Jeffrey A. Spitzer

To earn respect, a genre of Jewish texts assigns authorship to biblical figures and sages of previous eras.

The prophet takes on the people's mistaken assumption that they can safely persist in unethical behavior--and that God would never destroy the Temple.

The rabbis restored the religious meaning of the sacrificial cult even though the Temple itself had been destroyed.

The prohibition against non-Jewish practices, might relate to the practices of ancient Egypt, Canaan or the social and philosophical ways of non-Jews today.

Rabbinic authorities have used different arguments to redress inequities in the way halakhah treats non-Jews.

The economic history of the Jews in Palestine in late antiquity

The evolving relationship between the rabbinic sages and the Jews on the street.

Josephus Flavius both participated in and wrote the history of the Jewish interaction with Rome.

The remarkable parallels in the stories of Josephus' and Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai's surrenders to the Romans reveal more about Jewish memory than Jewish history.

These two institutions reflect the dynamism and the tensions in late antique Jewish society.