Starting during the third century, and going well into the Middle Ages, scholars and rabbis composed poems to add variety to the synagogue service. Worshippers would often come to a service expecting to hear a new poetic work of devotion that would enhance their prayer experience.
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Bible
An introduction to the Hebrew Bible, its contents, and its role in Jewish civilization.
Is the Bible God's word?
How the Bible is similar to and different from other ancient Near Eastern literature.
How the Bible became a closed corpus of literature.
External texts from the Second Temple period.
Law
An overview of the Mishnah, Talmud, and other literature of the "oral Torah."
The Mishnah is Judaism's first major canonical document following the Bible.
Since the Talmud, countless texts have been produced to analyze and codify Jewish law.
Jewish law undergoes constant development.
Maimonides' halakhic magnum opus.
Literature
Storytelling has always been an integral part of Jewish life.
Poetry permeates the High Holiday liturgy.
Holocaust survivor, novelist, memoirist, and Nobel laureate.
Charting the landscape of American Jewish literature--125 books at a time.
In the second half of the 20th century, Israeli writers became a voice of critique and protest.
Commentaries
The virtue of the famous Bible commentary by Rashi lies in its diversity.
A Bible commentator in medieval Spain.
A 20th-century educator who changed the face of Bible study.
This Spanish Bible commentator earned a place alongside Rashi.
Alfasi's groundbreaking legal code invited criticism, defense, and supplementation.