The Rise and Fall of Rabbinical Sermons

My parents -- my father, especially -- loved a good sermon, though what qualified as one was up for grabs, the subject of much discussion over lunch on Shabbat. Had it to do with topicality or scholarship? Brevity or length? The frequency of references to The New York Times or to highfalutin and somewhat arcane literary figures such as Anatole France? (Anatole who?!) It was hard to tell. As a little kid, all I knew, or could make out, was that there was something about the sermon that prompted animated conversations between my parents and the adult guests, if there were any, at our table. It was almost as if taking the measure of a sermon constituted a Shabbat ritual all its own.