Jewish Tradition, Its Texts and Contexts
HIST 105
Fall 2009 not offered
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| Certificates: Jewish and Israel Studies |
This course will explore the historical development of "Jewish tradition" through its texts and contexts, theory and practice. What is this tradition based on? How has it been shaped? We will examine the values it represents and the mechanisms of transmitting these values from generation to generation. Is it permissible to touch a menstruating woman? Or eat with gentiles? Who is allowed to study the Torah? Why does the prayer Jewish men say in the morning include negative definition of their identity when they thank God for not making them a woman, or a gentile, or a slave? What is the attitude toward war? The above questions are hotly debated by rabbinic authorities. Reading major primary sources on which the Jewish tradition is based - the Hebrew Bible, the Talmud, Rabbinic responsa, Jewish chronicles - will help us to explore questions of identity, religion, and gender; questions of boundaries; and of the role of history and memory in fashioning collective identities. Reading these texts, we will also explore the historical context in which they emerged and how this historical context shaped them, and how the subsequent generations had to wrestle with these established traditions to understand them in their own contexts. |
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Essential Capabilities:
None |
| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
SBS HIST |
| Course Format: Seminar | Grading Mode: Credit/Unsatisfactory |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: None |
Major Readings:
HarperCollins, STUDY BIBLE
Selections from THE MISHNAH, trans. Jacob Neusner (Yale University Press)
Selections from THE BABYLONIAN TALMUD
MAIMONIDES READER, ed. Isadore Twersky (Berman House)
Selections from Rashi's commentaries on the TORAH JEWS AND THE CRUSADERS: THE HEBREW CHRONICLES OF THE FIRST AND SECOND CRUSADES, ed. Shlomo Eidelberg
JUDAISM IN PRACTICE, ed. Lawrence Fine (Princeton University Press)
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Examinations and Assignments:
Regular response papers, due before each class. Two 6-8 pp. papers based on the sources read in class. |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
Class participation |
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