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| 0690-4947-01 | Astrology and Science in Ancient Judaism | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| FACULTY OF HUMANITIES | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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University credit hours: 4.0
Course description
In contrast with the Modern period, when Jews often are involved in science and contribute much to its development, in Antiquity Jews did not often engage in scientific thought or in an empirical observation of the world around them. And yet, some Jews displayed an interest in cosmology, in medicine, in astrology, and in different techniques of divination. In our seminar we shall examine the remains of the Jewish scientific literature of Antiquity, as preserved among the Dead Sea Scrolls, in Rabbinic literature, and especially in the Cairo Genizah, which preserves many such texts that have never been published. We shall focus on a close reading of the relevant texts - in Aramaic and in Hebrew - and we shall also read English and Hebrew translations of similar texts in Greek, Arabic, and other languages. We shall also ask whether, when, and why one may refer to ancient texts as dealing with ''science''.
Course requirements - active participation in class, and a research paper (referat or avodah seminarionit) at the end of the year.
Course requirements - active participation in class, and a research paper (referat or avodah seminarionit) at the end of the year.