Exploring Jewish Interpretation

COURSE PREVIEW

COURSE DESCRIPTION

The Bible consists of ancient texts, and the interpretive methods used to explain it are diverse and can be very complicated. We take the first verse of the Bible and explore how differently it can be understood. This course offers a brief survey of approaches and styles of Jewish commentators of biblical texts throughout history. The lectures offer an overview of prominent thinkers from ancient times to the present, including Philo, early rabbinic Midrashim, the Aramaic Targum, Rashi, Maimonides, Rabbi Soloveitchik, and many more. Interspersed with humorous observations about the nature and challenges of interpretation, this course is a must for anyone who wants to understand the ways of Jewish thinking about God’s words a little better.

Student feedback:

“Wow Dr. Yeshaya! Absolutely fascinating to me on so many levels. From the historical gems you’re dropping on the cross-pollination of religious and philosophical ideas and the subsequent influences on modern European civilisation, to the fact that current day debates that some think are novel have been happening for millennia.” – Stanley Bhebhe

“Thank you for this course Prof Gruber…it has been challenging in discovering these thinkers and their beliefs…and how they interact with my own…as you have said the methods of interpretation change over time to reflect how the world is changing technology and so on…It is a very valuable course.” – Cherry Cartledge

“Thank you, Dr. Gruber, for this substantial yet reasonably circumscribed purview. This course helped me recognize the variety that falls within the broad range of interpretive expression experienced within Jewish interpretation, and provided a fuller awareness of that which may frame an attested understanding of Israel’s biblical testimony of witness. I look forward to enjoying additional courses provided under your instruction.” – Richard Bridgan