James Adam Redfield offers a new reader-centered approach to some of the Talmud’s most challenging stories and 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. Rich appendixes revealing the stories’ reception in late ancient exegesis, medieval responsa, and early modern commentaries make this volume a valuable specialist resource, while its lively prose is accessible for a wider audience of students and humanities scholars.

James Adam Redfield is Associate Professor of Jewish Anthropology and Hermeneutics in the Department of Theological Studies at Saint Louis University and Visiting Associate Professor in Jewish Civilization and the History of European Civilization at the University of Chicago.