66990 - Jewish Language and Culture

Academic Year 2018/2019

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the student will possess a basic knowledge of Biblical Hebrew and elements of Jewish culture and will be able to expose appropriately what he/she has learned in oral and written form.  

Course contents

- Elements of Biblical Hebrew phonetics, morphology and syntax.

- History of the Hebrew Language.

- Elements of Rabbinic and Medieval Hebrew.

- Beside a basic knowledge of the Language, the course will offer, on the basis of the lexical elements studies in theory and in the exercises, fundamental notions of Jewish culture, highlighting particularly the religious, political and anthropological aspects.

- Special attention will be devoted to the semantic fields concerning contracts (covenant, promise, trust) and the structure of society (family, tribe, nation) in their horizontal as well as in their vertical, more specifically religious dimension.

Readings/Bibliography

- Grammar: J. Weingreen, Grammatica di ebraico biblico, Glossa, Milano 2011.
- Biblical Text: Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia , Editio quinta, Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart 1997.
- History of the Hebrew language: A. Sáenz-Badillos, A History of the Hebrew Language, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2002.
- Dictionaries: F. Brown – S. R. Driver – Ch. A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament with an Appendix Containing the Biblical Aramaic based on the Lexicon of W. Gesenius, The Riverside Press, Cambridge 1906 (https://archive.org/details/ahebrewandengli00briggoog ); Ph. Reymond, Dizionario di ebraico e aramaico biblici, Società Biblica Britannica e Forestiera, Roma 1995; L. A. Schökel, Dizionario di ebraico biblico, Edizioni San Paolo, Cinisello Balsamo (Mi) 2013.

 

Non-attending students are required to learn the contents of the grammar and to do all the exercises of Wengreen's method. Moreover, they are invited to contact the instructor in order to receive an individual programme.


Teaching methods

- Traditional

- Exercises will be corrected in class

Assessment methods

Oral exam; translation of selected Biblical passages.

The exam candidates will receive a note falling into one of four assessment ranges: 1) excellent (28-30 cum laude); 2) good (24-27); 3) sufficient (18-23); insufficient (fail), according to their capacity to express themselves, to articulate their knowledge and to answer appropriately to the questions of the instructor.  


Teaching tools

Further materials will be distributed during the course.

Office hours

See the website of Saverio Campanini