Department of Religious Studies
Miriam Dean-Otting 

Department of Religious Studies
Kenyon College

Miriam Dean-Otting	PBX 5655
Ascension 124	deanotting@kenyon.edu

Office Hours and Consultation

For brief consultations, please see me just before or right after class. I am also available for longer meetings during my office hours. E-mail is the least preferred form of communication and should be used judiciously.

If you have a physical, psychological, medical or learning disability that may affect your ability to carry out assigned course work, I urge you to contact the Office of Disability Services at 5453. The Coordinator of Disability Services, Erin Salva (salvae@kenyon.edu) will review your concerns and determine, with you, what accommodations are appropriate. After your meeting with Erin Salva, please see me to discuss accommodations and learning needs.

I. COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course will explore Jewish life and thought in the modern world while contexualizing this focus in the ancient sources of Judaism. It is assumed that each of you has something to offer the course and that you are committed to learning together, developing both as individuals and as a group. The format of the course will be lecture and discussion with large emphasis placed on student participation. No class meeting will be devoted entirely to a lecture and many classes will be spent entirely in discussion. You are required to bring questions to every class meeting to help prepare you to participate in discussions.

An excellent guide for background reading in history is Robert Seltzer's Jewish People, Jewish Thought. For essays on Jewish texts, Barry Holtz's Back to the Sources is recommended. In the reference section of the library are two useful tools, The Encyclopedia of Religion (ER) and The Encyclopedia Judaica (EJ). The contemporary journal, Tikkun, also found in the library, is one you should peruse. Explore the periodical section of the library for Jewish Studies journals.

Assignment: During the course of the semester find and evaluate one web site related to modern Judaism and evaluate one journal.

Required Reading
In the bookstore:
Michael Fishbane, Judaism
Lawrence Fine , ed., Judaism in Practice
Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Sabbath: Its Meaning for Modern Man
The Shalom Seders
Jacob Neusner, Judaism in Modern Times: An Introduction and Reader
Barbara Myerhoff, Number Our Days

On E-Res and/or on Course Reserve (CR):
Kravitz and Olitzky, Pirke Avot: A Modern Commentary on Jewish Ethics, ch. 1
Cohen and Mendes-Flohr, eds., Contemporary Jewish Religious Texts (CR)
San Diego Women's Haggadah
TANAKH-the Holy Scriptures (CR)
Harper-Collins Study Bible (CR)
All books available for purchase are also on course reserve.

Course Requirements and Grading

A. Regular attendance (one unexcused absence); timely completion of reading and writing assignments and active participation in class discussions and group assignments. (25%)

B. Writing Assignments All writing is due on the date announced. Missed due dates will result in grade penalties unless properly excused. I do not consider e-mail requests for extensions and no extensions will be given for items 1 and 2 listed below. Please plan accordingly. Carefully read and follow my Guidelines, which will be distributed early in the semester, and review the College rules on Academic Honesty (see pp. 24-27 in the Course of Study). Please keep copies of all your writing until the end of the semester.

1. Come to class each meeting with 1-3 written questions or brief observations on the reading. These will serve as a guide for discussion. They will occasionally be collected.

2. There are 5 short writing assignments (response essays) due during weeks designated in the syllabus. These 1-2 page, single-spaced, typed essays should be immediate, yet polished, responses to the primary source readings under discussion on the day you turn your essay in. DO NOT write about Fishbane in these essays. Please number your essays. (5% each)

3. One Longer Essay or Book Review (7-8 pages with bibliography) (25%) Note the schedule of due dates in the syllabus. All submissions should be placed in the box on my office door. No e-mail submissions, please.

With both options you are expected to explore issues that relate to the course, but at the same time you should be extending yourself beyond the assigned material. Books for the review option should be chosen from a list that I will hand out soon. If you have another title in mind, please see me.

William Strunk and E.B. White's The Elements of Style is recommended reading for all who are interested in polishing their writing.

C. Final Examination Tuesday, May 7th at 9:30 a.m. (25%)

Course Outline

Weeks 1-2
Rosen, The Talmud and the Internet
http://www.cad.architektur.tu-darmstadt.de/synagogen/inter/menu.html
Fine, Judaism in Practice, ch. 7: "Honey Cakes and Torah: A Jewish Boy Learns His Letters"

response essay due no later than1/24

Weeks 2-3
History and Terms
Fishbane, Judaism, Chronology of Jewish History and Ch. I
Biblical origins of important Jewish rituals (handout: Central Passages in the Torah)
Circumcision
Covenant
The Shema (handout)
Tallith and Mezuzzah
The Sabbath (handout)
Dietary Restrictions
Biblical origins of fundamental Jewish ethics and mitzvoth

Recommended reading: Contemporary Jewish Religious Thought, articles on Torah, Covenant, Commandments, Holiness (course reserve)
Note: You may submit a response essay on one of these readings.

Weeks 4-5
The Rabbinic foundation
Fine, Introduction, 1-16
Fishbane, Ch. II, 30-82
http://www.ucalgary.ca/~elsegal/TalmudPage.html
Pirke Avot: A Modern Commentary on Jewish Ethics, ch. 1 (E-Res and CR)
Fine, Judaism in Practice, ch. 11, "Moses Maimonides' Laws of Study of the Torah", ch. 16, "The Love of Learning among Polish Jews"

response essay due no later than 2/19

Weeks 5-6
The Annual Cycle: Holy Days and minor festivals
Fishbane, ch. III, 83-113;
Fine, Judaism in Practice, Appendix, ch. 1 "Communal Prayer and Liturgical Poetry", ch. 2 "Italian Jewish Women at Prayer" and ch. 3 "Measuring Graves and Laying Wicks"

SUBMIT PAPER TOPIC OR BOOK REVIEW TITLE
Friday 2/22 by 4:30
Make an appointment to consult with me.

Week 7
The Sabbath
Heschel, The Sabbath: Its Meaning for Modern Man

response essay due in class no later than 2/28

SUBMIT BIBLIOGRAPHY
Friday 3/1 by 4:30

<<SPRING BREAK>>

Week 8
Jewish Men and Women in the Early Modern Period
Fine, Judaism in Practice, Introduction, 16-20, ch. 35 "Leon Modena's Autobiography," ch. 37 "The Life of Glikl of Hameln," ch. 38 "Israel ben Eliezer, the Baal Shem Tov" and ch. 39 "The Scholarly Life of the Gaon of Vilna"

response essay due in class no later than 3/21



**OPTIONAL(but highly recommended): outline or other evidence of organization due no later than Friday, 4/5 at noon**


Weeks 9-11
Responses to Modernity: The Branches of Judaism
Neusner, Judaism in Modern Times
Introduction
ch. 1 "The Challenge of the Secular Age" 23-51
ch. 2 "Reform Judaism" 52-72
ch. 3 "Orthodox Judaism" 73-98
ch. 4 "Conservative Judaism" 99-121
ch. 6 "Zionism" 158-182

LONGER ESSAY OR BOOK REVIEW DUE
Friday, 4/12 at 4:30
Weeks 12-13
Passover
The Shalom Seders and the Women's Haggadah (E-Res and CR)
Group study and panel-led discussions
Seder for Yom Ha-Shoah
Seder for Thanksgiving in response to 9/11/01

response essay due in class no later than 4/23; Note: this essay should address, perhaps comparatively, one of the haggadahs for which you did not sit on a panel.

Week 14

Secular Jews
Myerhoff, Number Our Days

Final Examination (essays and identifications) Tuesday, May 7th at 9:30 a.m.