Rabbi Joanna Katz
KATZ@BARD.EDU
Professor Bruce D. Chilton
CHILTON@BARD.EDU
Professor Jacob Neusner
JNEUSNER@LUNA.CAS.USF.EDU
Monday 10-12/Olin 304
Thursday 10-11/OLIN 302.
Purpose of the Course
The word "Judaism" is used to refer to a great many things, and in this course, we learn deal with the diversity of phenomena, the confusion of categories, and the problem of the rectification of names, that will bring some order and clarity to the matter. Specifically, we focus on not individual but corporate settings — public, communal, normative — in which the word "Judaism" is used to refer to a religious system, the group that embodies it, the beliefs and practices that they construe to realize their election to be "Israel," that is, "the Israel" of that particular system. Once a theoretical model of description, analysis, and explanation has emerged, the course deals with several successive Judaic religious systems (or "Judaisms"), the questions that they addressed and the answers their participants deemed self-evidently valid, and of greatest interest, the reason(s) that they succeeded in accomplishing their goals when they did, and the reasons that they failed to accomplish their goals, when they failed. Nearly all Judaisms over time have appealed to Scripture ("the Old Testament") and given a position of privilege to the Pentateuch ("the Torah," the five books of Moses); all Judaisms have offered a picture of exile and return; and each Judaism has framed its account of matters as the natural outcome of Scripture. But each Judaism — whether Rabbinic Judaism of late antiquity, competing with Christianity and winning the competition, or Reform Judaism in the nineteenth century, or Zionism in the twentieth century — framed its own theory of who and what is "Israel," and each defined its way of life and set forth its world view to explain itself. At issue then is, how to sort out the remarkably diverse and complex data all together called "Judaism" and to learn a model of analysis that will produce a few coherent paradigms.
The goal of this course is to make it possible for students to write a systematic essay, in answer to the question: "Define Judaism." The essay will deal with the diverse classifications of "Judaism" (religion, civilization, nationalism, ethnicity, "what the Jews believe") and will take account of various readings of "Judaism." The essay will further make use of the concept of "religious system," and take account of diverse Judaic religious systems over time, so defining Judaism as a set of kindred systems, each cogent as a self-evidently valid answer to an urgent question, that in times past and in our own day have set forth a way of life, world view, and theory of who and what is "Israel" — a Judaism.
Reading
Neusner, Way of Torah, sixth edition (Wadsworth)
Neusner, Signposts on the Way of Torah (Wadsworth)
A Bible (any clear, American translation)
Judith Baskin, Jewish Women in Historical Perspective (Wayne State Univ. Press)
Bruce D. Chilton, Jesus Prayer & Jesus Eucharist (Trinity Press International)
Abraham J. Heschel, The Sabbath
Elie Wiesel, Night
Additional readings will be distributed in class
Week
1. Monday, September 6 Introducing Judaism/JN
Reading: Way of Torah, sixth edition, pp. xi-xvi, 1-46
Signposts on the Way of Torah, pp. ix-xii, 1-6
Thursday, September 9 Introducing Judaism/JK
Review of course requirements and Monday’s assignment
2. Monday, September 13 The Heritage of Ancient Israel: The Prophets/BDC
Reading: to be announced
Thursday, September 16 The Heritage of Ancient Israel: The Prophets/BDC
Reading: to be announced
3. Monday, September 20 No Class. Yom Kippur
Thursday, September 23 The Heritage of Ancient Israel: The Prophets/BDC
Reading: to be announced
4. Monday, September 27 Second Temple Judaisms/BDC
Reading: to be announced
Thursday, September 30 Second Temple Judaisms/BDC
Reading: to be announced
5. Monday, October 4 Rabbinic Judaism: the Mishnah/JN
Reading: Way of Torah, sixth edition, pp. 47-63
Signposts on the Way of Torah, pp. 12-28
Thursday, October 7 Rabbinic Judaism: The Mishnah/JK
Reading: to be announced
Monday, October 11 and Thursday, October 14: No class, Reading week
6. Monday, October 18 Rabbinic Judaism: The Talmuds and Midrash/JK
Reading: Way of Torah, sixth edition, pp. 54-74, 99-108
The Essential Talmud, Part I, pp. 3-81
Encyclopaedia Judaica Vol. 15, pp. 750-768
Thursday, October 21 Rabbinic Judaism: The Talmuds and Midrash/JK
Signposts on the Way of Torah, pp. 29-43
Essential Talmud, Part III, pp. 221-272
7. Study Conference: Religious Belief and Economic Behavior, Saturday, October 23-Sunday, October 24: Students are expected to attend all the papers of this conference, two of which will be integral to the course.
8. Monday, October 25 Rabbinic Judaism: The System seen Whole/JN
Reading: Way of Torah, sixth edition, pp. 74-152
Signposts on the Way of Torah, pp. 44-96
Thursday, October 28 Rabbinic Judaism: The System seen Whole/JK
Women in Historical Perspective, pp. 68-94.
9. Monday, November 1 Christianity in the Context of Rabbinic Judaism/BDC
Reading: Way of Torah, sixth edition, pp. 36-46
Thursday, November 4 Christianity in the Context of Rabbinic Judaism/BDC
Reading: to be announced
10. Monday, November 8 Rabbinic Judaism: Philosophy and Mysticism/JK
Reading: Way of Torah, sixth edition, pp. 153-178
Signposts on the Way of Torah, pp. pp. 56-64, 76-82
Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, pp. 1-39.
Thursday, November 11 Rabbinic Judaism: Philosophy and Mysticism/JK
Reading: Signposts on the Way of Torah, pp. 104-114
Jewish Women in Historical Perspective, pp. 182-222
11. Monday, November 16 Reform Judaism/JN
Reading: Way of Torah, sixth edition, pp. 179-201
Signposts on the Way of Torah, pp. 97-132
Thursday, November 19 Reform Judaism/JK
Reading: Jewish Women in Historical Perspective, pp. 182-222
12. Monday, November 23: Women in Judaism/JK
Reading: Signposts on the Way of Torah, pp. 82-88.
On Being a Jewish Feminist, pp. 223-277
13. Monday, November 29 Orthodox Judaism. Conservative Judaism/JK
Reading: Way of Torah, sixth edition, pp. 202-224
Signposts on the Way of Torah, pp. 133-182
Thursday, December 2 Reconstructionist and Renewal/JK
Reading: Mordecai Kaplan, Judaism as a Civilization, pp. 409-413
Exploring Judaism: A Reconstructionist Approach, pp. 1-28
What is Jewish Renewal? A Definition in Process, pp. to be assigned
14. Monday, December 7 Zionism as a Judaism/JN
Reading: Signposts on the Way of Torah, pp. 249-304
Thursday, December 9 The Holocaust as an Event in Judaism/JK
Reading: Elie Wiesel, Night
15. Monday, December 14 The American Judaism of Holocaust and Redemption/JK
Reading: Way of Torah, sixth edition, pp. 225-262
Signposts on the Way of Torah, pp. 183-248, 305-343
Thursday, December 16 Seeing Judaism in Perspective/JK