IN OCTOBER, Visiting Gruss Professor of Talmudic Law Yair Lorberbaum delivered the Caroline Zelaznik Gruss and Joseph S. Gruss Lectures. He addressed the distinction between Halakhah and Aggadah in Talmudic interpretation, drawing on the texts of Maimonides.

Halakhah traditionally refers to the body of rabbinical legal texts; Aggadah, to the parts of the Talmud containing parables, philosophy, and other non-legal literature. Lorberbaum, a professor of Jewish Law at Bar Ilan University in Tel Aviv, Israel, examined the complex relationship between these two segments of Jewish scripture, focusing on their changing status in rabbinic history.

Lorberbaum has been a guest lecturer at Princeton, Yale and Cardozo Law School. His book, The Image of God: Halakhah and Aggadah was recently published in Hebrew (Schoken Press). An English version is forthcoming. He also co-edited the first volume of The Jewish Political Tradition (Yale University Press.)

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