(based on Berachot 6:29)

Gemara: One who “immerses” his food in water will not come to intestinal problems.

Ein Ayah: It is proper to become aware that in the matter of spiritual sustenance, as regarding physical food, there must be a proper balance. We have already stated that bread is a metaphor for halacha. It is dry, but it is also the foundation of our nutritional sustenance. However, to do its job, it requires water to enable it to be digested and spread throughout the body as part of the life-giving blood stream.

So too, in the spiritual realm, aggada (hinted at by water) serves to reveal the good effects that the knowledge of and involvement in halacha has. Actually, any true knowledge, even if it is “dry” and shares nothing with the “spiritual logic” that straightens one’s personality and uplifts the soul, helps complete the spirit. The positive impact is actualized when the knowledge is accompanied by the spiritual wisdom and fear of Hashem. These can reveal the way the knowledge makes spiritual impact and purifies a person’s characteristics.

This is all the more true regarding the directly holy knowledge of Torah. Aggada complements the intensive study of halacha, enabling one to extract the desired results from it. Without the study of aggada, which enables the learner to taste fear of sin and love of Hashem, the “dry knowledge” would remain “undigested” and cause “intestinal illness.” There is such a phenomenon in the physical world, and, through its metaphor, in the spiritual world.

It is important to find the right balance between the areas of Torah study. [We skip over Rav Kook’s technical dealing with the gemara’s various commentators regarding the metaphor]. It is possible that someone who is already a giant in Torah and has “filled his stomach” with practical knowledge will choose to elevate his spirit by focusing primarily on Divine concepts that are at the root of the words of aggada. It is these that are the goal of man’s self-completion and the road that leads him to salvation from pain and the evil inclination.