1. Temporal development. The earliest history. The approach of religious studies to the earliest "Judaism". Israel, the Samaritans. The gods El, Baal, Shaddai, JHWH as "elements" of the history of the idea of God. The terms Elohim and JHWH. The understanding of one's own community, the concept of the people. Authority in the Jewish religion. Understanding of the forefathers: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. 2. Prophecy, types of prophets, the figure of Moses. The figure of the judge. The cult, the temple. King, conception of government, king as son of God. Distance from kingship, figure of Saul. The prophet-priest tension. Post-exilic Judaism, temple cult. 3. Significant extra-biblical Hebrew and non-Hebrew texts. Tenach. The image of Hebrew religion in the Tenach. The Exodus from Egypt and the treaty of Sinai as central elements of history. The concept of the treaty, the Ten Commandments, the Torah. The problem of Yavneh, the Palestinian canon. Sfarim genusim, chiconim. Apocryphal and deuterocanonical writings. Qumran texts. 4. Anthropology. Concept of man, psychosomatic unity. Nefesh, ruach, guf. Resurrection. Maimonides, the thirteen articles of faith. The perception of time in relation to man. Religious ideas, messianism, conception of time, eschatology, apocalyptic. 5. The synagogue, its development and function, equipment and architecture. Prayer and synagogue liturgy. Concept of prayer, main elements and texts. Siddur. 6. The problem of tradition, tanaim, Pharisees, rabbinic Judaism. Oral and written Torah. Introduction to the problem of Jewish writings. Mishnahs, Mishnateinu, gemara, midrash, Talmud. 7. The Jewish calendar and its development, the main holidays and their requisites, fast days. Shabbat. 8. Stages in life, birth, brit milah, bar mitzvah. Marriage, wedding. Relationship between man and woman. Funeral rites. The plane of customs. Question and meaning of kashrut in Judaism, halachic regulations related to diet. Daily blessings, ritual washing and immersion. Meaning of ritual objects talit, tfilin, mezuzah, head covering. 9. Ancient world. Status of the Jews in the Roman Empire. Intellectual defense of Judaism in a world of polytheism, Flavius Josephus. Early, high Middle Ages. Legal status of the Jewish community. Ashkenazim, Spharadim. 10. Mysticism, chassidim. Sefer Yetzirah, Spanish and Lurianic Kabbalah. Jews in the Iberian Peninsula. Position within dar al-Islam. Controversies of Judaism with Christianity and Islam. The dispute over the abrogation of the Torah. Late Middle Ages and early modern period. 11. Rationalist tradition. Maimonides, relationship to philosophy and tradition, conversion, concept of resurrection. Modern rationalism, Spinoza. Messianic movement, Sabbatianism, Shabtai Tzvi, Jacob Frank. Hasidism. Yisrael Baal Shem Tov. 12. Directions in Judaism. The concept and distinction between Orthodox, Conservative and Liberal Judaism. Enlightenment, emancipatory efforts. Assimilationist efforts. Zionism, establishment of the State of Israel. Jewish Diaspora in the USA, Europe, Russian Federation. 13. Characteristics of anti-Semitism, different forms. Paranoid framework as a provider of "logic", stereotypes. Composite character of anti-Semitism (Judeo-Bolsheviks, Judeo-Medievalists...) Anti-Semitism in antiquity, in the Middle Ages, in the early modern period and the Enlightenment, in the 19th and 20th centuries, the concept of biological determinism. Shoah. Anti-Semitism in the 21st century.
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