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HU Credits:
2
Degree/Cycle:
2nd degree (Master)
Responsible Department:
Program in Jewish Education
Semester:
1st and/or 2nd Semester
Teaching Languages:
English
Campus:
Mt. Scopus
Course/Module Coordinator:
Dr.Michael Gillis
Coordinator Office Hours:
Monday 11.00-12.00
Teaching Staff:
Dr. Noga Bing
Course/Module description:
This is a prerequisite course for the Masters program in Jewish Education for those with a limited, or no, previous experience of Jewish Studies in an academic context. Academic Jewish Studies is generally characterized by a critical approach – that is to say one which tries to avoid assumptions about the material being studied and which asks questions about its history, meaning and reception using the methods of history, philology and literary analysis. Our course will look at three fields of Jewish Studies: Bible; Rabbinic Literature; Jewish Thought. Each of these fields can be further subdivided into a variety of subject matters, e.g. philosophy and mysticism in Jewish thought, and a variety of academic approaches e.g. literary analysis and the study of language. The course will provide a sample of academic writing in each field with the aim of providing a window on this variety of work.
Course/Module aims:
The aim of the course is to provide an initial acquaintance with academic Jewish Studies for those coming to the study of Jewish education with no prior experience of such studies.
Learning outcomes - On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
Participants will:
• Become familiar with some of the main streams of academic Jewish Studies.
• Be able to read in a critical way academic writing in Jewish Studies.
• Develop a sensitivity to the difference between the academic critical approach to reading texts and other kinds of reading.
• Reflect upon the possible ways the academic study of Judaism might serve as a resource for Jewish Education.
Attendance requirements(%):
85%
Teaching arrangement and method of instruction:
The course will be conducted through the course website where the course readings will be available. Participants will wrote regular reading reports, participate in discussion forums and write brief summary assignments at the conclusion of each section of the course.
Course/Module Content:
1. Bible
2. Rabbinic Literature
3. Jewish Thought
Required Reading:
Nechama Leibowitz “How to read a chapter of Bible”, Studies in Jewish Education Vol. 5, Jerusalem 1990, pp. 35-47
James Kugel How to Read the Bible, New York 2007, pp/ 5-17, 36-46,48-57, 662-689.
Uriel Simon, Reading Prophetic Narratives, Indiana University Press, 1997, pp.
Moshe Greenberg, “The Decalogue Tradition Critically Examined” in Studies in the Bible and Jewish Thought Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1995, pp. 279-305.
The Cambridge Companion to the Talmud and Rabbinic Literature, edited by Charlotte E. Fonrobert, Martin S. Jaffee, Cambridge 2014, “Introduction” pp. 1-14 and Rabbinic Authorship as a Collective Enterprise by Martin Jaffee pp. 17-37.
March Hirshman, “Aggadic Midrash” in The Literature of the Sages , edited Shmuel Safrai et al., Fortress Press, Amsterdam 2006, pp. 107-132.
Jeffrey Rubenstein, “Torah . Shame and ‘The Oven of Akhnai” in Talmudic Stories , Baltimore 1999, pp 34-63
Joseph Tabory, “Jewish Festivals in Late Antiquity” in The Cambridge History of Ancient Judaism IV, edited Steven Katz, Cambridge 2006, pp. 556-571.
Moshe Halbertal, Maimonides: Life and Thought, Princeton, 2014, pp. 312-353
Joseph Dan –Heart and the Fountain, Oxford, 2002, “Introduction” pp. 1-48, “The Zohar” 139-147.
Ella Belfer,”The Land of Israel and Historical Dialectics in the Thought of Rav Kook: Zionism and Messianism”, in Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook and Jewish Spirituality, edited Lawrence Kaplan et al., New York 1995, pp. 257-271.
Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik “The Lonely Man of Faith”, Tradition Vol 7, 1965, pp. 69-119.
Additional Reading Material:
Course/Module evaluation:
End of year written/oral examination 0 %
Presentation 0 %
Participation in Tutorials 0 %
Project work 0 %
Assignments 45 %
Reports 55 %
Research project 0 %
Quizzes 0 %
Other 0 %
Additional information:
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