HUC Year-In-Israel

Introduction to Liturgy 


Syllabus, Fall Term


List of Key Terms Students Are Expected to Know by End of Year

Guiding Questions to Readings Fall Term

Guiding Questions to Reading Spring Term

Required Readings
Borowitz - The Individual and Community in Jewish Prayer

Donin - Birkat Hamazon

Donin - The Kaddish

Donin - Prayers for Special Occasions

Elbogen - Shema and Its Blessings

Freehof - Origin of the Tahanun

Frishman - Entering Mishkan T'fillah

Green - Some Words on the Words of Prayer

Heinemann - Prayers of Beit Midrash Origin

Heschel - Prayer and On Prayer

Hoffman - How the Amidah Began: A Jewish Detective Story

Hoffman - Introduction to Liturgy of Kabbalat Shabbat

Hoffman - Introduction to the Liturgy: What to Look for in the Service

Hoffman - Introduction to the Liturgy: Why the P'sukei D'zimrah?

Hoffman - Havdalah: A Case of Categories (Beyond the Text)

Hoffman - Seder K'riyat HaTorah: The Reading of Torah

Kimelman - Lecha Dodi v'kabbalat Shabbat

Langer - Celebrating the Presence of the Torah
Langer - Creation of a Valid Non-Sacrificial Liturgy

Marx - Ideology, Theology and Style...
Marx - Morning Ritual in the Talmud
Petuchowski - Some Laws of Liturgical Development

Petuchowski - Some Basic Features of Jewish Liturgy

Petuchowski - Spontaneity and Tradition

Tabory - The Prayer Book as an Anthology of Judaism

Yarden - The Sanctity of Mt. Herzl

Recommended Readings

Agnon - Before the Kaddish: At the Funeral

Aleinu Commentaries in MPPB

Blank - Haven't You Learned This Yet?

Blessing of Children and Commentaries from MPPB

Blumenthal - Observations and Reflections on Kaddish

Brettler - Prayer in the Bible
Bronstein - Platforms and Prayer Books

Carmy - Without Intelligence Whence Prayer

CHART - Various Rites

Donin - The Kaddish

Donin - Prayers for Special Occasions

Elbogen - Introduction and Terminology

Elbogen - Prayers for Special Days: Shabbat

Ellenson - P'sukei D'zimrah and the Problem of Length in Modern Prayer Books

Friedland - Avodah Sh'b'lev

Friedland - Gates of Prayer in Perspective

Giller - The Common Religion of Safed

Green - Some Aspects of Qabbalat Shabbat
Green - The Song of Songs in Early Jewish Mysticism

Hammer - The Blessing After Meals

Hammer - What did they bless? A Study of Mishnah Tamid 5:1

Hartman - The Spirit of Judaic Prayer

Heinemann - Prayers of Beit Midrash Origin

Heinemann - The Fixed and the Fluid in Jewish Prayer

Heschel - The Sabbath: Architecture of Time
Heschel - Selections from Man's Quest for God

Hoffman - Blessings and Study: The Jewish Way to Begin a Day

Hoffman - Havdalah: A Case of Categories
Hoffman - Introduction to Liturgy of Kabbalat Shabbat
Hoffman - Introduction to the Liturgy of Shabbat at Home

Hoffman - Lost in Mistranslation
Hoffman et al -- Mourners' Kaddish w/commentaries

Hoffman - On Swimming Holes, Sound Pools, and Expanding Canons

Hoffman - Our Diary of Prayer Across the Centuries
Hoffman - Seder K'riyat HaTorah: The Reading of Torah

Hoffman - Tahanun and Penitential Piety

Kadoshin - Worship and Ethics
Kimelman - The Blessings of Prayerobics

Kimelman - Kabbalat Shabbat
Kimelman - The Daily Amidah and the Rhetoric of Redemption

Kimelman - The Messiah of the Amidah

Kunin - The Return of Liminal to Reform

Landes - Prayer as Petition
Landes - Puzzling Power of Kaddish

Landes - Tahanun and Penitential Piety (last 3 pages of Hoffman article)

Langer - Celebrating the Presence of the Torah

Langer - Theologies of Self and Other in American Jewish Liturgies
Levine - The Ancient Synagogue, "Torah Reading" & "Women in the Synagogue"

Levy - When We Study Torah, Is God the Teacher?
Marx - Iyyun T'fillah

Petuchowski - Reform Liturgy

Petuchowski - The Poetry of the Synagogue

Schwartz - A Tachanun Service

Spero - Turning to Jerusalem in Prayer

Various texts/poems on El Maleh Rachamim

Weissler - The Tkhines: An Introduction