Maggid

A maggid (מַגִּיד), also spelled as magid, is a traditional Jewish religious itinerant preacher, skilled as a narrator of Torah and religious stories. A chaplain of the more scholarly sort is called a darshan (). The title of maggid mesharim ('a preacher of uprightness'; abbreviated ) probably dates from the sixteenth century. There have long been two distinct classes of leaders in Israel—the scholar and rabbi, and the preacher or maggid. That the popular prophet was sometimes called "maggid" is maintained by those who translate (maggid mishne) , by "the maggid repeats" (Löwy, "Beqoret ha-Talmud," p. 50). Like the Greek sophists, the early maggidim based their preaching on questions addressed to them by the multitude. Thus the Pesiqta, the first collection of set speeches, usually begins with "yelammedenu rabbenu" ('let our master teach us'). An excellent example is the Passover Haggadah, which is introduced by four questions; the reciter of the answer is called the maggid. When there were no questions, the maggid chose a Biblical text, which was called the petichah (opening). The term maggid comes from Jewish mysticism (see Magid (Jewish mysticism) and originally referred to a celestial entity, most commonly an angel, who manifests itself as a voice delivering mystical secrets to a kabbalist, or sometimes speaking through the mouths of the chosen ones. The greater popularity of the maggid as compared with the darshan is instanced from aggadic (homiletical or narrative material, as opposed to legal halachic material) stories in the Talmud (main text of Rabbinic Oral Torah discussion). The Talmud relates that the people left the lecture-room of R. Chiyya, the darshan, and flocked to hear R. Abbahu, the maggid. To appease the sensitive Chiyya, Abbahu modestly declared, "We are like two merchants, one selling diamonds and the other selling trinkets, which are more in demand" (Sotah 40a).Talmudic Sages like Rabbi Meir combined the functions of a darshan and a maggid (Sanhedrin 38b).