Areas of Research/Interest: Rabbinic literature, ancient Judaism, Jewish law, Jewish ethics, history of religions.

External Affiliations: Society of Biblical Literature; American Academy of Religion; Association of Jewish Studies.

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Select Publications:

The Culture of The Babylonian Talmud. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003.

Rabbinic Stories. Classics in Western Spirituality Series: Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press. 2002. 
 
Talmudic Stories: Narrative Art, Composition, and Culture. Johns Hopkins University Press. 1999. (Finalist in 1999 National Jewish Book Awards, Scholarship Division). 

The History of Sukkot in the Second Temple and Rabbinic Periods. Atlanta: Scholars Press. 1995.

The Bavli's Ethic of Shame

Bavli Gittin 55B-56B: An Aggadic Narrative in Its Halakhik Context

Context and Genre: Elements of a Literary Approach to the Rabbinic Narrative

Criteria of Stammaitic Intervention in Aggada

Cultic Themes in Sukkot Piyyutim

Elisha ben Abuya: Torah and the Sinful Sage

An Eschatological Drama: Bavli Avoda Zarah 2a-3b

Ethics and the Liturgy of Conservative Judaism

From Mythic Motifs to Sustained Myth: The Revision of Rabbinic Traditions in Medieval Midrashim

The Laws of Heaven in Sefer Hasidim

Mythic Time and The Festival Cycle

Nominalism and Realism in Qumranic and Rabbinic Law: A Reassessment

Purim, Liminality, and Communitas

The Sadducees and the Water Libation

Siddur Sim Shalom and Developing Conservative Theology

Social and Institutional Settings of Rabbinic Literature

Some Structural Patterns of Yerushalmi Sugyot

The Sukka as Temporary or Permanent Dwelling: A Study in the Development of Talmudic Thought

Sukkot, Eschatology and Zechariah 14

The Sukkot Wine Libation

The Symbolism of the Sukkah

The Symbolism of the Sukka (Part 2)

The Talmud Expression "Rabbi X, following his reasoning said"

The Thematization of Dialectics in Bavli Aggada