Time Schedule:
Hillel Gamoran
RELIG 490
Seattle Campus
Topics vary with each offering.
Class description
Students can expect to learn what the talmudic literature is like and what the Sages of the talmudic period thought about a number of life and death issues. No other work reflects the thought and practice of the Jewish people in late antiquity as does the Talmud. The Talmud is a book of law, but it is more. It is a book of logic and reason, of religion and ethics, of business and family relations. It deals with picayune matters and with profound issues. This course will explore the Talmud’s laws concerning matters of life and death: birth, abortion, capital punishment, euthanasia and suicide. We will also investigate how the Talmud was created and edited and what are its main literary characteristics. The text used in this three credit course will be an English translation of the Talmud. Two additional credits (HEBR 490) will be offered to those students who come an extra hour during the week to study the text in its original languages, Hebrew and Aramaic
Student learning goals
General method of instruction
The method of instruction is lecture/discussion and reading of the talmudic text.
Recommended preparation
Class assignments and grading
