A darshan () or baal darshan () is a
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
Scriptural interpreter. Since the Middle Ages, it has referred to a professional
sermonizer more broadly.
The title was given to
Abtalion
Abtalion ( he, אַבְטַלְיוֹן ''ʾAbhtalyôn'') or Avtalyon (Modern Hebrew) was a rabbinic sage in the early pre-Mishnaic era. He was a leader of the Pharisees during the 1st century BCE, and by tradition vice-president of the great Sanh ...
and
Shemaiah in the 1st century BCE.
''Pesachim'' 70b
Since the 1990s, some branches of Liberal Judaism have ordained
Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform va ...
lay leaders and chaplain
A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a Minister (Christianity), minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a laity, lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secularity, secular institution (such as a hosp ...
s as ''darshanim''.
See also
* Maggid
A maggid ( he, 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 '' ...
* Moshe ha-Darshan
Moshe haDarshan (circa early 11th century) ( he, משה הדרשן, trans. "Moses the preacher") was chief of the yeshiva of Narbonne, and perhaps the founder of Jewish exegetical studies in France. Along with Rashi, his writings are often cited ...
References
Hebrew words and phrases
Jewish leadership roles
Judaism terminology
Non-denominational Judaism
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