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Version 2011/Final The Department of Religious Studies RELI 108: TRADITIONAL JEWISH WRITINGS Dr. Evyatar Marienberg Spring 2011, Mondays & Wednesdays, 12:00-12:50, Peabody 218 The aim of this undergraduate course will be to familiarize ourselves with Jewish literary works that are considered “fundamental”, “classic”, “traditional” (often, all of the above). We will include in our list the Hebrew Bible, the Mishnah, the Babylonian Talmud, midrashic collections, works from the Geonic period, works by Maimonides, major codes of Jewish law, major kabbalistic, philosophic, poetic, and ethical works, hassidic compositions, and more. At the end of this course, students would have, it is hoped, a better understanding of the complex and diverse Jewish written corpus. All texts will be studied using English translations. No knowledge of Hebrew or background in Jewish culture or history is required. Good attendance is expected. Students will be required to regularly read secondary sources (chapters/articles), submit short summaries/reflections, and prepare primary sources. Grading: Presence and participation (class): Presence and participation (recitations): Postings on Blackboard: Final (Monday, May 2nd, 12:00pm) 10% 10% 40% 40% Instructor‟s contact information: Dr. Evyatar Marienberg ([email protected]). Office hours: Saunders Hall #128, Mon. 2:30pm-3:30pm TA‟s contact information: Mr. Joseph Gindi ([email protected]). Office hours: Saunders Hall #122, TBA Additional Information: Participation in class is expected. If you have a particular problem with voluntary participation (social anxiety, etc.), or an especially difficult time dealing with being suddenly called upon, please advise the professor during the first two weeks. Your request will be fully honored, and, if appropriate, another method of personal evaluation, agreed upon by both you and the professor/TA, might be put into place. Students are expected to arrive promptly and to remain for the entirety of the scheduled class/recitation. The professor/TA retain the right to refuse entrance to students who arrive late and consider those who leave early as absent from the entire class/session. Students must prepare the assigned readings (and/or other tasks) for each class. If students are not coming prepared, a system of pop quizzes may be introduced, with the grade system adjusted accordingly. The use of cell phones, laptops, iPads, MP3 players, and similar gadgets is not permitted during class. Sorry! All students are expected to abide by the university‟s Honor Code (http://honor.unc.edu). Any suspicion of intellectual dishonesty (e.g., plagiarism of any kind) will cause a thorough investigation and, if found to be justified, will have severe consequences. All readings, and many of the sources we will use in class, will be available through Blackboard. There is an attendance requirement for this course: all students are responsible for making sure their presence is recorded. A student who misses more than four classes/recitations will fail. In exceptional cases, if the absence was well-justified, the student may be asked to write an additional essay about the topics dealt with during his/her absence. Before each session you are responsible of posting on Blackboard, no later than two hours before the session, your reflections about the readings for that session. These postings will be graded. Without a posting, your attendance in a particular session might not be taken into account. 