'"':..,...

for a~other," three or four months. He was in the middle of edit­ ing two volumes of his articles and he had other urgent matters. I thanked hini for his interest: :Hot or cold? A little of both. Was this the same who had so ll1uch enjoyed the unlimited warfare he had unleashed the · ,.. before? Or. was much of the apparent hostility staged? Without an .pi,t::{':'!audience, he sounded so much more human and reasonable. What >~,',., had it all meant? I was confused. One evening a month later, my phone rang. It was Professor Reimagining . Tishby. Was I still planning to send over those articles? Yes, but I the had had a little trouble photocopying them (true). They would be over presently. Would I be available, he continued, to participate in a conference in Israel in mid-july on our favorite topic? He had been asked by the conference sponsors to suggest names and he wanted to know if he could submit mine. I told him that we would be abroad by then and thanked him. Much of his public display of HOWARD SCHWARTZ criticism had indeed been a ritualized initiation rite, part of a process of testing 'newcomers, which I had successfully undergone after all. VI GENESIS Looking back on that year in Jerusalem, it is obvious that this of the story of how woman was created. One version,. great center of ludaica learning has a distinctive culture, but it is no that formed from 's rib, is the more famous. tiULT:Jler·e,··.·bi"···,·'.·;'.f():.·".: .. ·,!·<;.,, less clear that it is cautiously moving in new directions, in part be­ is another version of story: In the that God cn~(JJI~d:)i!:···:~';),i;;:

;:"!;',' Adam complained, to' God, and God, in tum, sent three angels, Another example of the aggadic-midrashic 'Wi!); Senoy, Sansenoy, and Semangelof, who ordered Lilith to return to Enoch, about whom the Bible says only And her husband.' But even when they threatened to kill one hundred of God, and he was not; for God took him (Gen:S :34): her offspring daily, she refused to return. It was at this point that in the midst of a genealogical list, distinguishes

God created Eve. others, about whom it is said "and he died." But since' ,v'Y,I"lil"',UL'v,":,,· Nor does the infamous history of Lilith end there. She was slightest variation in biblical phrasing was taken to have prc:it(]fqn:d);:,>'i:'i',;~ believed ,to be jealous of Eve's ability to have human children, while significance, extensive conclusions were drawn from her own were merely , and thus she was blamed for the high statement about his death. Enoch came to be described as ori.e)' ()iY,',':/,'ii .. percentage of infant mortality that prevailed. In the Zohar (3: 19a) the few righteous men in the evil genera,tjon preceding.the 1'1()ocli:,i:<",:: a rite is described whose purpose was to keep Lilith away from the who was taken up into Paradise at God's comm~nd and tallghtt1;le,(;::;-.," '111:.arriage bed. It also became necessary to protect pregnant women secrets of the universe. Then he was returned- to earth~ to 'm:strJLl~t:ii;"ii:,;>"i::i;i:}i.i:;. and. newb0rn infants from Lilith's vengeance by having them wear men, and finally he was taken back into heaven, where he was u,aJ:LiY·'\'::'!\f,.,':»:;,<>?i.. ~;i,,! amulets to ward off 'her powers.4 Lilith's lust was believed to have formed into the fiery , Metatron, who became the he~lvenhr,:~::::',:<:«':;,::.'.·':'S'': been so great that whenever a man had nocturnal emissions or sexual scribe, the attendant of the Throne of Glory, the Prince of fap.tasies, it was said that he had had in tercourse with Lilith, and the treasuries of heaven, the ruler and judge of all the hosts of ";T"~.sl~;,':·):ii::;<,:,j,::,, I offspring of these unions were all the demons that populate the and executor of the Divine decrees on earth-quite a on)mlotlLoIllt()y", /'i"'?j;:\/::',;':;:,,,; wofld. It was even believed 'that a man's own demonic child ren a figure who appears in only' a brief passage in the would flock around his deathbed, calling out his name, and that the As the examples of Lilith and Enoch make apparent, man's human sons should recite Psalm 91 at their father's funeral inative opening out of biblical exegesis was utilized with rernaI:kable : . in order to protect themselves from these demons, who would other­ freedom under the circumstances. For in these postbiblical wise try to, steal their inheritance. And all of this involved legend we find a literature that flowered under some of the most str:ing,e111t:L" ::':";~:~>::"::':' derives from a commentary on the biblical passage, male and fenzale restrictions ever devised ,by men. After all, the purpose 'He created them. 5 rashim was not primarily literary; they were an attempt to SUI)St~n.;~i!';

