Maharal's Be'er ha-Golah and His Revolution in Aggadic Scholarship — in Their Context and on His Terms

This is an article from Hakirah volume 4.
In the realm of classic Jewish thought, Rabbi Yehudah Liva ben Bezִalel, the Maharal of Prague, was a solitary revolutionary, especially in the elucidation of Aggadah, the nonlegal components of the Talmud and Midrash. On the one hand, he belonged to no well-defined school, and his mentors’ identities remain a mystery. On the other hand, despite founding a yeshivah in Prague and teaching several of the following generation’s preeminent scholars, his l…