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ST: Philosophies of Prayer

This course is an exploration of the philosophical content and presuppositions of communal prayer in the standardized prayerbooks of the major world religions. The course meeting times will be given to a careful reading of the content and structure of individual prayers in a single prayerbook. In addition students will conduct similar investigations of different prayerbooks utilizing the techniques of analysis presented in the class meetings.

Course Requirements

The shared text for the course meetings is edition listed below of a standard Northern European and American orthodox Jewish prayerbook. Also listed below, under recommended readings, are academic texts whose purpose is to assist students in locating and evaluating the prayers discussed in class. In addition, students will be required to submit two research papers based on different prayerbooks in different religious traditions. For their papers students will be expected to build their own bibliography of relevant academic books, to read them, and to incorporate them into their papers. The first paper will deal with the philosophical content of the student's chosen prayerbook. The second paper will compare the prayerbook of the first paper with the prayerbook chosen for class discussion.

In the first class meeting of the third week of the course students will submit in writing for approval a description of the subject of their first paper with a complete bibliography of primary and secondary readings.

In the first class meeting in the week following the submission of their first paper, students will submit in writing for approval a description of their second paper with a complete bibliography of primary and secondary readings.

Each paper will be worth 45% of the course grade. The remaining 10% will be based on active participation in course meetings. The grade of papers will be reduced by 1% for each day that they are late.

Required Texts

Rosenzweig, Franz. Star of Redemption, The. Translated into English by Barbara E. Galli. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 2005. (Readings in Part III)

The Rabbinical Council of America Edition of the ArtScroll Siddur: Weekday/ Sabbath/ Festival. Nusach Ashkenaz. English translation and commentary by Nosson Scherman. Brooklyn, NY: Mesorah Publications Ltd., 1984.

Recommended Readings (on Jewish prayer)

Cohen, Jack J. Major Philosophers of Jewish Prayer in the Twentieth Century. New York: Fordham University Press, 2000.

Hoffman, Lawrence A. Way into Jewish Prayer, The. Woodstock: Jewish Lights, 2000.

Kimelman, Reuven. Rhetoric of Jewish Prayer, The: A Literary and Historical Commentary on the Prayerbook. Portland, OR: Littman Library of Jewish Civilization,

Prell, Riv-Ellen. Prayer and Community: The Havurah Movement & the Recreation of American Judaism. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1988.

Reif, Stefan C. Judaism and Hebrew Prayer: New Perspectives on Jewish Liturgical History. Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

Samuelson, Norbert M. User's Guide to Franz Rosenzweig's Star of Redemption, A. Richmond GB: Curzon Press, 1999.

Soloveitchik, Joseph B. Worship of the Heart: Essays on Jewish Prayer. Hoboken, NJ: Ktav, 2003.

Steinsaltz, Adin. Guide to Jewish Prayer, A. New York: Schocken Books, 2000.

There will be no class on April 13 and 20 because of Pesach

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