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Four-Credit Course (with three hours of class-time per week)
Success in this 4 credit hour course is based on the expectation that students will spend a minimum of 9 hours of study time per week in preparation for class (readings, papers, discussion sections, preparation for exams, etc.).
To be corrected according to the specific dates of 2017
NEJS 5a The History of Judaism
Reuven Kimelman,
Lown 208, X62963, office hour Tues. 12:30-2:00, Fri. 12:30-1.
Tues. and Fri., 11-12:20, Lown 201
This course is an introduction to the study of the history of Judaism. It focuses on major turning points, personalities, ideas, texts, and practices.
Requirements:
Class discussion, readings, mid-term, final, and paper
Texts:
Tanach: Jewish Study Bible
Seltzer, Robert M. Jewish People, Jewish Thought: The Jewish Experience in History, New York: Macmillan, 2000. (henceforth: Seltzer)
Mansoor, Menahem, Jewish History and Thought: An Introduction, Hoboken, NJ: KTAV, 1991. (henceforth: Mansoor)
Both books contain chronological tables, bibliographies, and indices. Seltzer adds maps and Mansoor adds a glossary.
Movies: The Disputation of Barcelona (in library) and The Quarrel
Course: The first half deals with Judaism in antiquity from the Bible to the rise of Islam.
Readings plus Seltzer, chapters 1-6, Mansoor, chapters 1-18.
The second half deals with the period from the rise of Islam to modern times.
Readings: Seltzer, chapters 7-16; Mansoor, chapters 9-48
Paper: a 8-10 double-spaced, word-processed, paper
The Holidays: By focusing on three holidays, two of which are common to both, compare and contrast the approaches of -
1. Arthur Waskow, Seasons of our Joy: A New Age Guide to the Jewish Holidays, Bantam Books, 1982
2. Irving Greenberg, The Jewish Way: Living the Holidays, Simon and Schuster, 1989.
. Week 1-- Introduction: R. Werblowsky, “Judaism, or the Religion of Israel,” The Concise Encyclopedia of Living Faiths, ed. R. C. Zaehner, 23-50.
Genesis 1-4, R. Kimelman, “The Seduction of Eve,” ed. A. Bach, Women in the Hebrew Bible, archived in www.utoronto.ca/wjudaism
. Week 2 -- Covenant and Chosenness
Gen. 12; Exod. 19-20; Deut. 4-6, 9:4-12; 10:12-15; Amos 1-3, Isaiah 56, 66; Leviticus 19.
. Week 3
Seltzer, 2: The Biblical Heritage: Pre-Exilic
Mansoor, 1-2, 5
Monarchy and the abuse of power: Deuteronomy 17:14-20; 1Samuel 15; 2Sam 11; 1Kings 12
Prophecy as intercession: Genesis 18, Exodus 32, 1Kings 19
R. Kimelman, “A Lesson in Leadership: Abraham, Moses and Elijah,” Jewish Education News 14.2 (Spring 1993), 33-35.
. Week 4
Seltzer, 3: The Biblical Heritage: Post-Exilic
Mansoor, 3: Redefining biblical institutions in a post-Exilic era:
Temple: IKings 8, Isaiah 2:1-4; Covenant: Nehemiah 8-10; Intermarriage: Ezra 9:1-4; 10:18; Deuteronomy. 7:1-4; Sabbath: Nehemiah 13:15-19; Jeremiah 17:21; Sukkot: Neh. 8:13-18
. Week 5 Seltzer, 4: The Hellenistic Period
Mansoor, 4, 6-8
1 Maccabees 1-4
R. Kimelman, “Leadership and Community in Judaism,” Tikkun (Nov. 1987): 26-30, 88-91.
. Week 6
Seltzer, 5: Second Temple Period, the Rise of Christianity, and Rabbinic Judaism
Mansoor, 9-14
Mishnah Avot 1; Paul, Romans 5-7; Siddur: Blessings
G. Cohen, “The Talmudic Age,” ed. L. Schwarz, Great Ages and Ideas of the Jewish People, 143-180.
. Week 7
Seltzer, 6: Rabbinic Judaism
Mansoor, 15-18
R. Kimelman, “The Rabbinic Theology of the Physical: Blessings, Body and Soul, Resurrection, Covenant and Election,” History of Judaism, Volume 4: The Late Roman-Rabbinic Period (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 946-976, ibid., Kimelman, “Rabbinic Prayer in Late Antiquity,” 573-611.
. Week 8 (possible mid-term, online)
. Week 9 (schedule movie, Disputation in Barcelona)
Seltzer, 8: Islam and Medieval Jewish Thought
Mansoor, 21-22, 25-27
. Week 10
Seltzer, 9: Jewish Mysticism
Mansoor, 29, 34-35
. Week 11
Seltzer, 10: Early Modernity
Mansoor, 33, 37
. Week 12
Seltzer, 12-13: The Enlightenment and Jewish Reform
Mansoor, 38
. Week 13 Seltzer, 15: The Rise of Zionism
Mansoor, 41
., (schedule movie The Quarrel)
Seltzer, 16: Twentieth Century Jewish Thought and Experience
Mansoor, 45
NEJS 5a Foundational Course in Jewish Studies, Sample Mid-term
Reuven Kimelman,
Maximize the integration of readings (Mansoor, Seltzer, and at least those noted in parentheses) and lectures. Material in parentheses is illustrative not exhaustive.
