I know it’s not Friday night, but I have a question about orthodox Judaism.*
I know that orthodox Jews are not the equivalent of Fundamentalist Christians in literal interpretation of the scriptures, etc., and I know the books of the Aggadah are not law and therefore not as fundamental to Jewish teaching anyway, but are they considered on-par with the books of the Torah and Samuel/Kings/etc. in terms of accuracy/importance? Which is to ask, would a tale from the Aggadah about, say, the youth of Moses, be considered as ‘reliable’ as one from Shermot/Exodus?
*For those not aware, a disproportionate number of Doper questions re: orthodox Judaism are absentmindedly posted here on the Jewish Sabbath when the orthodox Dopers who can answer best are obviously not posting.
The Torah is in a class by itself as regarding its level of divine inspiration/authorship. Next would be the prophets and other writings that make up the Jewish Bible. Then you have all of the other non-canonical writings. Confusing the issue is the distinction between the written Torah and the oral Torah, which are the two parts of the Torah. Much of the oral Torah was recorded in later writings when it was feared that it might be lost. This resulted in the Mishnah, Talmud and other works.
Within the Orthodox community, you can find the whole spectrum. You will find those that are ultra-fundamentalist and take the approach that any Midrash must be believed literally and you will find those that take them with a grain of salt and find non-literal interpretations. And you’ll find all sorts of varying positions in between.