We-Hizhir

The subject will be treated under the following headings:

Connotation of Haggadah.

Midrash Haggadah embraces the interpretation, illustration, or expansion, in a moralizing or edifying manner, of the non-legal portions of the Bible (see see HAGGADAH; MIDRASH; MIDRASH HALAKAH). The word "haggadah" (Aramaic, "agada") means primarily the recitation or teaching of Scripture; in a narrower sense it denotes the exegetic amplification of a Biblical passage and the development of a new thought based thereupon. Like the formula "maggid ha-Katub"(="the Scripture teaches"), frequently found in the ancient writings, the noun "haggadah" (plural, "haggadot") probably had at first a general application, but at an early date was restricted to denote a nonhalakic explanation (comp. Bacher, "Ag. Tan." 2d ed., pp. 461 et seq.). The word then came to be used in a more general sense, designating not the haggadic interpretation of single passages, but haggadic exegesis in general, the body of haggadic interpretations—in fine, everything which does not belong to the field of the Halakah. The haggadic Midrash, which confined itself originally to the exposition of Scripture text, was developed in its period of florescence into finished discourses. "The Haggadah, which is intended to bring heaven down to the congregation, and also to lift man up to heaven, appears in this office both as the glorification of God and as the comfort of Israel. Hence religious truths, moral maxims, discussions concerning divine retribution, the inculcation of the laws which attest Israel's nationality, descriptions of its past and future greatness, scenes and legends from Jewish history, comparisons between the divine and Jewish institutions, praises of the Holy Land, encouraging stories, and comforting reflections of all kinds form the most important subjects of these discourses" (Zunz, "G. V." 1st ed., pp. 349 et seq.).

Object of Haggadah.

The opening words of this quotation are a paraphrase of a famous sentence in which the Haggadah was praised by the old haggadists themselves. "If thou wishest to know Him at whose word the world came into being, then learn the Haggadah, for through it thou shalt know the Holy One, praised be He, and follow His ways" (Sifre to Deuteronomy 11:22). Indeed, the Haggadah, being exegesis from a religious and ethical standpoint, undertook to influence the mind of man and to induce him to lead a religious and moral life, "that he might walk in the ways of God." In conformity with the conditions of its time, it neither could nor would limit itself to the simple interpretation of Scripture, but included in its ever-widening circle of discussions and reflections on the Scripture text the highest thoughts of religious philosophy, mysticism, and ethics. It interpreted all the historical matter contained in the Bible in such a religious and national sense that the heroes of the olden time became prototypes, while the entire history of the people of Israel, glorified in the light of Messianic hopes, was made a continual revelation of God's love and justice. For this reason the importance for modern Jewish science of the study of the Haggadah can not be overestimated.

Development of Haggadah.

The entire wealth of the haggadic Midrash hasbeen preserved in a series of very different works, which, like all the works of traditional literature, are the resultant of various collections and revisions, and the contents of all of which originated a long time before they were reduced to writing. The first traces of the midrashic exegesis are found in the Bible itself (MIDRASH); while in the time of the Soferim the development of the Midrash Haggadah received a mighty impetus, and the foundations were laid for public services which were soon to offer the chief medium for the cultivation of Bible exegesis. Much Midrash Haggadah, often mixed with foreign elements, is found in the Apocrypha, the Pseudepigrapha, the works of Josephus and Philo, and the remaining Judæo-Hellenistic literature; but haggadic exegesis reached its highest development in the great epoch of the Mishnaic-Talmudic period, between 100 and 500 C.E., when all its different branches were fully worked out. The Haggadah of the Amoraim is the continuation of that of the Tannaim; and, according to Bacher, there really is no difference between the Amoraim and the Tannaim with reference to the Haggadah. The final edition of the Mishnah, which was of such signal importance for the Halakah, is of less significance for the Haggadah, which, in form as well as in content, shows the same characteristics in both periods. It may be said in particular, that in the field of the Haggadah the century after the completion of the Mishnah may be fairly compared with the century before its completion, as regards not only the wealth of the extant material and the number of the authors to be considered, but also the independence and originality of the subject-matter treated (comp. Bacher, "Ag. Pal. Amor." vol. , pp. et seq.).

