Maggid
The maggid's function was to preach to the common people in the vernacular whenever occasion required, usually on Sabbath afternoon, basing his sermon on the sidra of the week.
The maggidim's deliverances were generally lacking in literary merit, and were composed largely of current phrases, old quotations, and Biblical interpretations which were designed merely for temporary effect; therefore none of the sermons which were delivered by them have been preserved.
Others in his circle included the compiler of the Shulchan Aruch code, Yosef Karo, and the leading Kabbalists Moses Cordovero and Isaac Luria.
The persecutions of the Jews brought forth a number of maggidim who endeavored to excite the Messianic hope as a balm to the troubled and oppressed Jewry.
The new articulation and cosmic doctrines of redemption in Kabbalah, taught by Isaac Luria in the 16th century, inspired a new mystical awareness and focus on Messianism.
Some maggidim copied his methods and even created a pseudo-Midrash Peli'ah for the purpose of explaining the original ingeniously in the manner initiated by R. Höschel.
Elijah ben Solomon Abraham ha-Kohen of Smyrna, in the beginning of the eighteenth century, published his "Shebet Moussar", which he divided into fifty-two chapters, one for each week.
This book caused him to be known as the "Terror Maggid"; he preached moral and religious conduct as a safeguard against the terrible punishments of the day of judgment.
Musar ('admonishment') is a thread in traditional Jewish thought that seeks ethical inspiration, integrity or admonishment to motivate religious devotion.
The Musar movement seeks to inspire spiritual advancement by discovering personal integrity and revealing the unworthiness of material temptations.
Typically, Hasidism avoids rebuke of punishments, replacing it with shame and remorse from nullification of self-awareness, before the omnipresent Divine presence that awakens joy.
Jacob Kranz of Dubno, the Dubner Maggid (d. 1804), author of "Ohel Ya'aqob", adopted the Midrash's method of explaining by parables and the incidents of daily life, such as the relations between the man of the city and the "yeshubnik" (village man), between the bride, the bridegroom, and the "mechuttanim" (contracting parents), and compared their relations to those between Israel and God.
He drew also moral lessons from the "Arabian Nights" and from other secular stories in illustrating explanations of a midrash or a Biblical text.
Kranz's pupil Abraham Dov Bär Flahm edited and published the Dubner Maggid's writings, and a host of other maggidim adopted this method.
He was among the "terror" maggidim of the "Shebet' Musar" school and preached to crowded synagogues for over fifty years in almost every city of Russian Poland.
Enoch Sundl Luria, the author of "Kenaf Renanim", on "Pirqe Shirah" (Krotoschin, 1842), was a noted philosophical maggid.
Meïr Leibush Malbim (d. 1880), in his voluminous commentaries on the Bible, followed to some extent Abravanel and Alshech, and his conclusions are pointed and logical.
One of these "penitential" preachers was Jacob Joseph, chief rabbi of the Russian Jews in New York (d. 1902), formerly maggid of Wilna, and a student of the Musar movement.
In the middle of his preaching he would pause to recite with the people the "Shema koleinu", and the "Ashamnu," raising the audience to a high pitch of religious emotion.
The modern, or "maskil", maggid was called "Volksredner" (people's orator), and closely followed the German "Prediger" in his method of preaching.
Yehuda Zvi Yabzrov from White Russia, as well as Tzvi Hirsch Masliansky and Joseph Zeff, both of New York, were representatives of the latter class.
See also Category:Maggidim The founder of the Hasidic movement, Israel ben Eliezer, the Baal Shem Tov (Besht) (1698-1760), awakened a new stage and revival in Jewish mysticism.
The microcosmic Messianic redemption offered by a Hasidic Rebbe, gave a new form of teacher and leader to the Jewish community, combining public mystic and redeemer, along with the traditional notions of darshan and maggid.
After the death of his Master, the disciples appointed Dov Ber to become his successor, leading the new Hasidic movement in the early years of its establishment.
He became the architect of the new movement, devoting his attention to developing an academy of leading scholars and future leaders (the "Chevra Kaddisha"-Holy Society) to spread Hasidism across each of the regions of Western Europe after his death.
