THE JEWS: HISTORY, CULTURE, AND RELIGION

The class “The Jews: History, Culture, and Religion” is part of the formative activities of the M.A. degree in “Ancient Civilizations for the Cobntemporary World”. The formative goal of the class is offering the students a detailed overview of Jewish Studies and of the most important events of the religious and cultural history of the Jews from antiquity to the early modern era through the analysis of themes and texts that represent the various expression of ancient, late-antique, medieval and early modern Judaism. Students will develop analytical skills and a critical thinking which will allow them to recognize central themes in the millenarian history of the Jewish people, to identify the many inter-cultural and inter-religious contacts between the Jews and their neighbors over time, as well as to understand the relevance of Jewish culture within the history of the Near and Middle East and in the European area.

Knowledge abilities on the course:

At the end of the course, students will:

- orientate themselves in the cultural and religious history of the Jews from antiquity to the early modern era;
- be familiar with the festivities, the most important texts, and the fundamental terminology/concepts of Judaism;
- recognize the major trends in Jewish thought and the central questions of Jewish history in relation also to the neighboring cultures;
- know: (a) to examine material and textual Hebrew sources from antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the early modern era, which are relevant for studying Jewish history; (b) to contextualize these materials, and (c) to relate them one with another, in comparison also with coeval texts and archaeological materials of non-Jewish origin.

Communicative and learning abilities:

Students will learn to:

- read and critically elaborate the reading materials proposed during the lessons and assigned in preparation;
- autonomously study topics not covered during frontal lessons;
- understand academic contents in English and read scientific papers/books in English;
- know the terminology, themes of, and the fundamental approaches to Jewish Studies, in order to orientate themselves in the field at both a conceptual and historical level;
- develop a clarity which will enable them to autonomously formulate evaluations and interpretations of the course-related topics with the appropriate terminology.

No particular prerequisite are required.

The class introduces the students to Jewish Studies and to the different methodologies developed by scholars for attaining a religious-historical analysis of the themes and texts relevant to Judaism, thus examining Bible criticism, rabbinic philology, archaeology, art history, manuscript studies, lived religion, etc. After a first introductory lecture on the history and historiography of Judaism, the students will be presented with the most relevant events in Jewish history, as well as with its most important literary and artistic expressions. The approach will be chronological – from ancient Israel to the early modern era – but with attention also to analogous phenomena which developed diachronically in the different parts of the Jewish diaspora.

Lesson 1: Introduction
- Judaism/Judaism(s)
- Jewish Studies
- Biblical canon

Lesson 2: The religion of Israel before the exile
- Biblical archaeology/ Bible criticism
- Prophetism

Lesson 3-4: Second Temple Judaism
- The Babylonian exile
- First and second Sadocitism
- The encounter with Hellenism
- Jewish sectarianism (Philo, Flavius Josephus)
- Qumran

Lesson 5-8: Late antique Judaism
- The rise of the rabbis
- Mishnah
- Palestinian and Babylonian Talmud
- Midrash
- Halakhah and haggadah
- Elements of non-rabbinic Judaism
- Piyyut

Lesson 9-11: Medieval Judaism
- The Jews in Palestine and in the Islamic Countries
- The Cairo Genizah
- The Massorah and the Leningrad codex
- Religious poetry
- Religious philosophy: Maimonides
- The Jews in medieval Europe
- Rashi

Lesson 12-13: Early modern Judaism
- The blood libel and the case of Simon of Trent
- The age of ghettos
- Crypto-Judaism

Lesson 14-15: Major trends in Jewish mysticism
- From Hekhalot to Sefer Yeṣirah
- Mosheh de León
- Abraham Abulafia
- Isaac Luria and Ḥaiym Vital
- Shabbetay Zevi

Mandatory readings:
- Gunter Stemberger, “Introduzione all'ebraistica,” It. trans., Morcelliana, Brescia 2013.
- Other texts and didactic material will be provided by the lecturer on the website of the course.

The final grade is obtained as follows:

40 % - attendance to classes and active participation in class discussions.
60 % - oral exam which examines the historical-cultural knowledge of the topics presented in class and in the preparatory readings.

The course includes 40 hours of frontal didactics alternated with readings of primary sources and discussions/exam of the topics presented in class and treated in the assigned reading material.

English

oral