The Talmudic Sages, the creators of agadic literature, were the spiritual leaders of the nation — teachers, mentors, rabbis. Their goal was to make the Bible more accessible to the common people by making its tales and ideas easier to understand and more engaging to read. Agada, which consists of many genres such as fables, biblical stories, religious poetry, folklore, stories about Talmudic sages, anecdotes became extremely popular. It played an important role as a bulwark against assimilation during 2,000 years of exile and dispersion. For centuries, agada existed as an Oral Tradition. In the 3rd century CE, however, the Sages began to write down the agadic texts, resulting in vast collections of agadic literature over the centures. One of the largest collections of this kind is the Midrash Raba, the multi-volume commentaries to the biblical subjects. A large number of texts in agadic style can be found in the Talmud, where they often appear as literary commentaries to the dry legal texts. As outstanding phenomenon of ancient Jewish literature, Agada holds an honorable place among the recognized masterpieces of world literature.
English
Russian
