Winter 1984 - 1985 - Quarterly Review

HOMILETICAL RESOURCES
FROM THE HEBREW BIBLE
FOR LENT
MICHAEL CHERNICK
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE JEWISH HOMILY
"Our people is only a people by virtue of the Torah." This
sentiment, enunciated in the tenth century by Saadyah Gaon, a
Jewish leader, legalist, and philosopher, has been at the core of Jewish
homiletics even prior to its actual formulation. At first, Torah was the
Pentateuch, but soon the term covered the Prophets and Writings as
well. Interpretations which served as the basis for all of Jewish life
became the laws of Torah which structured Jewish communal and
cultural life. Though these laws guided a sector we would now call
secular, Jews recognized them as religious regulations because they
grew out of God's revelation to Israel. Similarly, the lore, theology,
philosophy, and "salvation history" of Judaism had their roots in this
revelation called Torah. Finally, the term "Torah" came to signify all
texts, traditions, and sentiments which Jews recognized as holy and
enduring. Thus, Torah grows, and the outgrowths themselves
become Torah for other generations, and so the process goes. "The
words of the Torah are fruitful and multiply" (Babylonian Talmud
Hagigah 3b; see bibliography).
The special method by which this growth took place is called
midrash in Hebrew. Some scholars feel that this process began in the
biblical period itself, but its most significant developments occurred in
the postbiblical era. The word comes from a Hebrew root meaning to
inquire, seek, or require. All these translational shades of meaning are
important because they all contribute to an accurate understanding of
the task of midrash. The Jewish community's rootedness in the sacred
texts and oral traditions of its past created a dialectic with its will to live
Michael Chernick is an Orthodox rabbi who is associate professor of rabbinic literature at
Hebrew Union College—Jewish Institute of Religion (Reform) in New York. He was
ordained at Yeshiva University and among his writings is "Some TaJmudic Responses to
Christianity, Third and Fourth Centuries," Journal of Ecumenical Studies, Summer, 1980.
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