and this is what is written (Job. xiv. 22), "But his flesh upon him
shall have pain, and his soul shall mourn over him." Then the mouth and
the belly quarrel with one another, the former saying to the latter,
"All I have robbed and taken by violence I deposited in thee;" and the
latter, having burst three days after its burial, saying to the former,
"There is all thou hast robbed and taken by violence! as it is written
(Eccles. xii. 6), 'The pitcher is broken at the fountain.'"

Ibid., chap. 100.

Job said, "Even the devil shall not dissuade me from comforting those
that mourn; for I would tell him that I am not better than my Creator,
who comforts Israel; as it is said (Isa. li. 12), 'I, even I, am He that
comforteth you.'"

_Psikta Nachmu._

Once Rabbi Shimon ben Yehozedek addressed Rabbi Sh'muel ben Nachman and
said, "I hear that thou art a Baal Aggadah; canst thou therefore tell me
whence the light was created?" "We learn," he replied in a whisper,
"that God wrapped Himself with light as with a garment, and He has
caused the splendor thereof to shine from one end of the world to the
other." The other said, "Why whisperest thou, I wonder, since Scripture
says so plainly (Ps. civ. 2) 'Who covereth Himself with light as with a
garment'?" The reply was, "I heard it in a whisper, and in a whisper I
have told it to thee."

_Bereshith Rabbah_, chap. 3.

"As the tents of Kedar" (Cant. i. 5). As the tents of the Ishmaelites
are ugly without and comely within, so also the disciples of the wise,
though apparently wanting in beauty, are nevertheless full of Scripture,
and of the Mishnah and of the Talmud, of the Halacha and of the
Aggadoth.

_Shemoth Rabbah_, chap. 23.

"Write thou these words" (Exod. xxxiv. 37). That applies to the Law, the
Prophets, and the Hagiographa, which were given in writing, but not to
the Halachoth, the Midrashim, the Aggadoth, and the Talmud, which were
given by the mouth.

Ibid., chap. 47.

Rabbi Samlai said to Rabbi Yonathan, "Instruct me in the Aggada." The
latter replied, "We have a tradition from our forefathers not to
instruct either a Babylonian or a Daromean in the Aggada, for though
they are deficient in knowledge they are haughty in spirit."

_Tal. Yerushalmi P'sachim_, v. fol. 32, col. 1.

He who transcribes the Aggada has no portion in the world to come; he
who expounds it is excommunicated; and he who listens to the exposition
of it shall receive no reward.

_Tal. Yeru