Teaching Aggadata

Catalog description

The goal of this course is to help educators learn about the Aggadata sections of the Talmud and how to better teach these essential, yet underused, texts in the classroom. We will begin the semester with an overview of different forms of Aggadata, including stories, aphorisms and parables, exploring issues of accuracy, historicity, and literalism, focusing on how to explore these issues within a classroom. We will then shift to a discussion of methodological techniques, such as uncovering narrative themes, layers of stories, and source comparisons, which will open up avenues for advancing literacy and critical thinking. The third main component of the course includes an overview of different commentaries and how an analysis of their works can open up new avenues for critical thinking and historical analysis. Finally, we will put all of our methodology to work through the explorations of various key topics within Aggadata, such as theodicy, tefilla, Talmud Torah, student/teacher relationships, and character development.