This legend and a great many others like it are known as ag­ tiate a point of the Law, clarify a contradi~tion in the Uill.'ililVCUL,vh'•• ' _ gadot (singular: aggadah), a particular form of lewish legend that or offer an analogy. Like Adne Sadeh-a midrasl.lic crt~attin~:,W'holw,a'S: .;:{::"i::i.. the guilt of Eve which resulted from the sin of the Fall, or to shed Bible, and specifically the Torah, is not only the cO'ven:arilt:'h¢t~jee:n?i>,;:)i',\, ... :..·.-.:-1rh<>pe6pledfIsrael and GOd,9 but it is also the source of the prim~ry Thus" perhaps inevitably, constant meditation myths of the culture, and the bedrock for all commentary, both in and legends led the rabbis to invent or discoverrn. s~l~·~.J~!~m~i~t~t!1~ the halakhic, or legal, realm, and in the aggadic, or legendary, realm. solution to these incomplete mysteries'. These;.in tUJrJ:1.;.':'2t~Y*,~.\l~?R:~ h1deed, it is 'not difficult to understand why all subsequent sacred up motifs that had first appeared in. earlier UF.F,UU''-'·~ •. 11lthis;"i~a:~\tlije texts exist in the shadow of the sacred Scriptures. Jewish legendary tradition has reflected a ::Ci~~~~~~~~t~ . It is generally acknowledged that some of the narratives in Gen- that underlies the stylistic differences of various' ,:,t .... ·rrC>~·'·; .... ·fj esis preselVed myths that can be traced back at least four thousand tradition, "forming," as Martin Buber said, "a years, and probably more. It is believed that the actual writing legends, scattered in innumerable writings, around down of these niyths began approximately three thousand years Scripture."l2 ago. Once the Scriptures were canonized, the Book was regarded as On ·first consideration, it is true, the Bible seems closed. Although the evidence gathered by biblical scholars ­ overshadow all subsequent Jewish literature. The 'strates that the texts of the oldest book of the Bible, Genesis, are ticular the Torah, is held in such high esteem as the . likely reworkings of the original texts, with subsequent interpola­ God that it has been the focus for postbiQlical Jewish li~;:~~~~~~ih:;li~~.1!,,"~i,;1(J:;"i~lti;;i:~~·t tions, we know at least that these scriptural texts have been handed both sacred and secular, until this centurY, mpch of whicb down, virtually unchanged, since the canon of the Hebrew Scriptures itself simply as first- or second-level commentary on it.. To a re]U~~k~!/;J:<;·':;:'\}:;:·'::i;i' was completed around 100 C.E.l 0 ' able extent this commentary itselfis regarded as sacred,since Once, the canon of the Bible was closed, the creativity of the commentary and later written commentary claimed its " People of the Book had nowhere to turn but back to the Bible. It Oral Law. this companion tradition holds that at the same tirne.'.(.:;,};,y,:·;:t/;t'Gi,: was firmly believed that the answers to all questions could be found received the Torah, the Written Law, at Mount Sinai~~he a13v.,:,::,;,:·,.'·.',;:".,.'.,,:,/.,···,,··.,:'i' there, if one only had sufficient breadth and depth of knowledge to received the Oral Law, which in terpreted the Writt~n Lt,;.; Ullderstand: was this oral law considered to be that Rabbi Nehemiah saying: "Two Torahs were given, one written and one.oral.'~l Turn it and turn it over again and again, for everything is in it, and contemplate spoken commentary was not committed to writing, but was tI'::lns:;:<';~ •. ·.',·i:.··:·".,·:·.:;·:··: .However, the need to update the meaning of the Bible extended the oral tradition was committed to writing, it is un<1eJ~st(mdl:ab.le ~~~-'~·I".,'·.. · . :p:'ot onlY,to the laws it contained but also to the stories themselves. the rabbis had to seek out a form in which to preserve These stories retained their immediacy because subsequent genera­ legends that constitute it. This structure was from the tions gave themselves to reimagining the Bible, projecting themselves to record the discussion of the rabbis, in the form of into the biblical archetypes and reliving the myth in themselves. In be-but in fact is really not-verbatim"text Here, this way it was possible for the Aggadah to become a vehicle for the ture that followed, there are constant' reminders"that, . personal