Homer and the Hebrew Bible
This curriculum studied the great works of ancient Greece in the context of Jewish thought and the development of western civilization. Using Jacob Howland’s Mosaic series on Homer and the Hebrew Bible as a foundation for their study, the course begins with a look at the Odyssey and whether Jews should engage in the study of Greek ideas. Continuing with the Iliad, we examine the nature of ancient society and the Greek vs. Jewish approach to gender and sexual morality. We then move to Herodotus and The Persian War and examined the nature of Greek and Jewish understandings of human and divine. This is followed by a return to the Odyssey with a discussion of the individual and the ways in which Greek and Jewish storytelling seems to discourage individual ambition. Next, we examine the nature of heroism in everyday through a contrast of Genesis and Homer, and we finally conclude with a comparison between Greek and Hebraic conceptions of the world and emotions.
Adapted from a course taught by Tikvah’s Columbia University chapter in the spring of 2023.
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Varieties of Zionist Thought