Our Sages said that one of things that is conducive to eradicating sin and iniquity is when the sage sits and expounds words of Aggadah, [a type of inspirational Torah discourse]. Afterwards, he says Kaddish and the people respond “Amen. May His great Name be blessed forever and ever.” The Holy One then forgives the sins of Israel (Koheles Rabbah 9). Now, it is certain that this forgiveness is effected only if the person first regretted the past and accepted upon himself to try to never do the sin again. Then Hashem, as well, forgives the sins. It is also necessary for the person to listen to the discourse with love and respond “Amen. May His great Name be blessed forever and ever” with meaning, for then it brings great satisfaction for his Creator. Our Sages thus said: “The world stands in the merit of the kaddish that people say following words of Aggadah. And although none of us know how to focus properly, nevertheless, what we do has an effect and Hashem will also give the good and will decree forgiveness. This is the reason why it has become customary throughout the entire Diaspora to conclude every public study of the Oral Torah with the recitation of Aggadic teaching, “Rabbi Chanina ben Akashia says: ‘The Holy One, blessed is He, wished to confer merit upon Israel’” etc., in order to recite Kaddish on words of Aggadah.
This type of [inspiration or homiletic] discourse is called haggadah, and it is derived from the Aramaic word Aggadeta, as in nageid venafeik (Daniel 7:10), which means, “flowed and went forth.” Since this type of discourse draws out a person’s emotions, it is called Aggadeta. All words of Aggadah are full of thoughts that arouse a person to fear and love of Hashem. For just one example, look at the aggadah we mentioned above, from the words of Rabbi Chanina ben Akashia that “the Holy One, blessed is He, wished to confer merit upon Israel; therefore He gave them Torah and mitzvos in abundance.” How much love and incomparable good did Hashem do for Yisrael! Really, from all words of Aggadah one can learn lessons of Mussar and fear of Heaven — if only the person focuses his spirit on them.
