About the Author

Yair Furstenberg is Associate Professor of Talmud at Hebrew University, where he serves as chair of the department. Among his publications are Jewish Martyrdom in Antiquity: From the Books of Maccabees to the Babylonian Talmud and the edited volume Jewish and Christian Communal Identities in the Roman World.

Reviews

"In a masterful, erudite, and lucidly written study, Yair Furstenberg explores the development of perceptions and practices of ritual purity from the Second Temple Period to the Rabbinic era as prisms through which fundamental issues of identity and community were negotiated during this tumultuous time. The book expertly and convincingly demonstrates the value of careful textual inquiry for the construction of a social history, as it uncovers the multiple and rich layers of ideas, concerns, and cultural and religious challenges that are hidden in one of the most fascinating sets of texts from Jewish antiquity."—Mira Balberg, author of Purity, Body, and Self in Early Rabbinic Literature