We tend nowadays to think of the Jewish sermon as a modern invention, something borrowed perhaps from our Protestant neighbors. But in fact, sermons have been preached throughout much of Jewish history. In rabbinic times, sermons were so popular that people would flock from miles around to hear the Sabbath or Festival address of some renowned preacher.
The preacher would enter dramatically after his assistants had “warmed up” the audience, and as he spoke, an underling — acting as a kind of primitive “living loudspeaker” — would repeat his words so that all could hear. We do not have an actual transcript of an ancient sermon in its entirety, but fragments of these ancient sermons, reworked and polished by later editors, form the core of one major type of midrashic literature. Reasonably enough, this body of literature is called homiletical Midrash, since it is based, as least in essence, on the homilies preached by the ancient sages.
