• December 3, 2023
  • 19 5784, Kislev
  • פרשת וישלח

Intellectual Jewish History

Intellectual Jewish History

This class looks at essential Jewish thinkers and texts from the Second Temple until the Modern period, with an emphasis on their religious and pedagogical goals, impact on subsequent Jewish thought, and the influence of surrounding cultures on their formation. Units include Tanakh and its canonization, Tanaim and the Oral Law, Amoraim of Bavel and Eretz Yisrael, North African philosophers and poets, Medieval Ashkenaz and the Tosafists, and Zoharic and Lurianic Kabbalah. Classes consist of guided independent study (seder) of primary texts followed by discussions of the material and larger ideas and concepts.

March 22, 2020 7:30 pm - 8:30 pm
Intellectual Jewish History: Intellectual Jewish History Event
Class description
March 29, 2020 6:30 pm - 7:30 pm
Intellectual Jewish History: Intellectual Jewish History Class 2: Canon and Apocrypha
Class description
May 3, 2020 6:15 pm - 7:15 pm
Intellectual Jewish History: Intellectual Jewish History Event
May 10, 2020 6:15 pm - 7:15 pm
Intellectual Jewish History: Intellectual Jewish History – The Mishnah Part I
Class description

The Mishnah was put into its final form (ish) by Rabbi Yehudah haNAsi, a scion of a great rabbinic dynasty that began with Hillel and went through various great rabbinic leaders (all named Hillel, Yehudah, Shimon, or Gamliel).
Below are stories involving his grandfather, Rabban Gamliel of Yavneh (or Rabbi Gamilel II), and his father Rabbi Shimon ben Gamliel. We will discuss how these stories form the legal and political background for the establishment of the Mishnah.

May 17, 2020 6:15 pm - 7:15 pm
Intellectual Jewish History: Intellectual Jewish History Event -Mishnah as Literature
Class description

Is the Mishnah a patchwork book of law only to be understood through the lens of the Talmud, or a freestanding literary work?
Though through most of Jewish history it was read as the former, modern interpretations such Avraham Walfish and Yaakov Nagen have been arguing for the latter way of seeing the Mishnah.

May 24, 2020 6:15 pm - 7:15 pm
Intellectual Jewish History: Intellectual Jewish History Event
Class description

While the Talmud Yerushalmi was created in a Christian cultural context, the religion in Bavel was Zoroastrianism. In the past 20+ years a new school of scholarship has developed (beginning with Yaakov Elman z”l) that studies the Bavli specifically in its Persian context.

May 31, 2020 6:15 pm - 7:15 pm
Intellectual Jewish History: Intellectual Jewish History Event: Bavli on Eretz Yisrael
Class description
June 7, 2020 6:15 pm - 7:15 pm
Intellectual Jewish History: Intellectual Jewish History Event: Early Islam and Judaism
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Handouts
June 14, 2020 6:15 pm - 7:15 pm
Intellectual Jewish History: Intellectual Jewish History Event: Jews on Islam
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June 21, 2020 6:15 pm - 7:15 pm
Intellectual Jewish History: Intellectual Jewish History Event: Geonim on the Siddur
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June 28, 2020 6:15 pm - 7:15 pm
Intellectual Jewish History: Intellectual Jewish History Event: Ka’arites and Halakha
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July 12, 2020 6:15 pm - 7:15 pm
Intellectual Jewish History: Intellectual Jewish History Event
Class description
July 19, 2020 6:15 pm - 7:15 pm
Intellectual Jewish History: Intellectual Jewish History Event: Eschatology and Afterlife in the Rambam
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July 26, 2020 6:15 pm - 7:15 pm
Intellectual Jewish History: Intellectual Jewish History Event
Class description
August 2, 2020 6:15 pm - 7:15 pm
Intellectual Jewish History: Intellectual Jewish History Event: Origins of Ashkenaz
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August 9, 2020 6:15 pm - 7:15 pm
Intellectual Jewish History: Intellectual Jewish History Event
Class description
August 16, 2020 6:15 pm - 7:15 pm
Intellectual Jewish History: Intellectual Jewish History Event
Class description

Rav Duker is Mashigiah Ruhani and Director of Programming at Amudim. He enjoys teaching Torah, answering obscure halakhic questions on Whatsapp, and long walks in the rain. The AMUDIM ALUMNI SHIUR is an exclusive interactive class, where you can learn with Amudim staff while sitting in a virtual classroom with fellow alumni.