Department of Ancient Near Eastern and Jewish Studies
University of Minnesota
178 Klaeber Court
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455
612-376-4866
Spring, 1986
Professor Tzvee Zahavy
This course teaches the student how to undertake the critical study of selected rabbinic texts. This quarter the course focuses on selected medieval rabbinic texts out of the works of Maimonides (1135-1204). The course examines the content of several major works and traces the sources of authority and the history of ideas in the materials back to Scripture, the Mishnah, the Babylonian Talmud and other rabbinic sources. The course introduces the student to the tools necessary for the study of these texts and guides the student in the explanation and analysis of selected pericopae.
Each student will be assigned specific texts from the selected materials and prepare an explanation of the selection to be presented first in class and later in writing to the instructor.
Grading: ABC/NC or S/N. S=C or better. No incompletes.
Texts:
Moses Maimonides
1. Treatise on Resurrection
2. Epistle to Yemen
3. Responsa
Selections from the texts will be available for duplication atKinko's.
Hebrew Editions:
"Letters of Rabbenu Moshe Ben Maimon", ed. M.D. Rabinovitch
"Letters of Rabbenu Moshe Ben Maimon", ed. Y. Kapah
"Rabbenu Moshe Ben Maimon: Responsa", ed. Y. Blau
Selected Secondary Readings:
J. I. Dienstag, "Eschatology in Maimonidean Thought"
F. Rosner, "Moses Maimonides' Treatise on Resurrection"
L. Stitskin, "Letters of Maimonides"
I. Twersky, "A Maimonides Reader"