The Jewish bookshelf is filled with texts, yet some have attained a distinctive status and become foundational to Jewish life: the Shema Yisrael, the Kaddish, Maimonides' Thirteen Principles of Faith, Lekha Dodi, Unetaneh Tokef, and others. This reading group offers an entry into these central texts and asks what has made them so enduringly significant across the generations. Through reading them, we will seek not only to understand the meaning of the texts themselves, but also to use the question of their centrality as a way of exploring broader questions about Jewish tradition as a whole: faith, memory, prayer, authority, community, and disagreement. The participation requires no prior knowledge and is intended for anyone who wishes to become more familiar with some of the words that have shaped the Jewish lifeworld.

Deze cursus wordt gegeven in het Engels