RAB 558 Tzedakah from the Bible to the Bavli
Jews are known for tzedakah, a cluster of ideas and practices of benevolence that have and continue to evolve based on Jewish textual interpretation and the lived practices of diverse Jewish communities in different times and places. Jewish ideas about tzedakah have also always been affected by other cultures with which Jews have been in contact. In this course, we focus primarily on textual interpretation, beginning with the Hebrew Bible, then move sequentially through Second Temple literature (including the New Testament) and rabbinic literature up to and including the Talmud Bavli (ca. 7th-century CE). We also consider some Christian texts that pertain to rabbinic materials. Our goal is to identify the emergence, stability, and/or change of tzedakah ideas and practices as these literatures represent them.