Divisions of Haggadah.

A story told in Yer. Hor. 3:48b indicates the great extent of the haggadic exegesis and its general popularity at this time. When the aged Ḥanina b. Ḥama saw the people of Sepphoris flocking to the school of R. Benaiah, and heard that it was to hear R. Johanan deliver a discourse there, he exclaimed, "Praised be God that He permits me to behold the fruit of my labors during my lifetime. I have taught him the entire Haggadah, with the exception of that on Proverbs and Ecclesiastes." In another passage, in a conversation between the patriarch Judah I. and Israel b. Jose, the story is told of R. Ḥiyya, that, lost in thought, he read through the whole Book of Psalms from the haggadic standpoint (Yer. Kil. 9:32b; Gen. R. ). During the third and at the beginning of the fourth century the masters of Halakah were also the representatives of the Haggadah; but side by side with them appeared the haggadists proper ("rabbanan di-Agadta," "ba'ale Agada"), who subsequently became more and more prominent, attracting with their discourses more hearers than the halakists. The highest product of the Haggadah, the public discourse drawing upon all the arts of midrashic rhetoric—sentence, proverb, parable, allegory, story, etc.—now received its final form. The ancient sentence "We-kullehon yesh lahem miḳra we-yesh lahem mashal we-yesh lahem meliẓah" (For each of them there is Bible text, a proverb, and a saying; comp. Cant. R. 1:1) may be applied to these products of haggadic rhetoric. The epigoni of the Haggadah flourished in the fourth and at the beginning of the fifth century, and were followed by the anonymous haggadists who preserved and revised the immense haggadic material. Creative haggadic activity ceases with the end of the Talmudic period. The post-amoraic and the geonic period is the epoch of the collectors and revisers, during which the haggadic midrashim were reduced to writing, receiving the form in which they have been handed down more or less unchanged. Sometimes the results of the Midrash Haggadah—specific deductions on the one hand, general precepts, sentences, and maxims on the other, obtained by a study of the Biblical books from the religio-ethical or historical side, or by penetration into the spirit of Scripture—were collected in special works, forming special branches of the Haggadah, such as ethical Haggadah, historical Haggadah, Cabala, etc. At other times single Scriptural interpretations, haggadic sentences, and stories of all kinds, which originated or were used in the course of some halakic discussion—and this was often the case—were included when that discussion was reduced to writing; and it is for this reason that the Mishnah, Tosefta, and both Talmuds contain so much haggadic material. Or, finally, the mass of haggadic matter was collected and edited in the exegetic midrashim proper—the midrashim par excellence, which formed either running haggadic commentaries to the single books of the Bible, or homiletic midrashim, consisting of discourses actually delivered on the Sabbath and festival lessons or of revisions of such discourses.

Students of the Haggadah.

The following discussion of individual midrashic works will be restricted to the most important productions in the field of the Midrash Haggadah proper; for the ethical and historical Haggadah, and such as is included in halakic works, see ABOT; see APOCALYPSE; Apocalyptic Literature; APOCRYPHA; CABALA; DEREK EREẒ RABBAH; ETHICS; etc. Similarly, as regards the Targumim containing or reflecting the Midrash Haggadah, reference must be made to the articles on the various targumim. It may be regarded as characteristic of the midrashim proper that they are anonymous—that is, the name of the editor who made the final revision is unknown; accordingly, haggadic works whose authors are known (e.g., R. Tobias b. Eliezer's "Lekaḥ Ṭob"; R. Menahem b. Solomon's "Sekel Ṭob"), and the haggadic commentaries of a later period, such as that published by Buber under the title "Midrash Agada" (Vienna, 1894), must likewise be excluded from this review. Haggadic exegesis was, as mentioned above, assiduously cultivated in the period of its florescence by the most eminent rabbis, some of whom are praised in particular as being "learned in the Haggadah" ("baḳi ba-Agada"); and it became a special branch of traditional science for the "scholars of the Haggadah" ("rabbanan di-Agadta"). It was the subject of study in the schools and furnished an inexhaustible supply of material for the sermons and discourses which were deliveredon Sabbaths and feast-days, and which followed the Scripture lesson and formed a part of public worship, or could be separated from it at need. Opportunity, moreover, often arose, both on joyous and on sad occasions, to resort to haggadic expositions for words of comfort or of blessing, for farewell discourses, etc.

