Maalot Educational Network | Evaluated Learning Experience
Talmud Survey: Bava Basra (TAL218)
Classroom: 78 hours (13 weeks); Distance/Hybrid: Varies.
September 2020 - Present.
Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to: dissect and explain classic Gemara structure; define concepts of Tractate Bava Basra; identify the nature of a text, e.g., legal or supra-legal; identify primary and supplemental material through analysis of the Talmudic discussion; find the axiological concepts around which the discussion revolves through analysis of its structure; define and apply the concepts of Talmudic research; decipher Talmudic texts and their cryptic dialog; reconstruct the give-and-take that is the backbone of independent Talmud study.
Major topics taught in this course include: Witnesses to a protest, writing by witnesses, writing a document you’ve declared void, chazakas without a claim, chazakas on an inheritance, chazakas by several consecutive people, people who have no chazaka, partners and chazaka, a partner as a witness, robbed person as a witness about his stolen property, heirs of a thief repaying stolen property, sharecropper’s chazaka, sharecropper as a witness, categories of those who can be witnesses, categories of those who have chazakas, forced sales, chazaka on a wife’s possessions, and chazaka for property of a married woman. Topics and sources may vary. The course allows for a cross-section of different kinds of texts, giving the student a broad range of topics to which to apply numerous research techniques. Methods of instruction include lecture, discussion and textual preparations. In contradistinction to study-in-depth courses, the focus of the Talmudic survey courses is broad, comprehensive study, which enables Talmudic students to access the concepts necessary to be conversant in a variety of areas of Talmudic discipline. Prerequisite: Introductory courses in Talmud, fundamental familiarity with the main topics of the tractate.
In the lower division baccalaureate/associate degree category OR in the upper division baccalaureate degree category, 6 semester hours in Talmud, Judaic Studies, Religious Studies or Theology (3/21).