and mythic expressions of the people that could then be the speaker are in a direct line with those handed down·from ", aDsorbed into the. tradition, as well as a means of pern1itting the religious to evolve, which it did. The premise here is that a tradition Go and tell them I have a tradition from Rabbi Yohanan TIlUSt continually expand its boundaries in order to incorporate all heard it from his teacher, and his teacher from his teacher,aIidhis te.ach€~.I':,;<:< generations at .the same time. from his teacher, reaching from Moses at Mo~nt Sinai. (B. Hag. 3) Since an entire ethical system also depended on the interpreta­ tionof these particular texts, determining the resolution of certain So much importance was placed on the Oral La"Y incomplete biblical narratives took on extraordinary importance. soon believed that the primary work, the Torah, could ot'be,uhde:i;..;·'··',... :;;, without it. There is an important midrash in which Moses style . .Just as man was made in 'God'siniage,so'"'1".",.." .. ,-1:',,.,,)' is sent by God to sit in the classroom of Rabbi Akiba. The fact that man tells necessarily bear his imprint. . . ,Akiba lived over a thousa,nd years after Moses presents no problems With the Bible and the Talmud, then,Jewish lit~~ra;tl:l,t¢>i~;,Se in the Aggadah, where time is subordinate to the will of God. Moses rooted in two thoroughly sacred. texts.1 4. The Oral La'w}'a§':t6(5(i1fi~e( finds Akiba's teachings difficult to follow (!) and is astonished when in the Talmud, served as' the basis of an elaborate stl.ruc:ture·o1:com

.;l:\kiba quotes Moses as the source of his teaching. It seems possible mentaries and codes prepared by such masters of ~ihe. l.Y.I:J.1U,U:.JL~?:f:l-5~ . ji1~~rto read in this legend the implicit belief that the later generations had and the Renaissance as Rashi" the Tos·afists;M;aimoriide.s; aiuL'e)sebl

"?'succeeded in contributing to an understanding of the Torah, so that Caro, forming a continuous chain linked to Sinai. Leg~ (1' eCl[Sl;•. : heights he found the Holy One, blessed be He, sitting and tying crowns for and later inspired the literature of the Aggadah. Bufthe a.U::(d,;:(:U"i;-:i letters. M()ses said before Him: 'Master of the Universe! What prevents you authority of the Oral Law pales with 'each subsequent addi~10Jn .. E~{i,.),!'.;'\i:':j:;if:';~ . from leaving the letters as they are?' The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: the sacred canon. The rabbis who interpreted halakhic decisiO'~S})l.:.,:;:::.• ,:,.:,~t:;;V!;:;~;!!'r 'There is a man who will live after many generations and Akiba ben Joseph is the post-talmudic Responsa acknowledged th~t their ad(ii:ti.om)J!~· •• '·,.: .•: 'i.~=".i:"':ii":' his.,name, and he will build on every crown a multitude of halakhot.' Moses the tradition did not have the status of divine revelation. But said before Him: 'Master of the Univ~rse! Show him to me!' Then the Holy One, realm of the Aggadah, additions al'ld innovations continued l()Iijt:;r,;C';,':i::.'::;:;:~'·:y;:· blessed be He, said to him: 'Turn around!' Moses then went and sat at the back after the work of the Talmud was brought to a close around' ~nj~.···?·.·':<:lX':<::it;;;'i\ ,of the eighth row of Rabbi Akiba's disciples, and he could not understand what they were saying. His strength failed him. When Rabbi Akiba reached a certain C.E., at least until the twelfth or thirteenth ct:ntury.The~e lau~r·:::.:::c,:·:.... :,.:.:.: .. , ..'·:·" .. ,.. ,: .. ",. pomt, his disciples said to him: 'Rabbi, from where do you know this?' Rabbi legends, or midrashim, were collected in several major anm()lOgI~S,>.:,;>;:: Akiba said to them: 'It is a halakhah of Moses from Mount Sinai.'" (B. Men. 29b) the most important of which is the multivolume Mi4rash Rurbbtah .. ':\;i/~<,: :.:3~[Y whose midrashim came to be widely regardvd as (il part of the leJ:!~ac~V>::::!i·:.::<;:;'·;.~is In many ways then, the postbiblical written tradition may be of the Oral Law. seen as an extension of the oral tradition: instead of regarding what The aggadic tradition is unique in the insight it permits into had bee:f} set down in writing as fixed, later commentators regarded process of the evolution and embellishment of the.,central J,I~w]sn":,,::. the tale itself as flexible, as if a single story were being retold and myths and legends. In virt ually every other mythic traditio'n" embellished over many generations. There can be no doubt that the transformation of the central narratives took place early m,th¢, "-'.'