INTRODUCTION
11
for the first time some hitherto unknown contents
of it. The sum total of Torah was unaltered ;
but part of it had been transformed from implicit
to explicit. Thus a new teaching could not but
rest upon Tradition, because it was merely the un-
folding into greater clearness of meaning what the
Torah had all along contained. And it was only
new, in so far as such and such a Rabbi had been
the first to declare that development of the original
principle. Rabbinism never did, because it never
could, reach the logical end of its own method ; but
the complicated and minute legislation embodied in
the Talmud, is, on the Rabbinical theory, merely the
unfolding of what was contained in the original Torah
-rendered explicit instead of implicit. Thus it
appears that even in that department of the Rabbini-
cal system where the principle of Tradition was most
strictly maintained, there was ample room for the
expansion and adaptation of the original principle to
the varying needs of practical religious life. In other
departments, perhaps rather the other chief depart-
ment of the Rabbinical system, there was little or
no attempt at restraint upon individual liberty of
teaching. These two departments, or main divisions
of Rabbinical teaching, are called respectively
Hala.cliah
and
Haggadah
(or Agada, as it is often,
though perhaps less correctly, given).' The distinc-
tion between these two has often been explained ;
but a few words upon them here may serve to bring
out a fact which has not always been duly recognised.
Haliach«h (from 15n to go) denotes that which is
1 See an article by W. Bacher, " On the origin of the word Haggada
(Agada)," in the Jewish Quarterly Review, 1892, p. 406 fol.
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