[Avodah] Historicity of Aggadta

[H Lampel]

Under the subject line of Re: [Avodah] Did the Patriarchs Speak Hebrew?, 
RSM raises a claim that RMB and I have argued over in the past. He writes,


> Medrashim of Chazal teaches us important ideas, but are not meant to
> be literally true. They do not intend to be a historical document,
> but rather contain important moral and ethical teachings which are
> 'emes in the spiritual sense.
>
> ... if you understand
> what the Rambam says in his introduction to Chapter 10 of Mas. Sanhedrin
> regarding three approaches to what Chazal say
But the Rambam also writes there:

    And  I will yet compose a work in which I will gather all the
    drashos found in the Talmud and elsewhere...and I will reveal what
    of the drashos are [meant in] a literal way, and which of them are
    [meant as] mashal, and which of them were [describing something seen
    only] in a dream but was stated in a purely absolute way, as if it
    were [experienced] in a state of wakefulness...

So, the Rambam does not maintain that the literal meaning of  /all/ 
drashos is to be rejected. Some are indeed meant literally, and some are 
not.

(The Rambam never wrote this work. As he explains in Moreh Nevuchim, 
since much of it would be dealing with the meaning of drashos whose 
meanings were valuable lessons too precious to be shared with those who 
would not appreciate them appropriately, he would be forced to merely 
substitute the drashos' figurative expressions with his own figurative 
expressions. But in several works he does provide the key that they are 
not meant literally when the literal meaning would contradict realia, 
logic, fundamentals or pesukim.)

His son Avraham, in his maamer on Drashos Chazal writes similarly 
regarding the maasiyos reported in the Talmud.

R. Yehuda HaLevy (1:68) understood the midrashic maasiyos attributing 
the Hebrew language to the patriarchs as a historic reality that carried 
an important lesson, and considered the Torah as presenting evidence 
thereof.

    According to tradition it is the language in which G-d spoke to Adam
    and Eve, and in which the latter conversed. It is proved by the
    derivation of Adam from /adamah/, /ishshah/ from /ish/;
    /Chava/__from Chay; /Cain/ from /Kannisi/; /Shes/ from /shas/, and
    Noach from /yenachamenu/. This is supported by the evidence of the
    Torah. The whole is traced back to Eber, Noach and Adam. It is the
    language of Eber after whom it was called /Hebrew/, because after
    the confusion of tongues it was he who retained it. Abraham was an
    Aramaean of /Ur Kasdim/, because the language of the Chaldaeans was
    Aramaic. He employed Hebrew as a specially holy language andAramaic
    for everyday use. ..


Zvi Lampel

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