Borns Jewish Studies Program

What does the Hebrew Bible say about: who you should marry (and who you can't), and whose wellbeing you should care about (and whose you can ignore)? In this course, we will explore the diverse regulations and values around marriage, sex, economics, and violence represented in ancient Jewish literature from the mid-to-late first millennium BCE. We will read texts from a range of literary genres and historical contexts, and will ask: what behaviors are prescribed or prohibited by these texts? What sorts of hopes or fears underlie these ancient documents, and how do we make sense of conflicting values represented within them? And what does any of this mean for modern readers?