Editing Maggid (section)

==Popularity of the Maggid==
The greater popularity of the maggid as compared with the darshan is instanced from [[aggadic]] (homiletical or narrative material, as opposed to legal [[halachic]] material) stories in the [[Talmud]] (main text of [[Rabbinic literature|Rabbinic]] [[Oral Torah]] discussion). The Talmud relates that the people left the lecture-room of R. [[Rabbi Hiyya|Chiyya]], the darshan, and flocked to hear R. [[Abbahu]], the maggid. To appease the sensitive Chiyya, Abbahu modestly declared, "We are like two merchants, one selling diamonds and the other selling trinkets, which are more in demand" ([[Sotah]] 40a).Talmudic Sages like [[Rabbi Meir]] combined the functions of a darshan and a maggid ([[Sanhedrin]] 38b). When [[Rabbi Isaac Nappaha]] was requested by one in his audience to preach a popular haggadah, and by another a halakic discourse, he answered, "I am like the man who had two wives, one young and one old, and each wishing her husband to resemble her in appearance; the younger pulled out his gray hair while the older pulled out his black hair, with the result that he became entirely bald." R. Isaac thereupon delivered a lecture that embraced both halakah and aggadah ([[Bava Kamma]] 60b).