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BTI Consortium | Last Updated April 11, 2023 - 5:00PM
Hebrew College
School
Hebrew College
BIB500
Core Text-Torah1: Bereshit 1
BTI Category
Semester
Scripture & Biblical Studies
FA23
In this course, we will engage in close readings of selected passages in Genesis (Bereshit). We will hone our text reading skills in Biblical Hebrew as well as medieval commentary. Students will be introduced to rabbinic exegesis (Parashanut), with a special focus on Rashi and his midrashic sources.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Dr. Rachel Adelman
TR
2:30-4:00PM & 11:30AM-2:00 PM
Grading Option
Letter, PF
Credits
3
Professor Approval Req'd?
Y
Online?
N
Prerequisites?
Y
Notes
BTI students should be aware that Hebrew College's courses include study in the Beit Midrash for 60-90 minutes prior to the class meeting time.
School
Hebrew College
BIB750
Hamesh Megillot
BTI Category
Semester
Scripture & Biblical Studies
FA23
The communal reading of the Five Megillot listed above�sequentially on Pesah, Shavuot, Tishe�ah be-Av, Sukkot and Purim-- enhances the vividness and texture of our liturgical cycle. The themes and moods range from erotic love, gracious hospitality and blessing, mourning over disaster, struggling with futility and search for meaning in life, and salvation in exile through a heroine�s courageous action. Women and feminine imagery have major roles in most of the scrolls. Each scroll is relatively short, and each provides provocative challenges for religious thought, thus enriching the depth, complexity and diversity of our tradition. In the spirit of the PaRDeS four-fold interpretive mode, we will begin with contextual readings, followed by classical Midrash, medieval commentaries, kabbalistic/hasidic approaches, and contemporary insights.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Rabbi Dr. Nehemia Polen
R
2:30-4:00PM
Grading Option
Letter, PF
Credits
2
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Online?
N
Prerequisites?
Y
Notes
BTI students should be aware that Hebrew College's courses include study in the Beit Midrash for 60-90 minutes prior to the class meeting time.
School
Hebrew College
HIS505
History of Jewish Music 1
BTI Category
Semester
Judaic Studies
FA23
This course provides a close look at the music of the Jewish people. Study involves modal and phrase analysis (and, where relevant, harmonic analysis) of traditional materials; historical analysis through close reading of primary sources; and functional analysis of attitudes and uses of Jewish music. Topics to be covered include analysis of how music is used by Jews, music in ancient Israel, traditional liturgical chant, rabbinical attitudes towards music, secular and paraliturgical folksongs and wedding music, and the beginnings of Jewish polyphony in the Italian Renaissance.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Dr. Joshua Jacobson
W
4:00-6:00PM
Grading Option
Letter, PF
Credits
2
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Online?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
BTI students should be aware that Hebrew College's courses include study in the Beit Midrash for 60-90 minutes prior to the class meeting time.
School
Hebrew College
JTH808
The Zohar
BTI Category
Semester
Judaic Studies
FA23
An introduction to the Jewish mystical tradition and the reading of its central text, the Zohar. Students will be taught the symbolic language of Kabbalah and will learn to read passages in the Aramaic original, but also using the new translation and commentary of the Pritzker edition.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Rabbi Allan Lehmann
T
9:15-10:45AM
Grading Option
Letter, PF
Credits
2
Professor Approval Req'd?
Y
Online?
N
Prerequisites?
Y
Notes
BTI students should be aware that Hebrew College's courses include study in the Beit Midrash for 60-90 minutes prior to the class meeting time.
School
Hebrew College
RAB500
Core Text-Rabbinics 1: Berakhot 1
BTI Category
Semester
Judaic Studies
FA23
Through intensive, guided study of one full chapter of the tractate Berakhot, this first semester inducts first-year Rabbinical students into the discipline of traditional Rabbinical learning. Course work covers essential themes in the field of liturgy while building skills that are necessary for reading, understanding, appreciating, analyzing and participating in Talmudic discourse.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Rabbi Shoshana Rosenbaum
MW
11:30AM-1:00PM & 11:45AM-1:15PM
Grading Option
Letter, PF
Credits
3
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Online?
N
Prerequisites?
