REL 206(S) Modern Judaism: Between Tradition and Abandon

Two categories frequently play a central role in the study of religion: tradition and origin. This course explores how these categories operate in modern Judaism. The modern period is often characterized as a period of crisis or rupture where traditional identifications were being abandoned and new ones formed, or not. This course considers figures who represent this crisis in modern Judaism. Important issues to be considered include the relation of history and memory, Scripture and interpretation, and the category of revelation. How were these categories transformed in a secular context? What happens to religion when belief in revelation and the divine origin of its Scriptures is called into question? Each of these issues will be considered with an eye toward understanding the complex relation between tradition and origin. Is tradition the means of passing on an unchanging inheritance dating back to the origins of a religion? Or, might tradition be an originary force in the history of religion? Through comparison with texts from the formative period of Judaism, the course concludes with an exploration of the extent to which a crisis or rupture might lay at the origin of Judaism. Readings: Yosef Yerushalmi, Sigmund Freud, Martin Buber, Gershom Scholem, Walter Benjamin, Franz Kafka, selections from rabbinic literature of the classical period, and supplemental material on rabbinic Judaism. Class format: discussion, with some lecture. Requirements: full attendance and participation, 2 short papers, and 1 longer final paper. Open to all classes without prerequisite. (This course is part of the Jewish Studies cluster.)

Hour: KOSKY