HEBREW UNION COLLEGE - JEWISH INSTITUTE OF RELIGION
                                New York School

Fall Term, 1998-99						
Dr. A. Stanley Dreyfus
RABBINICS R-30

This course offers an introduction to the Hebrew commentaries on the Book of Genesis.  
The assignments and class discussions, it is hoped, will give you both increased fluency in 
Hebrew, which is essential to your rabbinate, and a deeper understanding of classic Jewish 
thought which you will mediate to your people.

You should provide yourself with a legible copy of the Rabbinic Bible.  The recommended 
edition of the Mikra'ot Gedolot is Chamishah Chumshei Torah with Onkelos, Targum 
Yerushalmi, Rashi, Rashbam, Ibn Ezra, Ramban, etc., edited by R. Shelomo Zalman Netter, first 
published in Vienna, 1859, and very frequently reprinted.  Assigned readings not in the Mikra'ot 
Gedolot will be distributed in photocopy.

As a helpful introduction to the subject, you might read Edward L. Greenstein, Medieval 
Bible Commentaries,	 in Back to the Sources: Reading the Classic Jewish Texts, edited by Barry 
W. Holtz, New York: Summit, 1984, pp 213-259.  Also good is the article Bible: Exegesis and 
Study,	 in Encyclopedia Judaica IV: 889-903.

Essential tools for preparation are the Jastrow Dictionary, a dictionary of Hebrew 
abbreviations, a good modern Hebrew dictionary, and a concordance.

Collateral reading will include Rashi, Ibn Ezra, Kimchi, Altschul (Metsudat David) on the 
Book of Jonah.  A term paper dealing with the message of the Book and its contemporary 
relevance will be required.

In the assignments, the following abbreviations are used:

IE	Ibn Ezra
N	Nachmanides
R	Rashi
T	Targums (i.e., Onkelos, Targum Yonathan, Fragmentary Targum)










CLASS SCHEDULE

All references are to the Book of Genesis.  Commentaries not found in the Mikra'ot Gedolot will 
be provided in photocopy.

September	1	Bereshit	Luzzato on 1:1
(Kutz)
3			Rashbam on 1:1-4
Rashi on 1:1-10

8			Rashi on 1:11-2:4

10	Noach		R on 6:9-7:12

15	Itturei Torah on the Akedah

17	Itturei Torah on Nitzavim

October	8	Noach		IE on 6:9-15
Ba'al Haturim on 6:9-11

15	Lech Lecha	T, R on 12:1-8

20			Malbim on 12:1-8
Ehrlich on 12:3

22	Vayera	T Yonathan on 22:1-19

27			R on 22:1-19

29			IE, Sforno on 22:1-19

November	3	Hayyei Sarah	R on 23:1-15, 24:55-67

5	Toledot	R, IE on 25:19-34

10			Sforno on 25:19-26

12	Vayetsei	R on 28:10-22

17			Abravanel on 28:10-12

19	Vayishlach	R on 32:4-15,  29-32

24			N on 32:4-10, 26

December	1	Vayeshev	R on 37:1-20

3	Mikkets	R on 42:1-22

8	Vayiggash	David Kimchi on 44:18-22

10	Vayechi	R on 48:1-9, 49:1

15	Jonah		IE, Kimchi on Jonah 1:1-16

17			Continued

21-24			Reading Period