Y
Notes
BTI students should be aware that Hebrew College's courses include study in the Beit Midrash for 60-90 minutes prior to the class meeting time.
School
Hebrew College
BIB600
Core Text-Torah 2: Shemot 1
BTI Category
Semester
Scripture & Biblical Studies
FA23
From a family of twelves sons to a great nation, Exodus (Shemot) recounts the foundational myth of the Jewish People. This course entails a close study of the Hebrew text, through the lens of classical parshanut and midrash as well as modern literary readers (Benjamin Sommer, Avivah Zornberg, Umberto Cassuto), while attentive to major themes and motifs such as exile, the Egyptian oppression and plagues, the role of Righteous Women in the Redemption, and miracles in the desert (as in the Splitting of the Sea and the Manna).
Professor
Class Day & Time
Dr. Rachel Adelman
TR
9:15-10:45AM & 2:30-4:00PM
Grading Option
Letter, PF
Credits
3
Professor Approval Req'd?
Y
Online?
N
Prerequisites?
Y
Notes
BTI students should be aware that Hebrew College's courses include study in the Beit Midrash for 60-90 minutes prior to the class meeting time.
School
Hebrew College
HBW605
Hebrew for Tanakh Study
BTI Category
Semester
Languages
FA23
Students will work on the language of the biblical text and of the related midrash and traditional rabbinic commentary assigned in the Shanah Aleph Bereshit course, with which this course will be closely coordinated. Grammatical topics will be presented in the context of the text study. Foundations of Biblical Hebrew is a prerequisite.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Harvey Bock
TR
11:30AM-1:00PM & 2:30-4:00PM
Grading Option
Letter, PF
Credits
3
Professor Approval Req'd?
Y
Online?
N
Prerequisites?
Y
Notes
BTI students should be aware that Hebrew College's courses include study in the Beit Midrash for 60-90 minutes prior to the class meeting time.
School
Hebrew College
JTH800
Hasidut II
BTI Category
Semester
Judaic Studies
FA23
This course will engage with the texts teachings of early hasidism. Students will read and analyze examples of these teachings, and engage with contemporary scholarship on the topic.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Rabbi Dr. Nehemia Polen
T
2:30-4:00PM
Grading Option
Letter, PF
Credits
2
Professor Approval Req'd?
Y
Online?
N
Prerequisites?
Y
Notes
BTI students should be aware that Hebrew College's courses include study in the Beit Midrash for 60-90 minutes prior to the class meeting time.
School
Hebrew College
PRC620
Lifecycle Seminar for Clergy
BTI Category
Semester
Practical/Pastoral Theology
FA23
In the Lifecycle Seminar, students build their knowledge of and capacity to counsel people in preparation for and officiate at four lifecycle rituals: welcoming covenant rituals for Jewish babies, b-mitzvah, and weddings. For each ritual, we will address the following questions: 1. Life moment: How do we understand the nature and needs of the life moment the ritual is responding to? 2. Ritual response: What are some of the varied and creative ritual responses Jewish tradition and contemporary liturgical leaders have developed for this life moment? What are some of the key decision points for officiating this ritual? 3. Officiating: How do we prepare people for these rituals? How do we guide people through these rituals?
Professor
Class Day & Time
Rabbi Dr. Michael Shire
R
11:30AM-1:00PM
Grading Option
Letter, PF
Credits
2
Professor Approval Req'd?
Y
Online?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
BTI students should be aware that Hebrew College's courses include study in the Beit Midrash for 60-90 minutes prior to the class meeting time.
School
Hebrew College
RAB529
Theories of Halakah
BTI Category
Semester
Judaic Studies
FA23
This course will provide an introduction to theories of halakhah and halakhic literature. We will contextualize halakhah within a wider world of legal theory as well as examine this particularly Jewish expression of law. As we gain a more expansive understanding of the development of halakhah and halakhic literature, we will also have the opportunity to consider how the languages of halakhah can be a resource for our individual and communal Jewish practices.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Rabbi Dr. Jane Kanarek
M
2:30-4:00PM
Grading Option
Letter, PF
Credits
2
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Online?
N
Prerequisites?
Y
Notes
BTI students should be aware that Hebrew College's courses include study in the Beit Midrash for 60-90 minutes prior to the class meeting time.
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