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Presentation: (Development & Delivery)
By this point, you should have some new ideas/questions/answers
based on your reading and thinking. You now have to synthesize
this material into a coherent unit, and tie the questions and
answers from the text into a message that relates directly to
you (and your listeners) and your/their life.
Some questions to consider are:
What most interests me about this text?
How do I feel about what this text is about?
How do I make sense of the traditional commentaries on this text?
How does this text relate to me and my world today?
Try to weed your material down to one main issue or topic. (Save the extras for the next time.)
Present an open-ended 'problem' that invites a solution, and suggest
different solutions based on your reading and thinking. Don't
pick anything too simple or obvious (Are we in favour of justice?)
too personal (what was your worst experience?) or too narrow (What
does the Torah have to say about stamp collecting?).
Organize your points into a logical sequence.
Remember that a dvar Torah should go somewhere. You aren't expected
to give 'the definitive answer,' but should give some answer(s).
A good d'var Torah would not be 'the historical background of
kashrut' (which might be a fine lecture topic) unless it also
asked 'what does keeping kosher mean anyways?' or 'Is kashrut
worth it?/What are the pro's and con's of keeping kosher?' (By
the same token, a dvar Torah should include /build on some content
and analysis and not simply be a discussion of feelings).
Decide if it is a formal dvar Torah where you present both a problem
and answer(s), or a Torah discussion, where you frame the question,
give some historical background and then moderate attempts to
find answers (see running a Torah Discussion).
Keep focused.
Too rambling and diffuse a presentation is difficult to follow
and listeners will lose interest. Make a list of points you wish
to make.
Try to keep levels separate. As you may jump from the Torah, to
the Rabbis to contemporary scholars, make sure people know whose
insight is whose. (There is a tradition to name the scholar you
are quoting. If you learned something from your childhood rabbi,
you should say, I learned this from Rabbi X when I was a child...).
Be specific: In Exodus the fourth commandment is 'Remember Shabbat'
and in Deuteronomy it says 'Observe Shabbat,' is better than 'different
versions for the commandment for Shabbat are found in different
places.'
Your delivery should walk through the same three stages of your
preparation: help your listeners understand the problem; use your
research from commentators to explain it fully; and personalize
it for you and for them.
Here is a seven stage outline from Rafi Zarum:
- Background: put the text in context; a *short* summary of the
parasha is often included here.
- Text: read in English and/or Hebrew the relevant text
- Ask your questions
- Explain some commentaries
- Give your input
- Interrelate everything
- Wrap it up
Delivery
- A short joke or personal anecdote is a good warm up- but get down
to business fairly soon. Don't spend ten of your fifteen minutes
on your introduction.
- Short is better than long. As Deb Mowshowitz's father, R. Israel
Mowshowitz used to say...."In order to be immortal it need not
be eternal."
- The 3X rule: Tell 'em what you're going to tell them; them 'em.
Tell 'em what you told them. (In other words: introduce a topic;
say what you want about it; summarize.) People with no notes in
front of them are relying on your presentation, so a little repetition
is necessary in order to keep them from getting lost. (But try
to make each point sound a little different each time).
- Try to wrap it up so it doesn't just end. Summarize the main point,
and remember to wish everyone 'Shabbat Shalom' (if appropriate).
This material has been heavily based on Deb Mowshowitz's How to
Get Started on a D'var Torah handout from the National Havurah
1999 Summer Institute and Rafi Zarum's Torah L'Am “Learning to
Talk Torah”. Both used with permission.
Running a Torah Discussion
If you are giving a dvar Torah that includes a discussion, your
role will be to not only present a topic, but to moderate a discussion
afterwards as well. Although the main points about finding, researching
and presenting before a Torah discussion are the same as for any
dvar Torah, there are a number of additional points that should
be kept in mind.
(Thanks to Deb Mowshowitz for permission to adapt her material.)
Float your basic idea/problem/topic
Present one idea, not many. (But have other problems or questions
in reserve in case the first doesn't catch on). Resist the temptation
to present too much material/raise too many issues which leads
to an unfocused discussion.
As explained above, share why you've chosen to focus on this issue,
and share some (but not all - see below) of the insights you've
collected from commentators etc.
State or rephrase your question, and open the floor
If there is no immediate response, don't panic. People may need
a minute or two to think about what you've presented. Try rephrasing
the question from another angle. If it is clear that this is not
working, you may want to ask another question.
Try to keep the discussion focused
Use your position as discussion leader to pull the comments back
to the main point. The more focused the discussion, the more likely
people will pay attention. On the other hand, if the discussion
goes off in a direction you hadn't anticipated, but people are
interested in it and it is lively, go with the flow.
End it
Don't just let the discussion die. At the appropriate time (ie.
after twenty minutes, or at 11:30, or whatever) or when it seems
the discussion hits a natural break, wrap it up. This is where
you can pull out of your sleeve one concluding commentary that
you saved. Pull everything together by summarizing some of the
main points, point out what the group raised, or what issues remain
unresolved, and wish everyone Shabbat Shalom.
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