About
My research focuses on the literature, law, and social history of the rabbinic movement. In particular, I am interested in how rabbinic food regulations enact and maintain distinct identities.
I am currently writing a book entitled
Rabbinic Drinking: What Beverages Teach Us About Rabbinic Literature (University of California Press; forthcoming in February 2020) and co-editing a volume entitled
Feasting and Fasting: The History and Ethics of Jewish Food (New York University Press; forthcoming in December 2019).
Education
Ph.D., Brown University, Religious Studies, 2008
M.A., Brown University, Religious Studies, 2005
M.A., Emory University, Jewish Studies, 2003
B.A., Columbia University, Religion, 2001
B.A., Jewish Theological Seminary of America, Ancient Judaism, 2001 Work Shared in CORE
Articles
Book chapters
Other Publications
Books:
The Jewish Dietary Laws in the Ancient World, Cambridge University Press, 2016; paperback edition: 2019.
Food and Identity in Early Rabbinic Judaism, Cambridge University Press, 2010; paperback edition: 2014.
Edited Volumes:
Religious Competition in the Third Century C.E.: Jews, Christians, and the Greco-Roman World, co-edited with Lily C. Vuong an Nathaniel P. DesRosiers, Journal of Ancient Judaism Supplements, Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 2014.
Articles:
“‘Blessings of the Breasts’: Breastfeeding in Rabbinic Literature,” Hebrew Union College Annual 87 (2016): 145-177.
“Dining In(to) the World To Come,” in
Olam ha-zeh v’olam ha-ba: This World and the World to Come in Jewish Belief and Practice, ed. Leonard Greenspoon, Studies in Jewish Civilization, Purdue University Press, 2017: pp. 105-114.
Book Reviews:
Kosher USA: How Coke Became Kosher and Other Tales of Modern Food, by Roger Horowitz
(Columbia University Press), H-Judaic, H-Net Reviews, November, 2016.
Stories of the Law: Narrative Discourse and the Construction of Authority in the Mishnah, by Moshe
Simon-Shoshan (Oxford University Press), H-Judaic, H-Net Reviews, January, 2013.
Power, Ethics, and Ecology in Jewish Late Antiquity: Rabbinic Responses to Drought and Disaster, by
Julia Watts Belser (Cambridge University Press), AJS Review 40/1 (2016): 166-168.
The Iranian Talmud: Reading the Bavli in Its Sasanian Context, by Shai Secunda (University of
Pennsylvania Press), The Journal of Religion, 95/1 (2015): 140-141.
Rabbinic Parodies of Jewish and Christian Literature, by Holger M. Zellentin (Mohr Siebeck),
Journal for the Study of Judaism 43/3 (2012): 444.
Jewish Identities in Antiquity: Studies in Memory of Menahem Stern, edited by Lee I. Levine and
Daniel R. Schwartz (Mohr Siebeck), Catholic Biblical Quarterly 73 (2011): 433-435.
Upcoming Talks and Conferences
“Rabbinic Drinking: Beer and Wine in Judaism in the Roman World,” University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, September 26, 2018.
“Rabbinic Drinking: Learning Themes in Rabbinic Literature Through the Drinking Glass,” University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, October 4, 2018
“Beer: Brewing Religion in the Ancient World,” Indiana University, Bloomington, IN. February 28, 2019
“‘The wine of the region’: Wine, Beer, and the Translation fo Rabbinic Ritual from a Palestinian to a Babylonian Context,” Food as Concept/Symbol/Metaphor Program Unit, International Society of Biblical Literature Meeting, Rome, Italy, July 2019
“‘The wine of the region’: Brewing Religion and the Translation fo Rabbinic Ritual from a Palestinian to a Babylonian Context,” Meals in the Greco-Roman World Program Unit, Society of Biblical Literature Meeting, San Diego, CA, November 2019
Memberships
American Academy of Religion
Association for Jewish Studies
Society of Biblical Literature
