ANCH 006B. The Talmud

(Cross-listed as RELG 006B)
This course introduces students to the academic study of the Babylonian Talmud (Bavli) - and through it, the academic study of Judaism. Through close, critical, and engaged readings of both brief selections and more lengthy pasages, the course not only explores the vast seas of the Bavli but also considers the Bavli’s foundational place within Judaism and its importance to Jewish tradition. We begin by reading selections of the Talmud that both seek to situate the material in its immediate historical-literary contexts and to explore current points of relevance. We proceed to a close reading of one sugya (passage) and then spread out to examine some specific topics, focusing on rabbinic constructions of gender and rabbinic theology. The close readings of texts are supplemented by contemporary scholarship on the Talmud and the rabbis of antiquity. Finally, we read two contemporary mediations on Judaism that use the Talmud as their “anchor,” their point of reference.
Humanities.
Writing course.
1 credit.
Eligible for ANCH, CLST, GSST, RELG
Catalog chapter: Classics
Department website: http://www.swarthmore.edu/classics

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