Session II

Tuesday, May 28-Thursday, June 27

Unless otherwise indicated, Session II and III courses are taught at the graduate level in English, using texts in the original, although translations are generally available. Each course earns 3 credits. Session II and III courses meet three days every week (Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday), except for holidays.

All Session II courses are open to participants in the Summer Learners Program.

TAL5213: Talmudic Stories
Jeffrey Rubenstein, 9:30-11:20 a.m.

The purpose of this course is twofold. First, to improve the skills needed to read and comprehend Talmudic texts, especially narrative and aggadic passages. Second, to introduce students to contemporary methods of analyzing Talmudic stories. Improvement of skills will be done by having students prepare Talmudic passages (sugyot), outline their structures, identify technical terms, and acquire the rudiments of Aramaic grammar. Student will be exposed to contemporary methods through reading and discussing articles and chapters of books that exemplify these methods, which include structuralism, new criticism, new historicism, and folklore.

BIB 5015: Biblical Sages and Their Texts: Wisdom Literature
David Marcus, 1:30-3:20 p.m.

A survey of the wisdom literature of the Hebrew Bible: the book of Proverbs, with its traditional philosophy of wisdom; the book of Job, which questions the prevailing views of theodicy; and the book of Qohelet (Ecclesiastes), which represents antiestablishment views of traditional wisdom. Study wisdom in action with wise women, wise courtiers, and wise kings.

LIT/JGW 5171: Images of Women in Jewish Literature
Anne Lapidus Lerner, 5:30-7:20 p.m.

This course is a thematic study of images of women in selected works of Jewish literature, ranging from the biblical period to the present, written in various languages. Themes to be discussed include women and the family, women in times of external threat, women as threat, and the independent woman. In the course of the semester, we will have ample opportunity to examine issues of agency and voice, rebellion and acquiescence, alterity, and stereotyping in the ways that woman are portrayed. We will examine instances of intertextuality and trace several traditions in the portrayal of women.

HIS/MJS 5504: Jewish Humor in History and Culture
Edward Portnoy, 3:30-5:20 p.m.

A distinct Jewish humor is one of the best known products of modern Jewish culture. This course will trace the development of a specifically Jewish humor from the folklore of the shtetls of Eastern Europe to the domination of the humor industry in the United States, and includes side trips to Western Europe, the USSR, and Israel.