Spertus | Jewish Studies

Jewish Studies Links

Contact

Phone 312.322.1769
Jewishstudies@spertus.edu

A variety of classes and public programs take place in the evening and on Sunday. See our calendar of events for more details.

Include quotes from students about what they got from studying at Spertus

To order videos

please contact Natasha Tribble at 312.322.1726 or ntribble@spertus.edu.

The videos play on standard VCRs.

Jewish Studies | Current Students

Distance Learning Video Courses

Available as of Fall 2006

Core Courses

The Religion of Biblical Israel (3 qh)
This course is a study of the nature of the biblical faith, its presuppositions, its teachings and institutions. The belief system of ancient Israel was not formed in a day nor did it emerge instantaneously as a codified teaching. The Bible is a testimony to the long and difficult process it underwent to reach its final formation.

This course will introduce you to the biblical world, a world consisting of many diverse cultures, multiple ideologies, contradicting self-interest groups, and varied social dynamics. You will become aware of the fact that Israel’s world was not an isolated one, but, rather, a world in concert with the intellectual, social and political environment of the Ancient Near East. You will be sensitized to the fact that faith is a process, impacted by time and by social and economic changes. And, most of all, you will be challenged to rethink your views on the nature of biblical literature: a literature that not only professes faith, but which also portrays faith and its strengths.

Among the objectives of this course are:

Learn about the major institutions of the religious life of ancient Israel. These include: the Temple, the priesthood, prophecy, the sacrificial cult, the biblical calendar, and biblical prayer.
Understand the process of the canonization of Hebrew Scripture.
Learn how biblical religion dealt with issues of theological concern, including: monotheism, God, covenant, evil, prophecy, eschatology, revelation, and the people of Israel.
Acquaint yourself with the nature and structure of the Hebrew Scriptures.
Recognize the major characteristics of biblical law, narrative, poetry, and "wisdom literature."

Medieval Judaism (3 qh)
This course deals with the development of Judaism from the closing of the Talmud and the rise of Islam in the6th and 7th centuries until the "Jewish Emancipation" in western Europe in the 18th century. Medieval Judaism builds upon the foundation established by the religion of biblical Israel and subsequently by the Talmudic rabbis, but with distinct features that characterize the nature and the agenda of Judiasm in this period. These features and this agenda demonstrate both the continuity of medieval Judaism with the Judaism that came before it, and its unique features. In our investigation, we examine what distinguished medieval Judaism from earlier and later expressions of Judaism. A critical part of this investigation will be an investigation of six genres of medieval Jewish thought and literature. These are: medieval Jewish philosophy, medieval Jewish mysticism, medieval Jewish biblical exegesis, Jewish law in the medieval period, Jewish ethical literature (musar), and Jewish liturgy in the medieval period.

Among the objectives for this course are:

Learn how the agenda and presuppositions of rabbinic and medieval Judaism differ.
Learn the major distinguishing characteristics of medieval Judaism.
Recognize the names and significance of major thinkers and works produced by medieval Judaism.
Learn about the emergence of Jewish philosophy in the Middle Ages.
Learn about the nature of medieval Jewish mysticism.
Learn about the major literary genre and approaches of medieval Jewish law, biblical exegesis, and ethical literature (sifrut ha musar).
Understand significant ideological differences between Ashkenazic and Sephardic Jewry and their implications for the development of medieval Judaism.
Learn about how the encounter of Judaism with Christianity and Islam affected the nature and agenda of medieval Judaism.

Modern Judaism (3 qh)
Since the social and political "Emancipation" of west European Jewry in the late 18th century, American and European Jews have responded to the challenges of modernity in multifaceted ways. See how and why this was done. Learn how various forms of modern Judaism developed, including neo Orthodoxy, Conservative Judaism, Reform Judaism, and Reconstructionist Judaism. Explore how these diverse developments relate to the quandaries, conflicts, and challenges confronting the contemporary Jewish community.

Among the objectives for this course are:

Learn how the agendas and the presuppositions of medieval and modern Judaism differ.
Understand the effects of "Emancipation" and "Enlightenment" and the formation of "nation states" on modern Judaism.
Understand the significance of the "Jewish Problem" (Judenfrage) for the development of modern Judaism.
Learn about the ideological and historical roots in Europe and later development in America of Reform, Conservative, and Neo Orthodox Judaism.
Learn about Reconstructionist Judaism and other ideological movements and developments in American Judaism.
Learn about the role of Zionism in modern and contemporary Judaism.
Become acquainted with the names and significance of major modern Jewish religious thinkers.
Become acquainted with the effect of the Holocaust and the State of Israel upon modern and contemporary Judaism.

Jewish Theology (3 qh)
People interested in Judaism want to know about Jewish theology, i.e., they want to know which are the fundamental ideas that Judaism teaches, how those ideas and beliefs have been formulated and developed through Judaism’s history, and how they relate to the quest for meaningful Jewish existence today.

Students in this course will:

Understand the nature and agendas that characterize Jewish theology.
Learn how Jewish theological discourse has addressed the major problems that have characterized Jewish theology from the biblical to the modern period, including: God, evil, dogma, faith, ethics, law (halakhah), revelation, prophecy, human nature, the people of Israel, and eschatology.
Recognize the names and significance of major Jewish religious thinkers, movements, and ideologies.

Concentration/Elective Courses

Encountering the Holocaust (4.5 qh)
To study the Holocaust is to encounter the darkest and the bleakest chapter in the long history of the Jewish people. The Holocaust caused the destruction not only of six million “worlds,” but also of the 1,000-year culture of eastern European Jewry. The Holocaust represents a challenge and a tragedy for non-Jews as well as for Jews. It raises profound ethical, moral, and theological questions.

This course begins by examining the uniqueness of this catastrophe, not to create a hierarchy of suffering but rather to focus on the unprecedented quasi-religious nature of this mass extermination. The course then covers the long term, short term, and immediate causes of the Holocaust, outlines its unfolding and the historical controversies surrounding its implementation. Included is a discussion of the concentration camp system that has surpassed Dante's hell as the epitome of evil and suffering. The focus of the course then shifts to the mentality of the perpetrators of the crime, the behavior of the victims (including an exploration of why the question — "How could the Jews have allowed themselves to be destroyed?" — is the wrong question), and the response of the outside world. There is also a discussion of the non-Jewish victims of the Nazis and the motivations of Holocaust rescuers.

Jewish Ethics (3 qh)
Ethics deals with human behavior — with why we choose to act or not to act in a certain way. Ethics is relevant to our daily lifestyles — to how we live as parents, children, workers, colleagues, friends, and spouses. It relates to our most cherished relationships and to how each of us goes about the mission of human existence — creating each of our lives as a work of art.

Precisely because ethics touches so many aspects of our individual and social lives, it is not possible to deal with all ethical problems and issues within the parameters of a single course. In this course you will see how contemporary Jewish ethicists have applied the wisdom of the past to the perplexities of the present, dealing with issues such as abortion, euthanasia, hostage situations, parent-child relations, and economic justice.

Jewish Mysticism (3 qh)
Jewish mysticism in Hebrew is kabbalah — meaning "that which is received." Such receiving can be both passive and active.

This course is structured around four specific questions:

What characterizes the Jewish mystical tradition?
What is the "vocabulary" and "grammar" of the language and concepts of the Jewish mystical tradition?
What are the goals of the enterprise of Jewish mysticism?
What techniques have been developed by Jewish mystical tradition to attain these goals?

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