Read the Torah portion and commentaries (see below for resources) and find one idea, question about the text, interesting word, general theme, etc. that interests you and speaks to you. Ask yourself: what is the Torah trying to teach us in this portion? Why is this portion part of our sacred text? What message does it hold for our lives? For Shabbat morning drashot, it is preferable to focus on the third of the parasha that we are reading in the current year of the triennial cycle.
BEFORE you start to write your drash, know your ONE central point that you want to make. Even if you don’t have an absolute answer to a question that you ask (it’s ok and very Jewish to ask questions without knowing the answer), make sure you have ONE central concept, point, proposition that people can walk away with. There is a temptation when giving a drash to mention every thought you ever had, but that makes for a jumbled, hard to grasp drash; the best drashot have ONE main idea.
Ground your thoughts in a text – it can be a verse, a commentary, or an overall theme from the parasha, but make sure your ideas flow out of the text itself.
Have a beginning, middle, and end.
• Brief and concise is better than long and rambling. For Shabbat morning, 12-15 minutes is a good length. For Friday night, even shorter is good.
• Respect the Torah and the congregation, even if you offer a challenge.
• Make an outline before you start to write, if you write – it’s ok to speak extemporaneously from an outline. Here is a suggested outline, but feel free to be creative and begin with a story, a rhetorical question or something to grab the attention of your listeners:
• Introduction to the Torah portion – give a BRIEF overview of what’s in the parasha. DONT mention every single thing in the parasha, only what’s particularly relevant to your teaching.
• Raise your particular topic by quoting a verse, citing a commentary, asking a question raised by the text, pointing out an apparent problem in text, etc.
• Develop your topic through: an answer to your question, an explanation of your idea, a resolution to the problem from another textual source, a story or an example.
• Make your teaching personally relevant to yourself, to the congregation, or to our current world.
• Conclude by reinforcing your main idea – what is the one central thought we are supposed to take away?
A FEW RESOURCES IN ENGLISH FOR PREPARING A DRASH:
Commentaries in Chumashim like Etz Hayim and Plaut.
In the Reference section of our library:
Rashi on the Parasha
Ramban (Nachmanides)
Nehama Lebowitz’s Studies in . . .
The Torah Anthology – for a collection of Midrashim on the Parasha
The Language of Truth by Arthur Green - for a Hasidic commentary
WEBSITES WITH GOOD COMMENTATRIES:
Learn.jtsa.edu
MyJewishLearning.com
Click on “This week’s Torah Portion”
Rabbishefagold.com
“Torah Journeys” for a psycho-spiritual approach
Aish.com
A note about interactive drashot with congregational participation:
It takes a LOT of practice and experience to learn how to ask the right kind of questions to make a drash interactive. It is also very difficult to respond to the variety of comments from congregants and to pull them all together smoothly. When you ask a question of the congregation you open the floor to a free-for-all that can be challenging to control. For these reasons, I ask you NOT to include discussion in your drashot, even though it is our custom when the rabbis give the drashot. Trust me on this one!
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