2 Course Plan Date Topic I Mon, Jan 10 Introduction Readings (to read before class) and printouts (to bring to class) N/A II Wed, Jan 12 Jewish History in a Nutshell - Cowling, “Judaism: A Historical Overview” R1 Fri, Jan 14 NO CLASS (MLK Jr Day) The Hebrew Bible I N/A N/A - Rabin, “Introduction: There‟s More than One Way to Read the Bible” - Brettler, Introductions to Torah, Nevi’im, and Kethuvim - David and Goliath - Amos - Song of Songs - Psalm 22 - Rabin, “History in the Bible” - Friedman, “Introduction/Collection of Evidence” - Grintz and Dan, “Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha” deSilva, Introducing the Apocrypha: Message, Context and Significance - Genesis 1-2 - Exodus 19-22 - Numbers 22-23 - Septuagint - Hellenism - Disapora Judaisms - Canonization of Hebrew Bible - Apocrypha - Pseudoepigraph - Sirach 1-2 - 1 Maccabees 1-2 - 1 Enoch 1-10 - Sandmel, “Philo Judaeus: An Introduction to the Man, his Writings, and his Significance” (Parts only: check bibliography) - http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/dss (sections) - Philo - Josephus - The Flood story - Philo & Josephus on Flood - Qumran - The Dead Sea Scrolls - Current debates - Psalms from Qumran - The Copper Scroll - The Rules - Brown, “The Nature and Origin of the New Testament” - Ehrman, A Brief Introduction to the New Testament - The Historical Jesus - “Jesus Christ” - New Testament - NT as a Jewish Text - The Synoptic Problem - Matthew 12 Mon, Jan 17 III Wed, Jan 19 R2 Fri, Jan 21 IV Mon, Jan 24 The Hebrew Bible II V Wed, Jan 26 Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha R3 Fri, Jan 28 VI Mon, Jan 31 Philo and Josephus VII Wed, Feb 2 Qumran R4 Fri, Feb 4 VIII Mon, Feb 7 New Testament 3 Subjects/texts discussed in class - General Introduction - A responsum on removing one‟s hat in a synagogue - How to analyze a text? - Jewish history and geography: a very quick survey Date Topic Mishnah & Tannaitic Literature Readings (to read before class) and printouts (to bring to class) Danby, “Introduction Mishnah]” [to the Subjects/texts discussed in class - Acts 15 - Acts 6-8 - What is “Rabbinics”? - What is the Mishnah? - The Organization of the Talmudic Literature - Selections from Mishnah Shabbat, Baba Mezia, Avodah Zarah, Avot IX Wed, Feb 9 R5 Fri, Feb 11 X Mon, Feb 14 Midrashic Literature - Stern, “Midrash Interpretation” XI Wed, Feb 16 Talmud I - Nothing (a little break!) R6 Fri, Feb 18 XII Mon, Feb 21 Talmud II Geonic Literature - Talmudic Sources - Geonic Sources XIII Wed, Feb 23 Historic Literature - Schiffman, “Epilogue: The Hegemony of the Babylonian Talmud” - Brody, “Geonim” - Skinner, “Gender, Memory and Jewish Identity” R7 Fri, Feb 25 XIV Mon, Feb 28 XV Wed, Mar 2 - Lieber, “Piyyut” - “Three Piyyutim” - Wiesel, Rashi: A Portrait R8 Fri, Mar 4 Piyyutim: Text, Performance - Rashi on the Bible - Rashi on the Talmud - Rashi as codificator - Talmud with Rashi NO CLASS (Spring Break) NO CLASS (Spring Break) NO RECITATION (Spring Break) Maimonides & Philosophic Literature N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A - Kraemer, “The Life of Moses ben Maimon” Special Session: Crisis in Japan Suffering