Sefer Shemot -- The Book of Exodus ADVANCED BIBLE 410 Hebrew College Rabbinical School 5772/Fall 2011 Dr.

Nehemia Polen Introduction. Themes and structure of Shemot; questions of historicity Readings: Meyers, chs. 1-2; Pardes, Biography, chs. 1-2. Parashat Shemot. Introducing Miriam, Moshe, Aaron. Reading: Frymer-Kensky, Saviours of the Exodus, pp. 24-33 and pp. 360-365; Meyers, ch. 3, pp. 32-70; Setel, Exodus in Womens Bible Commentary, pp. 30-39. Revelation at Horeb/Sinai. Moshe as prophet. Reading: Geller, Sacred Enigmas: ch. 6, The Riddle of Prophecy; ch. 9, pp. 168-194. Bridegroom of Blood. Pardes, Countertraditions, ch. 1, 5Zipporah and the Struggle for Deliverance Geller, Sacred Enigmas: The Struggle at the Jabbok; Gelernter, Tsipporahs Bloodgroom. Parashat Va-era. Signs and wonders. Meyers, ch. 3, pp. 71-87. Buber, Moses, pp. 6068. Ex. 12. The lunar calendar. Time & freedom. hodesh he-aviv; cf. Deut. 16:1 Pesah. P and D presentations of Pesah. Readings: Haran, Temples and Temple Service, Pilgrim-Feasts and Family Festivals pp. 289-316; The Passover Sacrifice p. 317-348. Arnow, Passover Haggadah, Passover in the Bible and Before; Sarna, Exploring Exodus pp. 85-102. Sacred Time and location: Ex. 16; motivation for ShabbatEx.20:11imitatio dei; Deut. 5:15ethical/social; Ex. 31:12-17- otvisible sign of covenantal love (cf. Ex. 35:1-3no fire on Shabbat) Festival cycles: Ex. 16:22-30; 23:14-19; 34:18-26; Lev. 23, 25; Num. 28, 29; Deut. 15, 16.; The politics of calendar change: I Kings 12. Reading: Sarna, Exploring Exodus, pp. 81-89; Talmon, "The Cult and Calendar Reform of Jerobaum I" Tefillin. Reading: Muffs, Love and Joy, pp. 49-60; Yehudah Cohn, Tangled Up in Text Pilgrimage festivals; gifts to God. Reading: Muffs, Love and Joy, pp. 165-193 (The Joy of Giving). The Song at the Sea. Reading: Miles, Your Right Hand Shatters the Foe pp. 98-109. Jethros Wisdom. The Midianites. Nahum Sarna, Exploring Exodus, pp. 15-17; 126-129. Covenant at Sinai. Kaminsky, Promise and Covenant in Yet I Loved Jacob, pp. 81-91. The Decalogue. Readings: Moshe Weinfeld, Uniqueness of the Decalogue; Alexander Rofe, The Tenth Commandment; Meir Weiss, Decalogue in Prophetic Literature; Moshe Greenberg, The Decalogue Tradition;

The Decalogue as key to Tanakh? Reading: Freedman, Unity of Hebrew Bible; Levinson, Legal Revision and Religious Renewal. Covenant-making and vision of God. Aniconic worship. The Golded Calf Readings: Joseph Gutmann, The Second Commandment; Halbertal and Margalit, Idolatry. Moshe as intercessor. Reading: Muffs, Love and Joy, pp. 9-48.

Course requirements: Weekly assignments of close readings of traditional commentators including Rashi, Ramban, Seforno; weekly discussion of secondary readings, led by a student; final paper.
Recommended: Torat Hayyim Shemot (Jerusalem: Mossad Harav Kook, 1991) Suggested: The JPS Torah Commentary: Exodus (Nahum Sarna) The JPS Bible Commentary: Haftarot Commentary by Michael Fishbane (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2002/ 5762). The Jewish Study Bible, edited by Adele Berlin and Marc Zvi Brettler (Oxford University Press, 2004), Exodus commentary by Jeffrey H. Tigay.