(;:':": .accelnal:1Ce of the practice by which it was possible to embellish the ture's development, and this transformation was limited...... ', ·;;.!,vovllU::l of the Aggadah and complete the biblical episodes derived to the oral phase of the culture that preceded the written" ' ' .Any:' '. from the· nature of the oral tradition. Such a tradition must inevi­ subsequent embellishment in the writ~en tradition of these.;cultU~~~i::!::: tably.come to recognize that no matter how precisely a tale is retold, was limited to the realm of self-conscious worksbf ,subh'~s:the' ... ,., ...... i.' there isa slow, inevitable, and necessary process of revision that plays of Sophocles and Euripides. In contra~, the Jewish leg;eIl,iaryo;, , ;~;',';-;:.\ y'!,': .takes place each time it is repeated. Even once the tale has been tradition continued to actively evolve its legends long perfected in some. form, minor details of the narrative will continue original versions had already been set down in writing.'J:1;li:s d. iStjmc~~::: evolve. Since a considerabJ~ period elapsed before the legends of tion constitutes one of the primary unresolved. parado~es< the oral tradition were recorded in the Talmud and the Midrash, the Jewish religion-on one hand the rabbis pid not ignore~ve:t1 :·thp(:'::,:.::.>,,'::.':~".:·.'::: effects of this inevitable process cannot be underestimated. But being slightest word of the Torah, not even the crown of aletter,a.slI··lttl~!:i:,!( .. :;,.: among the world's great ,storytellers, the Jews recognized that a story of Moses and Akiba; at the 'Same time, these sacredt'.'~xt:~:~{~Ee:';i.ir,

i master storyteller cannot but recast the story in his own vision and subject to the often radical revision of the aggadic ttaldtti().n;wtl1c;Jtl. ••• ';;:!; , . . ·,-"·:·::':::, ..··,··.q··"""'.Cl6r1 to approach them as if they were still oral tales and had ne~er t"he often unfinished tales of the Torah. As gelier'a.t:idl1{J'cmq been set down in writing at all. Ultimately, these seemingly polar generation, a larger picture became apparent II()m·(fIl~.,;:t\,g~acla tendencies were resolved in the creation of a remarkably reverent vision in which image was linked to image, th~3tne·t~o·]tn~~m~~;iltf¢lta.: literature, in which every detail has been carefully weighed with phor to metaphor, until finally legend was linkedt~ le:;i~%~~~~~~ro respect to its implications for the primary tenets of Judaism, and that 'suggested the possibility of an unbroken bridge 0 ,:.,;especially as to the necessity of upholding the paramount tenet of across the gaps in the biblical narratives arid chlrorlOlIOg~{:.:'¥h;~$';~lt: .-',:;;~.~*i~:";£. the religion, the concept of monotheis'm. It is as if a story had been mately was being created was a kind of mdnomyth told and the ones responsible for retelling it had been given the free­ even of the time prior to existence-through all' of dom to embellish it as they pleased, within the limitations of very End of Days. precise and' demanding rules. These rules hold that all additions Linking together the disparate legends is the must be demonstrated to be linked. to the original text (thus the of the Jewish tradition, the Torah itself. His a C'~"...... h.,..,.I. need for proof-texts); that all additions must clarify and complete what it contains-the essential sum of all Jewish missing elements of the original; that they must remain true to the also a symbol personified in many ways th~at is received' a;[lI:}w:::OY:';:~':""'; reyerent spirit of the original; and that the tone and, to a cert ain every generation, like an eternal flame handed down extent, the style, must be consistent with the original. to son. The Torah is also directly equated with the The Aggadah of the Talmud and Midrash and the legends of The Torah is a to those who cling to it (Prov. the Kabb~ah and of the Hasidim, are unique among the sacred liter­ precious did the sages feel it was that 'virtually' all of the n·lid:~a.sjhini;)···;,;"... :;:;'!:;':·;·:i'~.'