Philosophical Maggidim
The most celebrated maggid during the nineteenth century was Moses Isaac ben Noah Darshan, the "Kelmer Maggid" (b. 1828; d. 1900, in Lida). 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. Another prominent maggid was Chayyim Tzedeq, known as the "Rumsheshker" (Gersoni, "Sketches of Jewish Life and History," pp. 62–74, New York, 1873). The "philosophical" maggid is one who preached from Arama's "Aqedat" and Bachya's "Chobot ha-Lebabot" ("Duties of the heart"). 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. Malbim's commentaries are considered to offer the best material for the use of maggidim.
From the "terror", or "Musar", maggid developed the "penitential" maggid, who, especially during the month of Elul and the ten days of penitence between New-Year's Day and Yom Kippur, urged the wicked to repent of their sins and seek God's forgiveness. One of these "penitental" 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 maggid usually ended his preaching with the words. "u-ba le-Tziyyon goel," etc. (a redeemer shall come to Zion speedily in our days; let us say "Amen"). Some of the wandering maggidim acted also as meshullachim (collectors of money for institutions). The yeshivot in Russia and the charitable institutions of Jerusalem, especially the Va'ad ha-Kelali, sent abroad meshullach-maggidim. The resident maggid who preached at different synagogues in one city was called the "Stadt Maggid", as in Wilna and other large cities in Russia. The modern, or "maskil", maggid was called "Volksredner" (people's orator), and closely followed the German "Prediger" in his method of preaching. Tzebi Hirsch Dainow (d. 1877) was the first of the modern type of maggid, which soon developed into that of the "national," or "Zionistic," maggid. Tzvi Hirsch Masliansky and Joseph Zeff, both of New York, were representatives of the latter class. See Homiletics.
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