JEWISH STUDIES

L'insegnamento ricade tra gli insegnamenti caratterizzanti del curriculum del corso "Lingue, Culture e Società dell'Asia e dell'Africa Mediterranea". I suoi obiettivi formativi rientrano nell'area di apprendimento delle competenze linguistiche.

Students will be introduced to Jewish culture and piety from antiquity to the early modern age through the analysis of some core themes and texts from ancient and late antique Judaism and Christianity.

Communicating capabilities:
- capability to express and process the contents of the course and the topic of the papers in written form (in Italian or in English for non-Italian speaking students).

Learning capabilities:
- efficiently taking lecture notes in classroom;
- critically integrating different teaching materials (class notes, slides, handbooks, academic papers);
- independent, critical study of course-related topics not dealt in class;
- improving the student's capability to read and process materials in English.

No previous knowledge of Hebrew is required, though literary and documentary sources on ancient, late antique and medieval Judaism will be analysed and discussed with reference to the Hebrew, Aramaic, and Hebrew originals.

Judaism or Judaisms?
History of ancient Israel.
The formative period of rabbinic Judaism.
Rabbinic hermeneutics of Scripture.
Rabbinic prayer.
Sanctity and morals according to the rabbis.
Jewish religious law.
Trends in Jewish mysticism from antiquity to the early modern age.

Mandatory readings:
1) G. Stemberger, "Introduzione all'ebraistica", trad.ital. Morcelliana, Brescia 2013.
2) U. Eco, "Come si fa una tesi di laurea. Le materie umanistiche", Bompiani, Milano 1977 e ristampe, oppure M. Centanni - C. Daniotti - A. Pedersoli, "Istruzioni per scrivere una tesi,
un paper, un saggio", Bruno Mondadori, Milano 2004.
3) M. Birattari, "Come si fa il tema", Feltrinelli, Milano 2017.

The final evaluation mark will depend on:
50 % - attendance to classes and participation to discussion in class;
50 % - evaluation of paper(s), considering in particular i) correctness of expression in Italian (or English) and ii) observance of the editorial rules explained in Eco's and/or Centanni's handbooks indicated in the Bibliography.

The list of suggested topics and bibliographies for papers will be made available to students via mailing list at the beginning of the teaching term. Papers are required i) to be in Word format, ii) not to exceed 30.000 characters (spaces included; front pages, summaries, and bibliographies are excluded from the count), and iii) to observe the editorial indications and rules for quoting bibliography explained in Eco's and/or Centanni's handbooks (mandatory readings)

Student attending also the course of Letteratura ebraica 1 (Hebrew Literature 1) are required to submit only one paper for both courses.

Students non attending classes are required to submit two papers.

Classroom lectures with seminar discussion of the topics.

Italian

written