~g atures of the world since virtually every phase in their development about the giving of the Torah emphasize the resistance in,. ne;ave~n':··:':·:·'·<."t<:··};,·t;: can be traced in each subsequent generation. And this evolution con­ and on earth. In heaven the angels first objected to God's plam:jto: 1,;.,':;,::';<'./,/';: tinues into secular literature in the form of the folklore of the eXiled give this precious gift to the children of Israel. And even and oppressed people who also found solace in reimagining the Bible were overruled, they still resisted Moses during his ascent mto:;t'anl~<'·/Fc.":'·::(j(;;:"f and the subsequent history of their holy men, martyrs, and great dise to receive the Torah, almost destroying hini in tp.eir "":f!~~;·~'~~1:$:i:i:;';;:'!,,:,·;)";~::':::~,·;·~~'i!~ rabbis. Although the style of presentation of these folk legends tends stave off one who still wore the earthly raiment. Only the 1I to be less didactic and more narrative than that of the Aggadah, the tion of God saved Moses from the vengeful angels and 1 legends themselves are cut from the same cloth. near-revolt. 5 During the process of this aggadic evolution; elements of the , That biblical figures in the Aggadah had 'become a model of Jewish history, into which the Jewish people ..: ....;;;.,:,."i::;c"!~~.::: •. ::.,:..:":"".:.' .. !;:",,,.:i, .. :•• :.::.1 iIDagination, and ultimately of literary consciousness, worked their . '~Way into", the midrashic and folk traditions with remarkable freedom. ences of its varied history, was recognized by Louis ,-,.LllL.IU\.d·", possible to detect an increasingly conscious attitude toward the seven-volume masterpiece, The Legends of ·the use of literary devices, styles, and techniques. The earliest written gathered together a great many of the midrashim, and wc)ve·thernjn·t0i;;.··:)~·:.'. midrashimwere cast in the style of the Halakhah-precise, terse, and a continuous narrative of their own, following the judicial in style and content. Little by little, however, the later Scriptures. In so doing he accomplishid for our geltlel-atilon midrashim . began to break out of this epigrammatic structure and the unspoken goal of the aggadic tradition from the . rediscover the narrative expansiveness of the Bible and the oral the Book of the Book, a distorted mirror image of tradition. . reflects its biblical source and yet is also a separate cf(~atioIllilit'seifJ·):> .',...... , ... , ...... " Unlike the fables of Aesop, in which the moral is stated at the The primary purpose of the aggadic e:p.d of the fable, the midrashim begin with the biblical passage that transmit and rein terpret the past for each successive ~:~~e~:]~p,!~,J,~~";:i:"·'\,: ... ;.;.~'i\:;;; is being interpreted, using it as a springboard for the imagination. purpose has at its root a love for the past and a desire At the same time, with such intense concentradion on a relatively the future, to keep it alive. The biblical taJe, once short text, the imaginations of the rabbis were inspired to complete t6 be true for all generations; it was open to rei:ntt~rpret:atiQIiiasvi(m ..... :, .. ,... ,.• ,..:.:::, ..... :... J. retelling In each generation. The Jews have long been a wandering nor to the children born to her, neither during the. day nOlf31~]$ij~:'i:~!¢,;:jj people who have, collected tales over, the ages and incorporated their neither through their food nor through their drink, neither iri;their',:lli~,a9l:n,!~t;~ own experiences into a common tradition. This is, by definition, their hearts. By the strength of these names and seals Iso ilCl:iurej(<5ji;,]lililtf. and all your offspring, to obey this command" (The BOOk01jf~lb%:~~;~tgJ~&'~~'.~.~~~ what tradition is-receiving and transmitting what has been received. . 5. The primary source for the Lilith legend is the .I: In many ways this legendary literature not only is a peculiar kind of 47. Other sources include B. Shabo 151 b; ,B. Erub 18b, i'scrlptllral commentary, but also considers the past from the per­ Zohar 1 :34b, 3: 19a; Zohar Sitre Tor~ 1: 148a-b; and Yalkut Reilh~~ni pIi.·;:G(~li ,:f~;fl spective of the future, searching for oracles that have since been ful­ 2:21 and 4:8. According to the traditional doctriIie,God is iri(~a:r:lable' ',6t:f¢rt:o: Why then did the match of Lilith and Adam fail? Rabbi ZVi Malge]l1ce:stlgge~t frlled, and for clues that will help provide safe passage into the future. that 'it wa~ necessary to create a negative as well as'a positive eXamlpl(~.::,.• !\oan:k' Thus in retelling and rewriting these tales, the rabbis responsible and Eve constituting the latter. .' '." for the midrashim were like jewelers who polished an immense 6. The term "Aggadah" has both a specific and more geri~ral nif~ariirig;:':' In the narrow sense the term refers to the body of legends that a'~f,:~'~"~ti1i~~~#~;':1[};?