Jewish Preaching

First published 2004

From early times the sermon or homily has been part of Jewish worship and education. From the nineteenth century to the present, rabbis – Orthodox, Reform and Conservative – have considered it an important aspect of their professional life to deliver sermons during the synagogue service as a means of both instruction and edification. The text for the modern sermon is usually the sidra, the weekly portion, or, in the summer months, the Talmudic book known universally as Ethics of the Fathers. In this book, Rabbi Jacobs, with sixty years’ experience of pulpit work to his credit, provides a number of homilies for each weekly portion and for the chapters of Ethics of the Fathers. Jewish preachers (and Christian clergy preaching on the ‘Old Testament’) will find a fount of helpful ideas. Although, naturally, the whole is emphatically Jewishly traditional in tone and content, the more universalistic aspects of religious faith are given their full due. Laymen, too, will find many helpful perceptions, insights and room for disagreement – and they cannot do the latter while sitting passively in the pews. Among the sermonic themes are contemporary problems, the religious and ethical needs of the individual, and, of course, the impact of the Holocaust and the State of Israel. Philosophical issues are not avoided. In the first homily of the book, for example, on the opening verse of Genesis, there is a penetrating exploration of the meaning of time and the religious concept of the spiritual world ‘beyond time’.

A lengthy but very readable Introduction consists of a survey of the history of Jewish preaching from the rabbinic derashah through the philosophical thinkers and Renaissance preachers to the emergence of the modern sermon in its new style, place and intent in which the influence of famous Christian modes of sermonizing are evident, while the Jewishness of the sermon is usually maintained. The second part of the Introduction consists of an appeal by the author to his colleagues not to relegate theological preaching to the background. In this he takes up arms against what he considers to be the odd notion that somehow theology is un-Jewish, so that the expression ‘A Jewish Theology’ (the title of one of the author’s books) is seen as a contradiction in terms. There are many types of sermon, but among the most powerful is the theological sermon in which Judaism is presented in religious terms, with faith but without obscurantism. Among the themes in this section, as well as the homilies themselves, are the meaning of revelation; the relationship between religion and ethics; the significance of prayer and the study of the Torah and the rituals of Judaism seen as pathways to God.

Published reviews of ‘Jewish Preaching’

Rabbi Jacobs, with sixty years’ experience of pulpit work to his credit, provides a number of homilies for each weekly portion of the modern sermon and for the chapters of Ethics of the Fathers. The text for the modern sermon is usually the sidra, the weekly portion, or, in the summer months the Talmudic book known universally as Ethics of the Fathers. Among the sermonic themes are contemporary problems, the religious and ethical needs of the individual, and, of course, the impact of the Holocaust and the State of Israel.

‘A Rabbi for All Seasons’ by Jeffrey Cohen