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. 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.
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. 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).
