Hidden Treasures

The Digital Part

I am guessing that pretty much everyone who ventures out into the blogosphere, even just a little bit, has a pretty good idea what it is we mean when we say something is “digital.” A few decades ago it meant it had segmented (usually red) LED numbers on it… and then it came to mean, “not analog”  and then “not recorded on tape.” For a while the big buzz word was “virtual” but the shine has fallen off that term. Now we’ve gone “digital.”

When I say I am the “Digital Maggid,” I mean that I use whatever digital media I can in doing my work as a maggid. I use the Internet, I use email, I use video — I’ve even been known to resort to Skype once or twice. That’s what I mean by digital. Simple enough. Now on to the hard part. What is a maggid?

The Maggid Part

In Yiddish, it’s a simple enough term. It means Preacher. It comes from the Hebrew word meaning to tell or narrate, and it shares the same root with other familiar words like Haggadah (as in the Passover Haggadah, the little book that outlines and supplements our Seder); and then The Aggodot, which I guess literally means Legends. But it’s all related to telling a story of some kind.

Maggid as a title seems to have originated in Eastern Europe, and though it was in use long before the beginnings of the Chasidic movement, it is still largely, though not exclusively, associated with pre- and early Chasidic communities. Two of the more well-known maggids were The Dubner Maggid (Jacob Kranz of Dubno) (sometimes referred to as the “Jewish Aesop”), who died c.1804, and The Maggid of Mezeritch, Dov Ber (d.1772).

Now if you look up Maggid on Wikipedia, the story pretty much ends within a generation or two of Dov Ber. And I think, by and large, that is the common perception. However, maggidism is far from extinct. I am admittedly not much of an historian, and I really should know more about the resurgence of maggidism than I do. But, to the best of my knowledge and belief, it is one of many things that was revived, modified and invigorated by the Renewal movement. Over the last ten to twenty years, a growing number of Jewish organizations have begun to ordain maggids to serve their communities.

In the United States, there are basically two schools of Maggidus (maggidic practice). They are unofficially categorized geographically: The East Coast school tends to be pretty much geared toward teaching through story telling; the West Coast school tends to focus more on pastoring (leading services and life cycle events, teaching, storytelling, doing pretty much whatever the community needs to have done).

There is no set definition of the term maggid, and each person who is one will give you a different explanation. Each person who serves as a maggid is called on to do something a little different. This is a double edged sword. It provides a lot of latitude for us to serve according our individual strengths and callings. But it also makes it difficult for people to understand who we are, what our purpose is, what our lineage is, and to recognize us.  Sometimes it also makes it difficult for us to define ourselves.

I am a West Coast school maggid. I studied at Wisdom Heart Yeshiva in Berkeley, and I was ordained by Rabbi Avram Davis in 2007. However, it was not until about three years later that I finally settled into a definition that really suited me. But finally one day, while talking to my good friend P.G., who is a chaplain, an interfaith minister, an art therapist, a — well, she’s everything really — it all fell into place. My own personal definition of “maggid”: An ordained sacred story teller and facilitator of Jewish ritual.

So that’s what I’m here for — to help re-tell our sacred stories —the Hidden Treasures— of our tradition and to facilitate ritual — including the all-important ritual of text study. Presently I am working on two main projects: this blog, which seeks to use internet technology to help people interact with our sacred texts, and the Digital Maggid video series, which I produce in cooperation with Nistar Yeshiva.

I invite everyone to participate in this blog by commenting, asking questions, participating in discussions or even just reading what others have to say. I also invite you to view our video teachings on Nistar Yeshiva YouTube Channel and to join the Nistar Community for bi-weekly Shabbat services, celebrations, teachings and events.

,מיט זײַן ברכה
WITH HIS BLESSING,

Maggid ‘Azi Shabbato
digital.maggid@nistar.org