References to the arrangement of the Haggadah, to connected haggadic discourses, to the writing down of single haggadic sentences, and even to books of the Haggadah, are extant even from early times. Thus R. Simon b. Pazzi was an editor of the Haggadah ("mesadder Agadta") before the time of R. Joshua b. Levi (comp. Ber. 10a). The latter, a Palestinian amora of the first half of the third century, who was also a famous haggadist, was the author of the sentence explaining the phrase "works of God" in Psalms 28:5 as referring to the haggadot (Midr. Teh. ad loc.); he, as well as his pupil R. Ḥiyya b. Abba, severely censures the reducing of haggadot to writing and the use of written haggadot, for it was in general considered that the prohibition against writing down the "words of the oral law" referred not only to halakot, but also to haggadot; for the latter in particular might be the expression of private opinions and interpretations which, not being under control of the schools, were likely to lead to abuses. The severity of this censure indicates that it was not a question of writing down single haggadot merely. R. Joshua b. Levi himself says that he once looked into a haggadic work ("sifra di-Agadta"), and he quotes numerical interpretations therefrom (Yer. Shab. 16:15c; Soferim ); a "Haggadah-book of the school" is mentioned by R. Jacob bar Aḥa, the contemporary of Judah I. (Sanh. 57b); and it is said of R. Johanan and R. Simeon b. Laḳish, the contemporaries of R. Joshua b. Levi, that they read a Haggadah-book on the Sabbath. They regarded such collections as demanded by the times, and paraphrasing Psalm 119:126 they declared that it were better to repeal an interdiction (e., that against writing down the oral law, which they referred to the Haggadah) than to allow the Torah to be forgotten in Israel (Giṭ. 60a; Tem. 14b).

R. Johanan, who always carried a Haggadah with him, is the author of the saying, "A covenant has been made: whoever learns the Haggadah from a book does not easily forget it" (Yer. Ber. 5:9a). There are other scattered allusions to haggadic works in Talmudic-midrashic literature. There must also have been collections of legends and stories, for it is hardly conceivable that the mass of haggadic works should have been preserved for centuries by word of mouth only. These scattered allusions merely show, however, that the beginnings of the written Haggadah date very far back; very little is known of the nature of the old Haggadah-books, and it is impossible to determine what traces they left in the old Midrash literature. Much material from the various early midrashic collections, which gradually increased in numbers, was doubtless incorporated in the exegetic midrashim which have been preserved; and the latter clearly indicate the nature of the early exegesis, the "manner of discourse of antiquity"; but only the above-mentioned tannaitic midrashim—the Mekilta, Sifre, and Sifra, containing Haggadah mixed with Halakah—date in their earliest component parts from the second century, having been definitively edited in the post-tannaitic time. The purely haggadic-exegetic midrashim were edited at a much later time, after the completion of the Talmud. One may, as Bacher says, "speak in a certain sense of the completion of the haggadic Midrash as one speaks of the completion of the Talmud, although the works belonging to this class continued to be produced for five centuries or more after that time."

Exegetic and Homiletic Midrash.

It is of the utmost importance, in considering the several midrash works, to emphasize the fundamental difference in plan between the midrashim forming a running commentary to the Scripture text and the homiletic midrashim. In order to avoid repetitions later on, brief reference must here be made to the connection of the midrashic homilies with the Scripture lessons, which were delivered at the public worship on the Sabbath and on feast-days after the Sedarim and Pesiḳta cycle; to the structure of the homilies; to the nature of the proems which occupy such an important position in the entire midrash literature; to the halakic exordia, the formulas, etc.

