90199 - Jewish Language and Culture 2B

Learning outcomes

This module, presupposing the first three (Hebrew language and Jewish culture; Hebrew language and Jewish culture 2A), wil have a rather monographic and seminarial structure, offering each year the opportunity, beside a general introduction to Hebrew Medieval literature, to deepen the study of to deepen the study of samples from a specific literary genre, chosen among five great thematic areas: Rabbinic literature (Halakah); exegesis (Rashi, Ramban, Qimchi); philosophy (Ibn Gabirol; Yehudah ha-Levi; Maimonides [in translation]; Levi ben Gershom, Chasday Crescas); Kabbalah (the Bahir; Isaac the Blind; Azriel of Gerona; Moshe de Leon etc. to the XVI century); ethical and literary texts. In the end, the students will have aquired the linguistic and historico-literary skills that are required to translate and discuss a significant anthology of one of these great areas, being equipped moreover with the necessary background information in order to understand Jewish cultural creativity in the appropriate context from late antiquity to the threshold of modernity.

Course contents

The curse will offer an introduction to the ideas and a guide to the reding of the work of the Catalan Kabbalist Azriel of Gerona (13th century). 

After a general introduction on Medieval Kabbalah and especially on the Geronese Kabbalists, the treatise in dialogical form bearing the title Sha'ar ha-Sho'el (The Gate of the Questioner) will be entirely read and commented. Special attention will be given to the Humanistic and Renaissance reception of the booklet among the Christians, within the intellectual movement known as Christian Kabbalah. 

Readings/Bibliography

- G. Scholem, Le origini della Kabbalah, EDB, Bologna 2013.

- G. Scholem, Seridim chadashim mi-kitve R. 'Azriel mi-Girona, in Sefer Zikkaron le-A. Gulak u-le-S. Klein, Hebrew University Press, Jerusalem 1942, pp. 201—222.

- J. Dan - R. C. Kiener, The Early Kabbalah, Paulist Press, New York 1987.

- M. Eisenfeld (ed.), Azriel de Girona, Cuatro Textos Cabalisticos, Riopiedras, Barcelona 1994.

- O. Porat, Kabbalistic Works by Rabbi Azriel of Girona, Cherub Press, Los Angeles 2019.

- G. Sed-Rajna, Commentaire sur la liturgie quotidienne, Brill, Leiden 1974.

Teaching methods

traditional lecture / seminarial

Assessment methods

Students who attend at least 75% of the lessons are considered to be attending.

oral exam.

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

The lecturer will distribute during the lecture and on the virtual page of the course additional materials supporting the learning process and the discussion.

Office hours

See the website of Saverio Campanini