R. Yehoshua Ben Levi and Aggadah

The Talmud presents contradictory views of R. Yehoshua ben Levi on the value of aggadah and midrashim. On the one hand, he is called an expert in aggadah (Bava Kamma 55a) and states that those who give charity will merit sons who become, among other things, experts in aggadah (Bava Basra 9b). On the other hand, the Talmud Yerushalmi (Shabbos 16:1) quotes him as saying that those who write, preach or hear aggadah will be divinely punished.

R. Azariah DeRossi pointed this out in his Me'or Einayim (Imrei Binah, ch. 15) and offered three possible resolutions to this apparent contradiction: 1) There were two people named R. Yehoshua ben Levi, 2) He had one attitude towards aggadah when he was young but then changed his mind and adopted the other attitude, 3) More globally, there are aggados of varying quality and R. Yehoshua ben Levi was enthusiastic about good aggadah but very negative towards aggadah that is not done well. This last suggestion is in line with R. Azariah DeRossi's view, espoused by other scholars before him but still very controversial, that aggadic passages may be rejected.

R. Tzvi Hirsch Chajes (glosses to Bava Kamma 55a; Mevo Ha-Talmud, ch. 32, translated in The Students' Guide Through the Talmud) takes a more halakhic approach.

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R. Tzvi Hirsch Chajes (glosses to Bava Kamma 55a; Mevo Ha-Talmud, ch. 32, translated in The Students' Guide Through the Talmud) takes a more halakhic approach. He suggests that R. Yehoshua ben Levi believed that the permission to write down the Oral Torah only applied to halakhah and not aggadah. Therefore, he was opposed to written aggadah but in favor of aggadah that remained oral.

R. Aharon Hyman (Toledos Tanna'im Ve-Amora'im, vol. 2 pp. 641-642) takes a more historical approach. He connects R. Yehoshua ben Levi's opposition to written aggadah with his debates with Christians. The written "aggadah" of his time was primarily in the Christian Bible. R. Yehoshua downplayed all such writings so that people would not automatically treat the Christian Bible with respect just because it seemed similar to rabbinic writings of the time.