For Every Generation: Preaching As Imaginative Mediation Of Rabbinic Tradition

Though the history of preaching1 is rooted in the liturgical life of the ancient synagogue (which is amply evidenced in the Gospels and Acts), preaching does not play a prominent role in the worship of the modern synagogue.2 The synagogue service is a serv­ice of the heart, Avodah, in which prayer and the recitation of scrip­ture are the central elements. The freight of the liturgy rests in the Matbea 'Shel Tefillah (which consists of the Recitation of the Shema and its Blessings and the Shemoneh Esrei). Chazzanim and rabbis, the religious leaders of the synagogue, function in their respecti