Bibliography Arnow, David. Passover in the Bible and Before in My Peoples Passover Haggadah , edited by Lawrence A. Hoffman and David Arnow (Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights, 2008), vol. 1 pp. 9-14 Cassuto, Umberto. A Commentary on the Book of Exodus. Translated by Israel Abrahams (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1974) Cohn, Yehudah B. Tangled Up in Text: Tefillin and the Ancient World (Providence, RI: Brown Judaic Studies, 2008). Dever, William G. What Did the Biblical Writers Know and When Did They Know It? (Grand Rapids MI: Eerdmans, 2001. Freedberg, David. The Power of Images: Studies in the History and Theory of Response. University of Chicago Press, 1989.

Freedman, David N. The Unity of the Hebrew Bible (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1992). Geller, Stephen A. Sacred Enigmas: Literary Religion in the Hebrew Bible (London and New York: Routledge, 1996). The Struggle at the Jabbok; and Blood Cult. Gelernter, David. Tsipporahs Bloodgroom. ORIM: A Jewish Journal at Yale 3:2 (1988) Greenberg, Moshe. Understanding Exodus. _____. Some Postulates of Biblical Criminal Law. In Judah Goldin, ed., The Jewish Expression (New York: Bantam Books, 1970), pp. 18-37 _____. The Decalogue Tradition Critically Examined, in The Ten Commandments in History and Tradition, edited by Ben-Zion Segal/Gershon Levi (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1990), pp. 83-120. _____. Biblical Attitudes toward Power: Ideal and Reality in Law and Prophets, in Religion and Law, ed. E. B. Firmage, B. G. Weiss, and J. W. Welch (Winona Lake: Eishenbraunes, 1990), pp. 101-125. Gutmann, Joseph. The Second Commandment and the Image in Judaism. In Beauty in Holiness (Ktav, 1970), pp. 1-14. Halbertal, Moshe, and Margalit, Avishai. Idolatry (translated by Naomi Goldblum; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992. Haran, Menahem. Temples and Temple-Service in Ancient Israel (Winona Lake, IN:

Eisenbrauns, 1985) Kaminsky, Joel S. Yet I Loved Jacob: Reclaiming the Biblical Concept of Election (Nashville: Abington Press, 2007) Kugel, James L. The God of Old (New York: Free Press, 2003) Levinson, Bernard M. Legal Revision and Religious Renewal in Ancient Israel. Cambridge, 2008. Miles, Jack. God: A Biography (New York: Vintage Books, 1995)

Rendtorff, Rolf Covenant as a Structuring Concept in Genesis and Exodus in Canon and Theology: Overtures to an Old Testament Theology (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1993), pp. 125-134. Pardes, Ilana, Countertraditions in the Bible _____. The Biography of Ancient Israel. Propp, William. Exodus (2 vols.; New York: Doubleday) Rofe, Alexander. The Tenth Commandment in the Light of Four Deuteronomic Laws, in The Ten Commandments in History and Tradition, edited by Ben-Zion Segal/Gershon Levi (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1990), pp. 45-66. Sarna, Nahum M. Exploring Exodus: The Heritage of Biblical Israel (New York: Schocken, 1987), Talmon, Shemaryahu. "The Cult and Calendar Reform of Jerobaum I", King, Cult and Calendar in Ancient Israel (Jerusalem: Magnes, 1986), pp.113-140. Weinfeld, Moshe. The Uniqueness of the Decalogue and its Place in Jewish Tradition, in The Ten Commandments in History and Tradition, edited by Ben-Zion Segal/Gershon Levi (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1990), pp. 1-44. [also in Religion and Law, ed. E. B. Firmage, B. G. Weiss, and J. W. Welch (Winona Lake: Eishenbraunes, 1990), pp. 3-48 Weiss, Meir. The Decalogue in Prophetic Literature, in The Ten Commandments in History and Tradition, edited by Ben-Zion Segal/Gershon Levi (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1990), pp. 67-82.