Bidspirit auction | “Sefer Ha-Agada” (The Book of

“Sefer Ha-Agada” (The Book of Legends) ed. by Ravnitzkii and Bialik, 2 books in one binding, 1st ed., 1914, Odessa, in Hebrew Odessa, 1914., First and second books: XIV, 183 pp; and 4, 130 pp. New black leather hard cover with gold decoration to cover and gold lettering to spine, size: 23.5 x 15 cm. Condition: Light soiling to 3 first pages (finger prints), couple of small stains internally. Weight: 640 gr. Rawnitzki and Bialik published Sefer Ha-Aggadah (”The Book of Legends”) a compilation of aggadah from the Mishnah, the two Talmuds and the Midrash literature. Sefer HaAggadah (The Book of Legends) is a compilation of Aggadot (singular Aggadah; Aramaic אַגָּדָה: ”tales, lore”) that was compiled and edited by Hayim Nahman Bialik and Yehoshua Hana Rawnitzki starting from 1903. Most of the sources included in Sefer HaAggadah come from the period of the Tannaim and the Amoraim. Bialik and Ravnitzky include aggadot from the Mishnah, the Babylonian Talmud, Jerusalem Talmud, Avot of Rabbi Natan, Mekhilta, Sifra, Sifre, Tosefta, Midrash Rabba, Midrash Tanhuma, Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer, Sefer Yetzirah, Yalkut Shimoni, Alphabet of Sirach and others. Nahum Norbert Glatzer, Jewish literary scholar, theologian, and editor writes that Bialik's goal in compiling the Sefer HaAggadah was ”...part of his attempt to popularize Hebrew classics.”[1] This mission is very evident much in Bialik's essay, Halakah and Aggadah where he expands on the roles of Halakah and Aggadah in reinventing or renewing a society's culture.