Jewish Literary Cultures

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1 Vayikra Rabbah and My Life in Midrash

2 The Beautiful Captive: The Rabbinic Imagination, the Greco-Roman Novel, and the Dangerous Gentile Female

3 Ancient Jewish Interpretation of the Song of Songs in a Comparative Context

4 On Comparative Biblical Exegesis—Interpretation, Influence, Appropriation

5 Anthology and Polysemy in Classical Midrash

6 The Fables of the Jews: From the Hebrew Bible Through Rabbinic Literature

7 On Canonization in Rabbinic Literature

8 The First Jewish Books and the Early History of Jewish Reading

Notes

Credits

“How fitting for David Stern’s articles and essays to be anthologized so beautifully, considering his own contribution to our appreciation of the role of anthology in the shaping of early rabbinic midrash as commentary. Stern has a magical textual touch, which he employs to deepen our understanding of both the literary and the material dimensions of rabbinic and, more broadly, Jewish culture in constant conversation with variegated theoretical and practical perspectives. This harvest of over three decades of his scholarship demonstrates his unequaled range, variety, and depth as a most illuminating and challenging reader of rabbinic literary culture in its many manifestations.”

—Steven D. Fraade, Yale University