and Theodicy in Judaism and Japanese Religions N/A Texts from: - Guide of the Perplexed - Mishneh Torah - Medical Writings - Maimonides on suffering - Guest: Prof. Barbara Ambros Mon, Mar 7 Wed, Mar 9 Fri, Mar 11 XVI Mon, Mar 14 XVII Wed, Mar 16 R9 Fri, Mar 18 Piyyut Literature Rashi & Exegetic Literature 4 and Jewish - What is Midrash? - Selection of Midrashic texts - What is Talmud? (I) - What is Talmud? (II) - What is Shofar? - Talmudic texts on the Shofar - Yossifon - The Scroll of Ahimaaz - Crusade‟s Chronicles Music, Date Topic XVIII Mon, Mar 21 Kuzari & Apologetic Literature XIX Wed, Mar 23 Sefer Hasidim & Medieval Literature R10 Fri, Mar 25 XX Mon, Mar 28 XXI Wed, Mar 30 NO RECITATION (Holy Friday) Jewish Environmentalist Literature (Session taught by TA Joseph Gindi) The Siddur and Jewish Liturgy R11 Fri, Apr 1 XXII Mon, Apr 4 Kabbalah & Mystical/Esoter ic Literature XXIII Wed, Apr 6 Shulhan Arukh & Halakhic Literature R12 Fri, Apr 8 XXIV Mon, Apr 11 “Women Related” Literature XXV Wed, Apr 13 Haggadah R13 Fri, Apr 15 XXVI Mon, Apr 18 Ethical (“Mussar”) Literature XXVII Wed, Apr 20 Hassidic Literature (Passover) Readings (to read before class) and printouts (to bring to class) - Saenz-Badillos, Lasker, et al., , “Judah ha-Levi” - Shear, The Kuzari and the Shaping of Jewish Identity 1167-1900 - Dan, “Sefer Hasidim” - Schäfer, “Jews and Christians in the High Middle Ages : the "Book of the Pious"” N/A Subjects/texts discussed in class - Selection of texts from the Kuzari - Texts from Sefer Hasidim TBA - Harlow, Siddur Sim Shalom - The Shema - The Amida - Morning Blessings - Lekha Dodi - Scholem, Idel, and Garb, “Kabbalah” (Parts only: check bibliography) Werblowsky and Goldish, “Shabbetai Tsevi” - Huss, “All You Need Is LAV: Madonna and Postmodern Kabbalah” - Twerski, “The Shulhan „Aruk: Enduring Code of Jewish Law” - Ta-Shma, “Responsa” (Parts only: check bibliography) Texts from: - Heikhalot Rabbati - Sefer ha-Bahir - Tomer Devorah - Zohar - Weissler, “Prayers in Yiddish and the Religious World of Ashkenazic Women” - Turniansky, “Glueckel of Hameln” - Tabory, “The Haggadah and Its Ritual” - Texts from Glueckel‟s memoir - Selection of Tkhines - Dan, “Ethical Literature” - Dan and Hansel, “Luzzatto, Moses Hayyim” (Parts only: check bibliography) - Dan, “Hasidism: An Overview” - Green & Magid, “Hasidism: Habad Hasidism” - Green, “Nahman of Bratslav” - Selection from Hovot haLevavot & Mesilat Yesharim 5 - Texts from Shulhan Arukh Orah Hayyim & Yoreh De‟ah - Responsa Literature - Art in Haggadot - Selection of texts from the Haggadah - Text from the Tanya - Texts by Nahman of Braslav Date R14 Fri, Apr 22 XXVIII Mon, Apr 25 XXIX Mon, Apr 27 Mon, May 2 Topic Readings (to read before class) and printouts (to bring to class) Subjects/texts discussed in class Winds of Change: Secularization and Haskalah - Hess, “Christian Wilhelm von Dohm” - von Dohm, “On the Civic Improvement of the Jews (1781)” - Wessely, “Words of Peace and Truth (1782)” - Eisenstein-Barzilay, “The Ideology of the Berlin Haskalah” - Haskalah / Secularization / Emancipation - The Decline of the Rabbinic Hegemony Questions for review - Review - Conclusion (Easter Monday ; Passover) Review Session and Conclusion FINAL EXAM N/A 6 Readings: Detailed Bibliography - Geoffrey Cowling, “Judaism: A Historical Overview”, in: Christopher H. Partridge (ed.), Introduction to World Religions, Fortress Press 2005, pp. 265-273 - Elliott Rabin, “Introduction: There‟s More than One Way to Read the Bible”, in: Elliot Rabin, Understanding the Hebrew Bible: A Reader’s Guide, Ktav, New Jersey 2006, pp. 1-18 - Marc Zvi Brettler, Introductions to Torah, Nevi‟im, and Kethuvim, in: Adele Berlin and Zvi Brettler (eds.), The Jewish Study Bible (=JSB), Oxford University Press, 2004, pp. 1-7, 451461, 1275-1279 - Elliott Rabin, “History in the Bible”, in: Elliot Rabin, Understanding the Hebrew Bible: A Reader’s Guide, Ktav, New Jersey 2006, pp. 75-109 - Richard Elliott Friedman, “Introduction/Collection of Evidence”, in Richard Elliott Friedman, The Bible with Sources Revealed: A New View Into the Five Books of Moses, HarperSanFrancisco, San Francisco 2003, pp. 1-31 - Yehoshua Grintz and Joseph Dan, “Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha”, in: Encyclopedia Judaica 2nd Edition (=EJ2), Michael Berenbaum and Fred Skolnik (eds.), Macmillan Reference USA, Detroit 2007, Vol. 2, pp. 258-261 - David A. deSilva, Introducing the Apocrypha: Message, Context and Significance, Baker Academic, Grand Rapids 2002, pp. 15-41 - Samuel Sandmel, “Philo Judaeus: An Introduction to the Man, his Writings, and his Significance”, in: Aufstieg und Niedergang der Römischen Welt, II/21:1 (1984), pp. 3-46 (read only chapters I, II, III, V) - http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/dss (Pages: “Discovery of the Scrolls”; “What do the Scrolls Contain?”; “Who Wrote the Scrolls?”; “Publication of the Scrolls”) - Raymond E. Brown, “The Nature and Origin of the New Testament”, in: Raymond E. Brown, An Introduction to the New Testament, Anchor Bible Reference, Doubleday, New York 1997, pp. 3-19 - Bart D. Ehrman, A Brief Introduction to the New Testament, Oxford University Press, New York 2004, pp. 1-13 - Herbert Danby, “Introduction”, in: Herbert Danby, The Mishnah, Translated from the Hebrew, Oxford University Press, London 1933, pp. xiii-xxxii 7 - David Stern, “Midrash and Jewish Interpretation”, in: JSB, pp. 1863-1875 - Lawrence H. Schiffman, “Epilogue: The Hegemony of the Babylonian Talmud”, in: Laurence H. Schiffman (ed.), Texts and Tradition: A Source Reader for the Study of Second Temple and Rabbinic Judaism, Ktav 1998, pp. 749-761 - Robert Brody, “Geonim”, in: Norman Roth (ed.), Medieval Jewish Civilization: An Encyclopedia, Routledge, New York-London 2002, pp. 281–286 - Patricia Skinner, “Gender, Memory and Jewish Identity: Reading a Family History from Medieval Southern Italy”, Early Medieval Europe, 13:3 (2005), pp. 277-296 - Laura S. Lieber, “Piyyut”, Cambridge Dictionary of Judaism - “Three Piyyutim”, from www.piyut.org.il - Elie Wiesel, Rashi: A Portrait, Schocken, New York 2009, pp. 1-31 - Joel L. Kraemer, “The Life of Moses ben Maimon”, in: Lawrence Fine (ed.), Judaism in Practice: From the Middle Ages through the Early Modern Period, Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ 2001, pp. 413-428 - Saenz-Badillos, Lasker, et al., “Judah ha-Levi”, in: EJ2, Vol. 11, pp. 492-501 - Adam Shear, The Kuzari and the Shaping of Jewish Identity, 1167-1900, Cambridge University Press, 2008, pp. vii-20 - Joseph Dan, “Hasidim, Sefer”, in: EJ2, Vol. 8, pp. 392-393 - Peter Schäfer, “Jews and Christians in the High Middle Ages: the „Book of the Pious‟”, in: Christoph Cluse (ed.), The Jews of Europe in the Middle Ages (Tenth to Fifteenth Centuries), Brepols, 2004, pp. 29-42 - Jules Harlow, Siddur Sim Shalom, The Rabbinical Assembly – The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, New York 1989, pp. xi-xix - Gershom Scholem, Moshe Idel, and Jonathan Garb, “Kabbalah”, in: EJ2, Vol. 11, p. 1 (586, “Kabbala”) - p. 10 (595, “Jewish Gnosis and the Sefer Yeẓirah”) ; p. 20 (605, “The Kabbalist Center of Gerona”) - p. 21 (606, “Other Currents in 13th Century Spanish Kabbalah”) ; p. 24 (609, “The Zohar”) – p. 25 (610, “The Kabbalah in the 14th Century up to the Expulsion from Spain”) ; p. 29 (614, “The Kabbalah after the Expulsion from Spain and the New Center in Safed”) – p. 34 (619, “The Kabbalah in Later Times”) - R. J. Zvi Werblowsky, “Shabbetai Tsevi [First Edition]”, and Matt Goldish, “Shabbetai Tsevi [Further Considerations]”, Encyclopedia of Religion, 2nd Ed., Edited by Lindsay Jones, Vol. 12, Macmillan Reference USA, Detroit 2005, pp. 8258-8262 8 - Boaz Huss, “All You Need Is LAV: Madonna and Postmodern Kabbalah”, in: Jewish Quarterly Review 95:4 (2005), pp. 611–624 - Isadore Twerski, “The Shulhan „Aruk: Enduring Code of Jewish Law”, in: Judah Goldin (ed.), The Jewish Expression, Yale University Press, New Haven 1976, pp. 322-343 (first published in Judaism 16.2 (1967)) - Israel Moses Ta-Shma, “Responsa”, in: EJ2, Vol. 17, pp. 228-232 (stop at: "...that to date it numbers no less than some 250,000 responsa") - Chava Weissler, “Prayers in Yiddish and the Religious World of Ashkenazic Women”, in: Judith R. Baskin (ed.), Jewish Women in Historical Perspective (Second Edition), Wayne State University Press, Detroit 1998, pp. 169-192 - Chava Turniansky, “Glueckel of Hameln”, in: Jewish Women – A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia, 7 pages - Joseph Tabory, “The Haggadah and Its Ritual”, in: The JPS Haggadah, Philadelphia 2008, pp. 1-32 - Joseph Dan, “Ethical Literature”, in: EJ2, Vol. 6, pp. 525-531 - Joseph Dan and Joelle Hansel, “Luzzatto, Moses Hayyim”, in: EJ2, Vol. 13, p. 281 until p. 282 (“in a plague”) ; p. 284 (“Luzzatto’s Ethical Work”) – p. 285 (“suspected of Shabbateanism”) - Joseph Dan, “Hasidism: An Overview”, in: Encyclopedia of Religion 2nd Edition (=ER2), Lindsay Jones (ed.), Macmillan Reference USA, Detroit 2005, Vol. 6, pp. 3785-3792 - Arthur Green and Shaul Magid, “Hasidism: Habad Hasidism”, in: ER2, Vol. 6, pp. 37923793 - Arthur Green, “Nahman of Bratslav”, in: ER2, Vol. 9, pp. 6401-6402 - Jonathan M. Hess, “Christian Wilhelm von Dohm (1751-1830)”, in: Richard S. Levy (ed.), Antisemitism: A Historical Encyclopedia of Prejudice and Persecution, ABC CLIO, Santa Barbara 2005, Vol. 1, p. 184 - Christian Wilhelm von Dohm, “On the Civic Improvement of the Jews (1781)”, in: Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Nathan the Wise, Translated, Edited, and with an Introduction by Ronald Schechter, Bedford/St. Martin‟s, pp. 128-139 - Naphtali Herz (Hartwig) Wessely, “Words of Peace and Truth (1782)”, in: Paul MendesFlohr and Jehuda Reinharz (ed.), The Jew in the Modern World: A Documentary History, 3rd Edition, Oxford University Press, New York 2010, pp. 74-77 - Isaac Eisenstein-Barzilay, “The Ideology of the Berlin Haskalah”, in: Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research 25 (1956), pp. 1-37 9