Admission requirements
No special requirements. Knowledge of Hebrew is not required.
Description
The core of Rabbinic Judaism is the dogma of the Bible as Sacred Scripture, an unchanging revelation, alongside Rabbinic tradition as a corpus of ever-changing, ever-growing literature, an oral tradition that endeavours to apply the content of religious writings to the challenges of daily life and new circumstances. The central question of this course is: How did the Rabbis seek to ‘adapt’ their Sacred Scripture to the world around them? How did they manage to find new layers of meaning, that would provide answers to new questions? In other words: how did they ‘actualize’ their Holy Writ? In the course of Jewish history, the authority of the Rabbinic tradition was often challenged or denied, causing the Rabbis to find creative ways of defending their stance. This course will provide a tour through roughly two thousand years of Jewish thought.
Course objectives
Knowledge of the major literary and religious works of Rabbinic Judaism. Insight in their structure, use and historical, social and religious background.
Timetable
The timetables are available through My Timetable.
Mode of instruction
- Seminar with obligatory attendance
Assessment method
Assessment and weighing
Oral presentation (40%)
Written examination with essay questions. (60%).
The final mark for the course is established by determining the weighted average. To pass the course, the weighted average of the partial grades must be 5.5 or higher.
Resit
The resit consists of an written examination (60%). There is no resit for the oral presentation.
Inspection and feedback
How and when an exam review will take place will be disclosed together with the publication of the exam results at the latest. If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the exam results, an exam review will have to be organized.
Reading list
H.L. Strack & Günter Stemberger, Introduction to the Talmud and Midrash (2nd ed.; Minneapolis 1996) or later editon.
Further literature will be assigned on Brightspace.
Registration
Enrolment through MyStudyMap is mandatory.
General information about course and exam enrolment is available on the website.
Registration Contract teaching and Exchange
Information for those interested in taking this course in context of Contract teaching (with taking examinations), eg. about costs, registration and conditions.
For the registration of exchange students contact Humanities International Office.
Contact
For substantive questions, contact the lecturer listed in the right information bar.
For questions about enrolment, admission, etc, contact the Education Administration Office Herta Mohr
Remarks
None.