected by spiritual forces of various kinds, namely the angels, the ministers, and the demons, and all things of this lowly world are moved by the influence of the higher ones, and likewise, physical things make an impression on the spiritual ones. Anyone who does not recognize this way can never stand upon their opinion at all, in any way. Thus far we have spoken of the theoretical statements; we will now speak of the explanatory statements:

Know that the explanatory statements are divided into three types. The first is those that aim at the literal explanation of the text, and the interpretation of that text is according to their opinion as they state it. The second type is those that do not aim at the literal explanation of the texts, but rather they, of blessed memory, received [a tradition] that the Almighty, who caused the Torah to be written—and likewise the Prophets and the Writings—teaches what He wanted to write in the explanation of the text's language. It points to it, and they deduce it; He also wanted to hint at many true matters in that act or in those things said. He did not want to write those matters explicitly, but rather to hint at them in a few letters or a few words. They, of blessed memory, received those matters and the hints that were also hinted at in the texts. Certainly, it is not possible to interpret the entire language of the text according to that matter, for the Holy One, blessed be He, did not intend for the text to state that thing, but rather to hint at it.

The statements in the Aggadot are divided into two types: the first is the category of theoretical statements, and the second is the explanatory ones. The theoretical ones are the statements in which they convey principles from the principles of moral or divine wisdom. The explanatory ones are those in which they interpret a text from the Holy Scriptures. Regarding the theoretical, moral statements, there is no need for a systematic compilation because their benefit is famous, their brightness is revealed, and the student should not argue against them, nor should the stubborn person seek to invalidate them. However, we shall now speak of these divine teachings:

You already know that what led the Sages of blessed memory to write down the words of the Oral Torah—after the accepted tradition among them was that it is forbidden to teach the Oral Law in writing—was that they saw that opinions were becoming weaker with the length of the exile and the changing of times, and the memory was diminishing, and the reasoning was shortening. They found the Torah being forgotten. Therefore, they chose the sentence "It is time to act for the Lord" (Psalm 119) to engrave the explanation of the commandments in an inclusive book, so that it might remain existing for all days, and this is the sum of the Mishnah and the Gemara. They further reflected and saw that in this forgetting, which they feared regarding the part of the commandments, it was fitting also to fear for the part of the secrets of the Torah and the principles of the divine. However, the remedy found for the part of the commandments is not fitting for the part of the secrets. This is because the explanations of the commandments and the laws—there is no harm at all if they are written in a book in a clear explanation for every reader. But the part of the secrets is not fit to be handed over like that before anyone who wishes to take the Name, neither from the perspective of the value of the intellectual concepts nor from the perspective of their depth. From the perspective of their value: it is not the honor of the Creator that His secrets should be handed into the hands of people of bad character, even if they be learned scholars. And from the perspective of their depth: for the matters are in truth very deep, and only those who are clear-minded and well-trained in the ways of inquiry will succeed in them. If coarse intellects encounter them, even if they are not trained in inquiries, they will lead the true, precious matters into misconceptions and very bad evils. Therefore, they decided to manage the law and the understanding to write them, so that they would not be lost from the later generations, but in hidden ways and kinds of riddles that only one to whom the keys have been handed—namely, the rules by which the hints can be understood and those riddles explained—will be able to grasp. And whoever has not been handed the keys, they will be before him like the words of a sealed book, as if they were not written at all. These keys were left by them to their students, who received them from their hands; they relied on them that they would not be handed over except to their students, the beloved and fitting ones, and so from generation to generation. They warned and commanded every wise person and teacher that he should be careful and announce to all that the words of the Sages and their riddles require study. Anyone who approaches them and does not have the keys in his hand is only asking to stumble. However, after this warning, if a man comes and attempts to enter into them and the keys are not in his hand, and he stumbles and is broken, his blood is on his own head, and their hands have saved their soul.

One of the ways by which they concealed their words is various: the first is the way of metaphor and parable. These are the rhetorical ways known to masters of rhetoric, who, upon the foundation of imagery and parable, attribute occurrences and actions to one for whom those occurrences or actions are not correct at all. The second is the way of concealing conditions, where they conceal the conditions of the matter and do not explain them, and they state an absolute declaration. The truth of that statement exists only within a boundary, that is, according to one aspect or according to one time or according to the type.