HAGVADA (Het). from nagad, nagged), to say, relate, is the free, rabbinical interpre tation of Scripture, chiefly for homiletical purposes. As its name signifies, haggada was something " said " (not " received," like the authoritative balacha) (q.v.): legend, saga, tale, gnome, parable, allegory; in fact, poetry springing up from the sacred soil, wild, luxuriant, and entangled like a primeval forest. On its three principal directions—the peshat or hermeneutical investigation, derush or practical application, and lod or mysti= cal illustrations—we cannot dwell here, nor can we follow Zunz's minute divisions of haggada into: 1. Targumim; 2. Haggadistic elements in halacha; 3. Ethical haggada; 4. Historical haggada; 5. Secret esoteric doctrine; 6. Special haggada. It flowed in an uninterrupted stream for more than a thousand years—from the Babylonian to the 10th c. A.D.—and its innumerable authors are either entirely anonymous or at best pseudonymous. It grew into immense dimensions, as, although orally delivered, parts of it were gradually added in the shape of marginal notes or glosses to Bible MSS., or were committed to writing in the shape of independent collections. These either followed the order of the Scripture, and were called after the spec ial biblical book around which they had woven their fabric, or they were arranged and called after the Sabbatical and festive pericopes on which they treated. The most extensive collections, originally composed of single fragments, which have survived are Midrash Ribbon (commenced about 700 A.D., concluded about 1100 A.D.), comprising the Pentateuch and
the five Megilloth, and tilt Pesikta (about 700 A.D.), which contains the most complete cycle of pericopes. Strangely enough, this latter itself had, through the many extracts made from it at an early period (jalknt, pesikta, rabbathi, sutarta, etc.), fallen into oblivion since the 13th c., until Zunz, in his Die Gottesdienstl. Vortrage der Juden (Ber lin, 1832), not only proved its existence by evidence, but even restored it out of the,e fragments and parallel passages; and about the sante time, the old MS., which agreed with Znnz's statements to the minutest details, was found by Steinschneider at Oxford.
For the general form of haggada, its language, its sources, and its development, no less than its vast influence on Christianity and Mohammedanism, and its immense use fulness for historical and theological investigations, we refer the reader to the articles MIDRASrE and TALItuD.
Heggada steel Pesach is the name of a ritual, partly in Hebrew, partly in Chaldee, used on the two first evenings of the passover, which contains, besides a brief descrip tion of the exodus, extracts from the Scripture, the Mishna, Toseplita, Mechiltha, SM. and the two Talmuds, and some liturgical pieces. Originally within a very small com pass, it has been extended to its present larger size by subsequent centuries. Two "Piutim," or religious poems, were added in the 11th c., and tour more Hebrew and Chaldee songs (the last originally a German Volkslied) as late as the 14th century.