When the scholars undertook to edit, revise, and collect into individual midrashim the immense haggadic material of centuries, they followed the method employed in the collections and revisions of the halakot and the halakic discussions; and the one form which suggested itself was to arrange in textual sequence the exegetical interpretations of the Biblical text as taught in the schools, or the occasional interpretations introduced into public discourses, etc., and which were in any way connected with Scripture; and since the work of the editor was often merely that of compilation, the existing midrashim betray in many passages the character of the sources from which they were taken. This was the genesis of the midrashim which are in the nature of running haggadic commentaries to single books of the Bible, as Bereshit Rabbah, Ekah Rabbati, the midrashim to the other Megillot, etc.

Sedarim and Pesiḳta Homilies.

But even the earliest of these works, Bereshit Rabbah, is essentially different in its composition from the tannaitic midrashim in that the several "parashiyyot" (sections) are introduced by proems. These are characteristic of a different class of midrashim, the homiletic, in which entire homilies and haggadic discourses as delivered during public worship or in connection with it were collected and edited, and which accordingly do not deal in regular order with the text of a book of the Bible, but deal in separate homilies with certain passages, generally the beginnings of the lessons. These lessons were either the pericopes of the Pentateuch divided according to the three-year cycle-reading of the Torah as customary in Palestine and on which the division of the Pentateuch into from 154 to 175 "sedarim" is based, or the Pentateuchal and prophetic sections as assigned in accordance with the Pesiḳta cycle to the various feast-days and special Sabbaths (e.g., the Sabbaths of mourning and of comforting from the 17th of Tammuz to the end ofthe Jewish calendar year). These may be designated respectively as sedarim homilies and as pesiḳta homilies. The Sedarim homilies are the homilies to the pericopes of the Sedarim cycle—of which, although no collection to the entire cycle has been preserved, one to the entire Pentateuch exists in the Tanḥuma midrashim—and to individual books of the Pentateuch in Shemot Rabbah (in part), Wayiḳra Rabbah, Bemidbar Rabbah (beginning with ch. ), Debarim Rabbah, etc. The Pesiḳta homilies are the homilies to the Scripture sections according to the Pesiḳta cycle, as found in the Pesiḳta edited by Solomon Buber and in the Pesiḳta Rabbati: the designation is applied also to the homilies on lessons of the Pesiḳta cycle in the Tanḥumas and other Pentateuch midrashim. In brief, the arrangement and division of the Pentateuch midrashim, with the exception of Bereshit Rabbah, it is generally recognized, is based on the Palestinian three-year cycle, with the sedarim of which its sections correspond almost throughout. These midrashim therefore contain homilies to the Sabbath lessons of the three-year cycle together with a number of homilies intended for the feast-days and Sabbaths of the Pesiḳta cycle (Theodor, in "Monatsschrift," 1885, pp. 356 et seq.).

The Proems.