~;::; and many-faceted jewel. Each generation turned its gaze to a new the Talmud itself. (These legends constitute abou~ a quarter of the facet of the jewel, for the facets of the jewel are infinite. And even most were collected in the sixteenth century volume Ein Yakov.) so there was never any doubt among them that it was but a single sense "Aggadah" can refer to any postbiblical Jewish Legend, and used in contrast to the term "Halahkah," meaning the Law. This :imnliei:tH~Lt<:,:.'~;:",·'.:,:':;:"i.;:,;;:.,i;:)":,;:,, jewel they saw, whose essential structure was eternal and unchanging; there are two kinds of 'major realms of traditional study, that of .,-, ---·--"'0. c~,-.,.. the principal jewel, in fact, in the crown of the King whose countless, expounding on the law (Halahkah) and all of the remaining material, \\,,'llllcn,mle usage. In the narrow sense it iefe~ post-Talmudic legends up to the kabbalistic period, which. begins in tl?:e teenth century. But in the broader sense it is interchangable with the "Aggadah" to denote a Jewish legend (a midrash) or the 1?ody of Jewishle!~e.nds,.':;':.···.· (the Midrash). For more on the Talmud, see note 13. . "·;".''',;;.;t:;;'.i'·''.;::.':''',,:';;,.',/ 1. In the Talmud (B. Erub. l8a) an alternate legend is given in which 7. The term "Torah" refers to both the Five Books of Moses, an:C1G~~,()~;;:>".:i:>:'"iT:1l:i male and female He created them is understood to mean that a single being was in a broader sense, to the whole of Jewish law and lore. ....:".,;;."";'';",,,';'',,,; .. , created with a male face looking forward and a female face looking back. Later 8. The primary sources for the 'Enoch legend are the three:sookspf God separated them into two beings. Enoch. The Book of Enoch (1 Enoch) and The Slavonic Book of Enoch 42. > , 2. Lilith's independent and assertive nature has not been lost on modern Enoch) are included in The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of theO/d Tes~~~,:· Jewish feminists, who have proposed her rather than Eve as a role model, despite ment volume 2, edited by R. H. Charles. The Hebrew Book of Enoch (3 Enoch) , the demonic nature of her later history as a succubus and child-destroying has b'een translated into English by Hugo Odeberg. Enoch's transfo11I1a1:i,"J.',,; feminist journal. 9. On Shavuo t many Sephardic communities read a ketubah(weddil1.g:, ,". 3. This is the Name YHVH or Yahweh (later translated as Jehovah). contract) for the marriage of God and Israel, which was written by Isrn.el :N"~jf~!r' Those who held the secret of how to pronounce the Ineffable Name possessed power of the Name, the power to create and destroy. This most sacred Name in the ~i;.t~.n~~ ~::~sryf~~ ~~~~on Era, and is eq'uivalent to A.D; 'B.C.Rst~dl:· of God is known as the Tetragrammaton, and the secret of its pronunciation for Before the Common Era, and is equivalent to B.C. , was closely guarded by the High Priest. But since the destruction of the Temple 11. From "Myth in Judaism," in On Ju'daism, p. lO~~ , "" this pronunciation has been lost. However, to avoid accidentally correct pro­ 12. S. of S. Rabbah on 1 :2. " .' i .. ;'gods and gave it ciescribes the process by which the OraI Torah became writtt~11,t¢XJ,::•• ···" •• ·,;;);;·:'·,;0' to men; in the Jewish myth God Himself has to overrule the protests of the as "a spiritual calamity of the first magnitude."l The sn(rrpne~;s:()ri angels in order to transmit the eternal flame that is the Torah to the people of Israel. language employed by Berkovitz brings us up short and se€:~ks t()/ 16. Louis Ginzberg, The Legends of the Jews, seven volumes, The first four remind us that we have come to view the written ·.,··"""··;····:,:·",,,··:'·.'''7·'': .volumes contain Ginzberg's compilation and retelling of the aggadic sources, the oral teaching (Mishnah, Talmud, commentaries, and fifth and si'xth 'volumes contaill valuable notes, and the seventh volume is an extensive index. A single volume condensation of the first four volumes, The texts, and that in doing so we have lost sight of the Legends of the Bible, is .also available. this interpretive process. I A written text conveys a sense of fixity. A book information can be held and contain'ed. The printed the same in each edition. Not so oral teachir:.g. While teachers may be co:nvl~ying sitnil.·~ •• ·,;~::'(,': ,,/'5,. material, each will speak differently. Oral teac~g is in