First Year Seminar: The Exodus in the Jewish Experience

3 units

This course will investigate how the Exodus has been, and continues to be, a crucial source of identity for both Jews and Judaism. We will explore how the Exodus has functioned as the primary model from which Jews have created historical self-understanding and theological meaning. We will investigate how and why this story continues to be vital to Jews throughout the unfolding of the Jewish experience. How does the Exodus remain pertinent? How has the Exodus been re-imagined multiple times throughout the history of Judaism? Why has the Passover celebration been transformed radically in different Jewish communities? We will analyze many types of expression: historical sources, liturgy, art, commentaries, theology, literature, film, mysticism, and music.