. In what sense is the conflict between the reality of divine sovereignty and the perception of human sovereignty a leitmotif of the Bible. (Gen. 1-4, Kimelman, “The Seduction of Eve,”)
. What are the major elements and implications of the covenant idea in the Bible? (Gen. 12, Ex. 19, Deut. 4, Amos 1-3, Isa. 56, 66; Neh. 8-10)
. What are the problematics of monarchy from the Biblical perspective? (Saul, David, Solomon, Deut. 17, 1Sam. 8 and 15, 2Sam. 11, 1 Kings 12)
. What are the functions and moral messages of the prophets? (Gen. 20:7, Ex. 7:1, Gen. 18, Ex. 32, 1 Kings 19, Jer. 7:16, 11:14, Ezek. 3:16-19 [Jer. 23:21f.], Jer. 23:18, Amos 3:7, Ezek. 22:30, Ps. 99:6 [Jer. 15:1], 106:23, Amos, Hosea, Jeremiah, Isaiah)
. What are some of the problematics of a Temple-based Judaism? (I Kings 8)
. What is the evidence that the Hasmoneans or the Maccabees lived in a biblically-resonant culture? (I Maccabbees)
. How much of post-biblical Judaism can be explained as a shift from Temple-centered Judaism to Torah-centered Judaism? (Nehemiah 8-11, Mishnah Avot 1, Kimelman, “Leadership and Community in Judaism”)
. How does post-70 Palestinian Judaism incorporate the experience of Diaspora Judaism?
. In what sense does the liturgy reflect the theology of Judaism? (Siddur, Kimelman, “Rabbinic Prayer in Late Antiquity,” 573-611)
. What is the relationship between the cultural heroes and the values of rabbinic Judaism (Cohen, “The Talmudic Age”)
. What elements are involved in the various scenarios of redemption (Isa. 2, 65, Amidah)
. Why is resurrection so central to rabbinic eschatology and anthropology? (Kimelman, “The Rabbinic Theology of the Physical: Blessings, Body and Soul, Resurrection, Covenant and Election,”)
Name ______
Match the first column with the best answer in the second column
I II
. Isaiah ___ Hellenization
. Kingdom of priests ___ Tannaitic
. Hannukah ___ Maḥzor
. Tanach ___ Essenes
. Siddur ___ Pseudepigrapha
. Apocrypha ___ Torah, Nevi’im, Ketuv/bim
. Septuagint ___ Aggadic midrash
. Akiba ___ Mishnah
. Qumran ___ John Hyrcanus
. Philo ___ Aramaic translation
. Grandson of Mattathias ___ Dead Sea Scrolls
. Paul ___ Greek translation
. Targum ___ New Testament
. Nehemiah ___ canon
. Sinaitic covenant ___ Hillel
. 24 ___ Decalogue
. six orders ___ Josephus
. Amoraic ___ Ezra
. Zealots ___ Amos
. Tosefta ___ Holy nation
NEJS 5a Final
I.
. How does the Judaism of the Islamic period (post 622) differ from that of the Roman period (post 70)?
. What was more consequential for Judaism, Christianity or Anti-Semitism? How so?
. What are the major theoretical differences among Reform, Conservative/Positive Historical Judaism, and Modern Orthodoxy in nineteenth century Germany? How do they differ in dealing with the challenges of Emancipation?
. In what sense was and was not Zionism a rejection of the terms of Emancipation? (Mention its major ideologues).
. Compare and contrast two major thinkers of twentieth century Judaism (at least one has to have been mentioned in class).
II. Synthetic question
. “The world/age stands on three things: Bible / study of Torah, Temple / prayer, and good deeds / ethics.” In what sense is the history of Judaism a struggle over their prioritization?
. Assess the strengths and weaknesses of Werblowsky’s essay, “Judaism, or the Religion of Israel,” as a summary of this course.
. Assess the strengths and weaknesses of Seltzer’s Jewish People, Jewish Thought and Mansoor’s Jewish History and Thought as a textbook for this course? Which is their best chapters? Why? If you could only choose one which would it be? Why?
III. Opinion:
1. What is the most surprising thing you learned in this course? Why is it surprising and what is its significance for the understanding of the history of Judaism?
2. What major topic in the history of Judaism do you feel was left out? What topic would you exclude to include it? Why?
Match the first column with the best answer in the second column (25 points)
. Saadya Gaon ___ Islamic rationalism
. Franz Rozensweig ___ I and Thou
. Kalaam ___ debated with Nahmanides
. Medieval exegete and polymath ___ founder of the Karaites
. Leopold Zunz ___ author of Shulḥan Arukh
. Solomon ibn Gabirol ___ Kuzari
. Besht ___ Guide for the Perplexed
. Mishneh Torah ___ Zohar
. Moses de Leon ___ Abraham Ibn Ezra
. Mordecai Kaplan ___ commandments
. Baḥya ibn Pakuda ___ founder of Hasidism
. Karaites ___ an evolving religious civilization
. 613 ___ Pumbedita (Yeshivot)
. Eḥad Ha‘am ___ The Jewish State
. Joseph Karo ___ another name for ha-Yad ha-Ḥazakah
. Rambam ___ Agnon
. Judah Halevi ___ Nahmanides
. Martin Buber ___ Shulḥan Arukh
. Pablo Christiani ___ founder of Wissenschaft des Judentums
. Theodore Herzl ___ cultural Zionism
. Sura ___ Biblicists
. Four-part legal compendium ___ Book of Beliefs and Opinions
. Bialik ___ Duties of the Heart
. Anan ___ The Star of Redemption
. Ramban ___ author of Keter Malkhut (Royal Crown)