The sedarim and pesiḳta homilies are clear and comprehensive in structure, although this may not be recognized in the midrash editions, in which the homilies are often not properly arranged. In the Pesiḳta, Wayiḳra Rabbah, etc., the homilies begin with several proems; in the Tanḥumas (with considerable differences in various parts and in the different recensions), the Pesiḳta Rabbati, Debarim Rabbah, and Bemidbar Rabbah, a halakic exordium more or less systematically precedes the proems. The latter are followed by the exposition proper, which, however, covers only a few of the first verses of the Scripture lesson; the first verse (or the first part thereof) of the lesson is generally discussed more fully than the remaining verses. The homilies generally close with verses from the Bible prophesying Israel's auspicious future. This is the common form of the homilies in all the homiletic midrashim; it allows, however, of the utmost freedom of treatment and execution in its various parts. The proems, which are the clearest evidence of the existence of a deliberate technical arrangement in the haggadic midrashim, constitute both in name ("petiḥah") and in nature an introduction to the exposition of the lesson proper; to this, however, they lead up by means of the interpretation of an extraneous text, the proemial text, which must not be taken from the lesson itself; and the proems may be as different in structure and finish as in contents. The proems are either simple, consisting of a simple exposition of the proem-text, often amplified by quotations, parables, etc., and connected throughout, or at least at the end, with the lesson or with the initial verse thereof, or composite (see Jew. Encyc. 3:62, s. BERESHIT RABBAH), consisting of different interpretations of the same extraneous verse, by one or by various authors, and connected in various ways, but always of such a nature that the last interpretation, the last component part of the proem, leads to the interpretation of the lesson proper. The direct transition from the proem to the lesson is often made by means of a formula common to all the proems of the homily, where with the proem is brought to a logical and artistic conclusion. Exegetic material for use in the proems, especially the composite ones, which are often very extensive, was always at hand in abundance; and the art of the haggadist appeared in the use he made of this material, in the interesting combination, grouping, and connection of the several sentences and interpretations into a uniform structure so developed that the last member formed the fitting introduction to the exposition of the lesson proper. There are many formulas ("Ketib," "Hada hu da-ketib"

The various midrash works are differentiated by the relation of the simple to the compound proems—the structure of the latter, their development into more independent haggadic structures, the use of the various formulas, etc. By the method of selecting extraneous texts for the proems so many non-Pentateuchal, especially Hagiographic, verses were expounded, even in early times, in the proems to the Pentateuch homilies and interpretations, that these homilies became mines for the collectors of the non-Pentateuch midrashim. Many extensive interpretations which are found in connection with Scripture passages in those midrashim are merely proems from various homilies, as often appears clearly in the final proem-formulas retained. In such cases these formulas offer the surest criterion for proving the dependence of one midrash upon another. While proems are characteristic of all the homiletic midrashim—and it was due to the popularity of this form of the old homilies that proems were added also to the parashiyyot of the Bereshit Rabbah, although this old midrash is a running commentary on the Scripture text—yet the practise of prefacing the haggadic discourse with the discussion of a simpler halakic question is observed only in a part of those midrashim. The halakic exordium begins in the Tanḥumas with the words, "Yelammedenu rabbenu" (Let our teacher teach us). This formula gave rise to the name "Yelammedenu," by which this midrash and an earlier version of it were frequently designated; the same formula occurs in the Pesiḳta Rabbati. In Debarim Rabbah the word "halakah" is used, the question proper beginning in most of the exordia with "Adam mi-Yisrael." The word "halakah" instead of the formula "yelammedenu rabbenu" is used also in the part of Bemidbar Rabbah which is derived from the Tanḥuma. The interpretations which follow the proems and the halakic exordium in the halakic midrashim are confined, as mentioned above, to some of the first verses of the lesson.

In some homilies the proems are equal in lengthto the interpretations proper, while in others they are much longer. Even if the editors of the midrashim combined the proems of different authors from the various homilies they had at hand, it yet seems strange that they should have been able to select for each homily several proems, including some very long ones, while they could find only a limited number of interpretations to the lessons, these interpretations, furthermore, covering only a few verses. The disproportion between the proems and the interpretations has not yet been satisfactorily explained, in spite of various attempts to do so.

Character of Exegesis.

The character of the exposition in the exegetic midrashim like Bereshit Rabbah has been discussed in Jew. Encyc. 3:63, s. BERESHIT RABBAH. Here the literal and textual explanation is not yet in contrast to the Midrash Haggadah, as it often was in the time of the scientific exegesis. The old midrash contains many Scriptural interpretations which are exegetic in the truest sense of the word, affording a deep insight into the contemporary attitude toward the Scripture. But the haggadic midrash is the well-spring for exegesis of all kinds, and the simple exposition of Scripture is more and more lost in the wide stream of free interpretation which flowed in every direction.

Zunz has divided the Haggadah into three groups, following the old designations which were subsequently summed up in the word