In the era of social media, there may be more effective ways of communicating important messages, but there’s no substitute for one-on-one interaction with congregants.

Rabbi Ari Isenberg
Shaar Shalom Congregation, Halifax

Rabbi Adam Scheier
Congregation Shaar Hashomayim, Montreal

Rabbi Ari Isenberg: Last week, a congregant asked if I remember the sermons delivered by my childhood rabbi. “A terrific question,” I remarked, and paused to reflect. 

The rabbi of my youth was the late Rabbi A. Bernard Leffell of Shaare Zedek Congregation in Montreal. Though I was still young when he retired, I remember that he would always deliver his sermons from the lectern with conviction and eloquence. His messages were expository in nature – he would identify a complicated issue or text, analyze and explore it from several points of view, and then guide the congregation to its resolution. 

But once every few weeks, Rabbi Leffell descended from the pulpit and facilitated an informal Q&A with the congregation. These are the instances that I recall with vivid excitement. To watch him navigate the aisles was thrilling. Like an orchestra conductor, he wove a selection of voices and opinions into one congruent tapestry. 

What do you recall about the rabbis of your youth?

Rabbi Scheier:I don’t think I have one strong model for sermons that inspires me in my preaching, but one impression I inevitably had as a child was that the sermons were generally quite long. On my first Shabbat at Shaar Hashomayim, just moments before my first-ever sermon to the congregation, a synagogue member handed me a small piece of paper. It said, “A good sermon is a short sermon.”

One principle I try to incorporate into my teaching is that it must be interesting – not only on a Torah level, but also on a human level. I keep in mind the quote attributed to Rabbi Joseph Lookstein, who taught homiletics at Yeshiva University for many years: “If you haven’t struck oil within the first 20 minutes, stop boring.”  

There is a larger question, though. A few weeks ago, I noticed that a post I wrote on Facebook had been shared and viewed many, many times. The number of people who saw this particular post rivaled the number of people who hear my sermons on a regular basis. In the era of social media, is the sermon still the most effective way of communicating important messages to our congregants?

Rabbi Ari Isenberg: A similar thing happened to me last year leading up to Yom Hazikaron, Israel’s Remembrance Day, when I posted a message on Facebook reminding people of the day’s significance and the ritual of lighting a yahrzeit candle in commemoration. I was awed by the response. Beyond those who viewed and shared my post, I noted that many people heeded the message, lighting yahrzeit candles of their own. Without Facebook, might they have missed the day altogether?  

The most effective teacher is one who can convey a message in different styles and formats. If we utilize all that the social medial world has to offer, not only will our rabbinic voices reach wider audiences, we’ll reach more diverse audiences as well. But as we do more of our communication and teaching online, is there a risk of us becoming more impersonal and less accessible?  Are there situations where an in-person rabbinic presence is critical?

Rabbi Scheier: The journalist Jeffrey Goldberg once critiqued Newsweek’s list of 50 Most Influential Rabbis by observing that it seemed to “slight congregational rabbis (the ones who interact with, you know, Jews).” I believe that this is essentially correct. The greatest rabbis are the ones we might never hear about, because they aren’t publishing or posting or self-promoting in a very public way. Instead, they are the hospital chaplains, the bar and bat mitzvah teachers, the Jewish school teachers. Unfortunately, we have a tendency to interpret “influential” as “well-known,” which isn’t always a measure of quality.

If we aspire to change lives for the better – to inspire the members of our community – then there is no substitute for the one-on-one “I care about you, and I’m listening to you” personal contact. Yes, sermons have their power and impact, and social media posts have their use, but I recall a teaching I heard many times in rabbinical school: “If the rabbi made the hospital visit, then even the worst sermon will be received as a great sermon. But if s/he was absent, then even the most brilliant sermon will fail to inspire.”