World Religions

Lecture Outline for Quiz #2: Judaism

Fall 2001

General description of Judaism

orthodoxy vs. orthopraxy
Modern categories
Observant (Orthodox)
Hasidism
Conservative
Reform (PS2 joke)
Reconstructionist

Historical survey

Ancient Israelite religion
Ancient Mesopotamian religion
Destruction of the temple
Early (2nd Temple) Judaism
Canon
Hellenistic Jewish sects
Destruction of the 2nd Temple
Emergence of Rabbinic Judaism
Talmud
Mishna
Gemarra
Midrash
Interpretation of Law
Halakhah

Oral vs. Written tradition

Pharisees vs. Sadducees
Oral nature of the Mishna / Talmud
Tradition of it's antiquity
Questions of accuracy of oral traditions

Issues address in the Mishna / Talmud

Maintenance of traditions Temple practice
Question of whether 'Rabbis' were Pharisees or Sadducees
Questions of legal conflict
Qorban
Jesus vs. Pharisees
Drowning woman
'Building a fence around the Law'
Cooking on the Sabbath
Kashrut

More Historical survey

Post-talmudic Judaism
Maimonides
Rashi
Mendelssohn
Mystical Judaism
Kabala
Zohar
Baal Shem Tov
Modern Hasidism
Judaism in the crucible of its children
History of Christian relations
Pogrom
Holocaust
Kabala and alchemy
History of Muslim relations
Sabbatai Zvi
Issues in Modern Israel
Varieties of modern Judaism
Reform
Orthodox
Conservative
Reconstructionist