Lectures on Aggadah

The Aggadic Midrashim are a unique gateway to an encounter with the religious and intellectual world of the Sages, and an inexhaustible source of thought and creativity that combines religious sincerity, existential sensitivity and timely insight. In his lectures on Aggadah, Rabbi Shagar seeks to uncover this combination, which was close to his heart and his personality.

Rabbi Shagar (Shimon Gershon Rosenberg), one of the great rabbis and thinkers of the last generation, engaged with the Aggadot of the Sages for many years. As in other fields, in the study of Aggadah too he paved a unique way of learning that combines thorough, systematic study with a striving for the religious and existential depth behind the words. His Aggadah lectures introduce readers to the worldview of the Sages, the questions that occupied them, and the way they interpreted the verses of the Torah, historical events and everyday life. Rabbi Shagar’s perspective finds in the Aggadot of the Sages deep and timely insights about suffering and redemption, Torah and mitzvot, loneliness and joy.

The lectures in this book vary in content and style: some are long and some short, some cover a broad topic and some focus on individual sources. At times Rabbi Shagar expands on the literary and historical connections of the Midrash, and at times he focuses on its present-day meaning. At times he reveals new aspects of familiar sources, and at times he introduces us to extraordinary or beautifully crafted homilies that we would not have expected to find in the literature of the Sages.

Rabbi Shagar’s engagement with the Aggadot of the Sages was accompanied by wonder at the depth and daring of their ideas, the spiritual horizon they open, their human sensitivity and the artistry of their words. This book invites readers to encounter the world of Midrash through Rabbi Shagar’s eyes.