EC2052  THEOLOGICAL HERMENEUTICS OF THE TALMUD (A.Y. 2023/2024)

• Accademic Unit

  Centre Cardinal Bea for Judaic Studies

• Course

  Licentiate in Judaic Studies and Jewish-Christian relations , Annual Diploma in Judaic Studies and Jewish-Christian relations

Objectives: To introduce the students to the method and hermeneutics of the Talmud.

Content: The Talmud is the most central textual witness of Rabbinic thinking. It is in its hermeneutical debates and intricacies that the theology and ideology of the Rabbis is to be found. This class will aim, through the study of selected Talmudic texts dealing with the value of human life and the responsibility of human existence (two topics in Theological Anthropology), at giving the students an opportunity to familiarize themselves with Talmudic logic and discover in the constant flow of Talmudic arguments the vivacity and depth of rabbinic thinking.

Methodology: Knowledge of basic Hebrew will facilitate the understanding of this class but is not a requirement. The Talmudic texts will be given in English translation. As the Talmud is mainly a debate and an exchange of opinion as recorded by the various rabbinic schools of thoughts, it will be expected for the students to debate among themselves and with the lecturer the selected Talmudic texts.

Evaluation: The evaluation will take the form of a paper (elaborato), details of which will be discussed individually with the students.

• Information
• Teachers
• Lesson schedule/Room
• Bibliography

Information

• Semestre: 1° Semestre
• ECTS: 4

Teachers

David MEYER

Lesson schedule/Room

Semester	Day	From	To	Room	Floor	Building	Notes
1° Semestre	Mercoledì	15.00	15.45	T302	3	Traspontina
1° Semestre	Mercoledì	16.00	16.45	T302	3	Traspontina

Bibliography

• D. KRAEMER, The Mind of the Talmud: An Intellectual History of the Bavli, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1990; D. BOYARIN, A Traveling Homeland: The Babylonian Talmud As Diaspora, Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015; E. FONROBERT – M.S. JAFFEE (ed), The Cambridge Companion to the Talmud and Rabbinic Literature. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2007; M.-A. OUAKNIN, The Burnt Book: Reading the Talmud, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1998; J.L. RUBENSTEIN, The Culture of the Babylonian Talmud, Baltimore, The John Hopkins University Press, 2003.