The Jewish Theological Seminary of America
LIT 5031 INTRODUCTION TO JEWISH LITURGY
Syllabus Fall 2009
Professor Tzvee Zahavy
Description: In this course we will study the weekday Jewish prayer services. We will analyze their structure, content, historical development, phenomenology, sociology, psychology and theology. We will disassemble the components of Jewish liturgy, and reassemble them to see how they constitute complex definitions of Judaism.
Book to purchase for classroom use:
The Koren Sacks Siddur: A Hebrew/English Prayerbook, (Any Size - Hebrew Edition) by Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks
Books by your instructor available to you in digital form through these links and Blackboard:
The Mishnaic Law of Blessings and Prayers: Tractate Berakhot, Brown University Judaic Studies
The Talmud of the Land of Israel: Tractate Berakhot, University of Chicago Press
Studies in Jewish Prayer, Studies in Judaism, UPA [= SJP]
Other books, on reserve in the library and available online (indicated in the course outline as a Suppl. Reading):
Ismar Elbogen, Jewish Liturgy: A Comprehensive History. JTS, 1993.
Joseph Heinemann, Prayer in the Talmud. 1977.
Lawrence Hoffman, My People's Prayer Book: The Amidah. Jewish Lights, 1998.
Reuven Hammer, Entering Jewish Prayer. Schocken, 1994.
Max Kadushin, Worship and Ethics.
Stephen Schach, The Structure of the Siddur. Jason Aronson, 1996.
Leon Wieseltier, Kaddish. Knopf, 1999.
Requirements: Classroom attendance and participation. Regular and substantive contributions to discussions on Blackboard.
Essay assignments (submitted through the Blackboard assignment manager):
Four or Five short topical essays of 700-1000 words.
One final synthetic essay of 1200-1500 words.
There will be a standard option and a creative option for you to choose from for each assignment.
There will be no examinations.
Your assignments and postings must demonstrate that you completed and understood the assigned reading materials of this course syllabus and the lectures of this course.
You are not permitted to use Wikipedia or any other Internet or digital resources for your assignments.
Strict policy of no incompletes. The instructor is an adjunct professor, teaching this course for the duration of this semester. As such, he will not accept your late assignments and will not assign to you a grade of incomplete in this course.
You are responsible for consulting Blackboard regularly for:
Your weekly assignments, actual required and supplementary readings, prayer texts to analyze, and discussion boards
To submit all of your assignments
The following is your initial syllabus for the course. Your detailed weekly course schedule will be posted on Blackboard.
Zahavy, SJP, chapter I. Methods for the Analysis of Early Jewish Prayer
Ashrei and Alenu
Background article: Zahavy, “Judaism: The Mishnaic Period”
"Tosefta Tractate Berakhot." Chapter one in The Tosefta Translated from the Hebrew. First Division. Zera`im, ed. J. Neusner and R. Sarason, KTAV, New York , 1986.
"Mishnah Tractate Berakhot." Chapter one in The Mishnah. A New American Translation, ed. J. Neusner, Yale University Press, New Haven , 1988 (Zahavy with Alan Avery-Peck).
"The Mishnaic Law of Blessings and Prayers," = Part One: Mishnah-Tosefta Berakhot in The Law of Agriculture in the Mishnah and the Tosefta: Translation, Commentary, Theology. Handbook of Oriental Studies. Section 1, the Ancient near East. ed. Jacob Neusner. Brill Academic Pub (November 1, 2005), pp. 399-574
Zahavy, SJP, chapter II. The Beginnings of Rabbinic Prayer: Textual Evidence
_____, chapter III. The Formative age: Berakhot Before 70
_____, chapter IV. The Age of Internal Conflicts, Self-definition and Transition: Berakhot at Yavneh
_____, chapter V. The Age of Standardization and Systematization: Berakhot at Usha
_____, chapter VI. The Mishnah-Redactor's Unified Theory of Prayer and Blessings
_____, chapter VII. The World of Early Rabbinic Prayer
Artson, Bradley Shavit. Barukh ha-Shem (Suppl. Reading)
All the Blessings; the Birkat Hamazon
Zahavy Article: "The Politics of Piety: Social Conflict and the Emergence of Rabbinic Liturgy," in The Making of Jewish and Christian Worship , ed. L. Hoffman and P. Bradshaw, Notre Dame University Press, 1991. [Based on a paper presented at a Symposium at the University of Notre Dame, 1988.]
Zahavy, SJP, chapter IX. The Scribal Influence on Prayer: The Shema`
Zahavy, "Political and Social Dimensions in the Formation of Early Jewish Prayer: the Case of the Shema`," in the Proceedings of the Tenth World Congress of Jewish Studies , Jerusalem, Division C, Vol. 1, pp. 33-40, Jerusalem, 1990.
The Shema and its blessings
Zahavy, SJP, chapter X. Priestly and Patriarchal Influences on Prayer: The Eighteen Blessings
Bickerman, Elias J. The Civic Prayer For Jerusalem. (Suppl. Reading)
Zahavy Article: “How Society Shaped the Liturgy of the Scribes, Priests and Rabbis,” in When Judaism and Christianity Began: Essays in Memory of Anthony J. Saldarini, Brill Academic Publishers (2004)
Elbogen, Ismar. Jewish Liturgy, TBA (Suppl. Reading)
The Amidah
Zahavy, SJP, chapter XI. From Temple to Synagogue: The Hallel in Early Rabbinic Judaism
Hoffman, Lawrence. Beyond the Text (Suppl. Reading)
Jacobson, B.S. Meditations (Suppl. Reading)
Hallel
Psukei dzimra
Shir shel yom
Zahavy, SJP, chapter VIII. The Synagogue in Mishnah, Tosefta and the Talmud of the Land of Israel
Langer, Ruth. From Study of Scripture to a Reenactment of Sinai (Suppl. Reading)
Blank, The Use of B'rakhot around the Torah Recitation, TBA
The Synagogue Torah Service
Zahavy, SJP, chapter XII. The Psychology of Early Rabbinic Prayer
Zahavy, " Kavvanah (Concentration) for Prayer in the Mishnah and the Talmud," in New Perspectives on Ancient Judaism , Lanham, 1987. [Based on a paper delivered December 2, 1985, at the Bar Ilan University Talmud Department, Departmental Seminar, Ramat Gan , Israel ]
Zahavy, "Altered States of Consciousness: Prayer in the Mishnah," The Reconstructionist, Vol. LIII, No. 6, April/May 1988.
Zahavy, "Three Stages in the Development of Early Rabbinic Prayer," in The Festschrift for Marvin Fox, Brown Judaic Studies, 1989, vol. I, pp. 233-265.
Wieseltier, Leon. Kaddish (Suppl. Reading)
The Kaddish
Zahavy, SJP, chapter XIII. A Rabbinic Compendium on Prayer: The Editorial Structure of the Talmud of the Land of Israel Tractate Berakhot
Zahavy, Yerushalmi Berakhot, TBA
Heinemann, Joseph. Prayer in the Talmud, TBA
Hoffman, TBA
Kimmelman, TBA
Solovetchik, Worship of the Heart: Essays on Jewish Prayer, TBA
Kadushin, Max. Worship and Ethics (Suppl. Reading)
Jewish Prayer Bibliography (1990)