RS110 Lecture : RS 110 - MODULE 3.docx

• School: University of Waterloo
• Department: Religious Studies
• Course: RS110
• Professor: Peter Frick

Document Summary

500 and later, center of jewish life shifted to babylonia (today iran) Yeshiva: schools of talmudic learning, interpretation of talmud, there is never really an end to the interpretation of torah. There is always more understanding/meaning that can occur. Current context is important: goan/geonim were the professors. People who kept learning and culture alive. Reminded jewish people of their roots in torah. Encounters with christianity and islam: first time the 3 religions entered into a "dialogue, those who were learned within the religious took notice of philosophies of others. Can you marry reason and faith: these questions existed in all 3 religious in the 8th century. Accepted only written torah as divinely authoritative: any human/oral interpretation was rejected. Mother tongue was arabic: early scriptures were aramaic or hebrew, translation had to occur, we have jewish groups who are linguistically separate from one another. Reason was more important than in rabbinic interpretation.