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From the Publisher:
The historical value of talmudic texts is a contested issue in modern talmudic studies. Historians regularly utilize legal differences between the Talmuds of Palestine (edited c. 370 C.E.) and Babylonian (edited c. 650 C.E.) to assist in the reconstruction of Jewish history in the two centers. However, while some halakhic differences may be the result of external influences (cultural or regional differences between Persian Babylon and Roman or Byzantine Palestine) others are the product of internal factors (textual, hermeneutical, and dialectical). In her important study, Christine Hayes critiques a historical approach that posits external explanations for divergences between the two Talmuds without paying sufficient attention to internal factors. Hayes demonstrates through a careful analysis of parallel passages from Bavli and Yerushalmi Avodah Zarah, that textual, hermeneutical, and dialectical factors frequently generate halakhic difference between the Talmuds. Nonetheless, Hayes argues that under certain conditions halakhic difference can provide information of use to the historian. A second set of case studies reveals that it is precisely when the Talmuds violate standard strategies of interpretation and argumentation that external (historical) factors are the likely cause of the halakhic difference in question. She thus shows that our knowledge of the different characters of the two Talmuds and their particular hermeneutical and dialectical practices acts not only as a brake on inappropriate historical analysis but also as a guide to appropriate historical analysis.

From the Publisher:
Black Zion explores the myriad ways in which African American religions have encountered Jewish traditions, beliefs, and spaces. The collection's unifying argument is that religion is the missing piece of the cultural jigsaw puzzle, that much of the recent turmoil, in black-Jewish relations would be better understood, if not alleviated, if the religious roots of those relations were illuminated. Toward that end, the contributors look a number of provocative topics. Ranging from the Nation of Islam to the Hebrew Israelites and from Abraham Joshua Heschel to Martin Luther King, Jr., the book sheds tight on a little examined but vitally important dimension of black-Jewish relations in America: religion.

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From the Publisher:
In ancient Israelite sacrifice as represented in the Hebrew Bible, the handling and use of the blood of sacrificed animals took many forms and served different functions. The Hebrew Bible refers to tossing sacrificial blood onto an altar or an assembly of people, daubing it on the altar's horns or parts of the human body, and sprinkling it on or in front of sacred objects.

William Gilders investigates the significance of these blood rituals. Offering a close reading of Leviticus 17:11, Gilders emphasizes the secondary and innovative character of this biblical text, which has often been treated as a key for understanding biblical blood ritual.

Focusing on the analysis of practice, Gilders finds that blood manipulation is regularly marked as elite activity, serving as an index of social relationships and hierarchies. Blood rituals also regulate access to sacred spaces and define the limits of such spaces. Drawing on recent theoretical approaches to ritual practices, this study offers a sophisticated new understanding of ancient rites.

This carefully reserched book is a significant addition to this vital foeld of knowledge. It sets forth, in fascinating detail, the history, from earliset recorded times, of the black races of the Middle East and Africa.