Halacha (literally "walking") refers to Jewish law -- the rules. Aggada (literally "telling", like the Pesach Haggada) refers to everything else in Judaism -- stories, theology, philosophy, all religious thinking.
Halakhah deals with details, with each commandment separately; agadah with the whole of life, with the totality of religious life. Halakhah deals with the law; agadah with the meaning of the law. Halakhah deals with subjects that can be expressed literally; agadah introduces us to a realm which lies beyond expression...Halakhah without agadah is dead; agadah without halakhah is wild.
The code of conduct is like the score to a musician. Rules, principles, forms may be taught; insight, feeling, the sense of rhythm must come from within...[Yet] to reduce Judaism to inwardness, to agadah, is to blot out its light, to dissolve its essence and to destroy its reality. Indeed, the surest way to forfeit agadah is to abolish halakhah. They can survive only in symbiosis...It is impossible to decide in Judaism whether supremacy belongs to halakhah or to agadah, to the lawgiver or to the Psalmist.
Halakhah deals with details, with each commandment separately; agadah with the whole of life, with the totality of religious life. Halakhah deals with the law; agadah with the meaning of the law. Halakhah deals with subjects that can be expressed literally; agadah introduces us to a realm which lies beyond expression...Halakhah without agadah is dead; agadah without halakhah is wild.
The code of conduct is like the score to a musician. Rules, principles, forms may be taught; insight, feeling, the sense of rhythm must come from within...[Yet] to reduce Judaism to inwardness, to agadah, is to blot out its light, to dissolve its essence and to destroy its reality. Indeed, the surest way to forfeit agadah is to abolish halakhah. They can survive only in symbiosis...It is impossible to decide in Judaism whether supremacy belongs to halakhah or to agadah, to the lawgiver or to the Psalmist.
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