Redfield, Adventures of Rabbah and Friends (SBL)

NEW BOOK FROM SBL PRESS:

Adventures of Rabbah and Friends: The Talmud's Strange Tales and Their Readers
James Adam Redfield

ISBN 9781967013036
Volume BJS 374
Status Available
Publication Date June 2025

Paperback $50.00
eBook $50.00
Hardback $82.00

Adventures of Rabbah & Friends offers a new reader-centered approach to some of the Talmud’s most challenging stories. James Adam Redfield illustrates how these tales have interacted with diverse interpretive frameworks from ancient myth to modern mysticism. By reevaluating conventional assumptions about coherence, authority, and tradition, the book redefines how stories can function in the Talmud, reorients the study of rabbinic literature around practices of reading and reception, and opens pathways for connecting the Talmud with broader conversations in the study of literature. Redfield’s analysis of the vibrant dialogue between many voices in this literary tradition—storytellers, editors, performers, transmitters, commentators, anthologizers, and more—reveals their diverse and original contributions to the art of interpretation in Jewish culture. Rich appendixes revealing the stories’ reception in late ancient exegesis, medieval responsa, and early modern ethical and mystical commentaries make this volume a valuable specialist resource, while its lively prose is accessible for a wider audience of students and humanities scholars.

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