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Judaica Online Exhibitions
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From Written to Printed Text:
The Transmission of Jewish Tradition
An Exhibition of Books and Manuscripts
from the Library of the
Center for Judaic Studies
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Print and the Preacher
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| No discussion of the impact of printing on the transmission of Jewish
culture would be complete without addressing how printing affected the process central to
Jewish continuity: education. Over the centuries, Jewish education has been conducted in
many locations and in a variety of forums. It would be impossible to assess the impact of
print on all aspects of Jewish education. Thus, this case is devoted to one locus of
Jewish education, the synagogue, where Jewish texts were transmitted orally through the
sermon. With the advent of print, many preachers published their oral explanations
concerning various Jewish texts |
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| The extent to which the printed sermon reflects what people actually heard
or learned in the synagogue continues to be debated. While one cannot say for sure that
the sermons presented in sermon compendiums were actually performed in a particular
community, it appears as though collections of sermons may have been used by young
preachers as sermon manuals. Whether a standardized format of the sermon resulted from the
fact that many young preachers may have been basing their sermons on the same or similar
texts has heretofore been unexamined, yet this is a key question scholars must consider if
they hope to appreciate fully the complex and ever-changing relationship between Jewish
oral and written tradition. |
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 Figure 24
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1. Shem Tov Shem Tov.
Derashot ha-Torah.
Venice : Marco Antonio Justinian, 1547.
Figure 24.This work organizes the numerous sermons of Rabbi Shem Tov, a
fifteenth-century Spanish philosopher, according to the content of each weekly reading.
Rabbi Shem Tov also composed one of the earliest tracts on Jewish preaching, titled `Ein
ha-Kore, where he argued that mastering the skill of preaching is dependent on the
mastery of the art of rhetoric. The notes on the side of this page, which insert
colloquial transitions and some easier terminology into the text, suggest that a student
may have used this work in constructing his own sermons and indicates how the
dissemination of printed sermons possibly effected preaching content and styles. |
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2. Naftali Ashkenazi.
`Imre Shefer.
Venice: Daniel Zanetti, 1601.
Unlike the prior collection of sermons, this compendium of sermons by Naftali Ashkenazi of
Safed not only provided examples of sermons for the weekly Torah readings but was also
designed to provide examples of sermons for special events, such as weddings, bar mitzvahs
or eulogies. On each page, in addition to the text of the sermon, the author has also
included glossed explanations on the side, providing references to other sources which
would be appropriate for such occasions. This page, which is an index of all the sermons
in this work, guides the reader to sermons for various weekly portions as well as sermons
which could be used for eulogies, bar mitzvahs or to praise the benefactors of the
community. |
Figure 25
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3. Leone Modena.
Helek Rishon mi-Sefer Midbar Yehudah.
Venice: Daniel Zanetti, 1601.
Figure 25.
This collection of sermons was written by Leone Modena (1571-1648), a rabbi of the
Venetian ghetto, whose preaching won him the praise of both Jews and Christians.
Structuring his sermons in a manner similar to contemporary Christian preachers, the
impact of Modena's style on other Jewish preachers has not yet been fully assessed. The
left page on display contains the introduction to a sermon which Modena delivered in honor
of a friend's wedding. Here he reveals the essential ingredient for a successful sermon:
the choice of an appropriate subject for both the event and the place. On the right page
is a poem which was a eulogy for Moses Basola, his teacher, written in both Hebrew and
Judeo-Italian. Both of these poems, like many written by Modena, make sense when read in
either Italian or Hebrew. Modena became famous for producing such poetry for various
occasions which others tried to emulate |
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 Figure
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4. Samuel ben Moses Avila.
Ozen Shemuel: ... Derashot... ve... Hespedim.
Amsterdam: [s.n.], 1715.
Figure 26.
This collection of Samuel ben Moses Avila's sermons was one of several compendiums found
in the library of Rabbi Isaac Leeser, the famed nineteenth-century orator of the
Philadelphia Jewish community. Avila (d. 1688), a seventeenth-century Talmudist and
preacher in Morocco, was known for composing a guide for scholars on how to conduct
communal affairs properly. This collection of eulogies and homilies reflects Avila's
desire to produce guiding manuals for rabbinical figures. While it may be impossible to be
certain whether Leeser referred to this work when composing his own orations, the fact
that Leeser possessed such a manual in his library is suggestive of how printed sermon
compendiums may have influenced the oral culture being transmitted in the synagogue. This
page includes an example of a sermon which could be given on the Saturday before Passover,
a traditional day for rabbinic preaching. |
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| Bibliography:
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Gries, Zeev. "Between History and Literature: The Case of Jewish
Preaching," Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosphy 4 (1994), 113-122 |
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Saperstein, Marc. Jewish Preaching: 1200-1800, An Anthology. New
Haven: Yale University Press, 1989. |
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Weinberg, Joanna. "Preaching in the Venetian Ghetto: The Sermons of
Leon Modena," in Preachers of the Italian Ghetto, D. Ruderman, ed.
Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1992.
Table of Contents
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