Via Zoom.  RSVP to receive zoom link. 

This is an extraordinary novel in so many ways. Milton Steinberg accomplishes writing an imagined biography of a shady talmudic character, pulled together from narrative scraps strewn throughout the textual tradition. Steinberg invents a life for Elisha ben Abuyah, also known as Akher (“Other”), and familiar to talmudists as the archetypal apostate. In doing so, he offers a vibrant reconstruction of life under the Romans in Palestine around and after the year 100 C.E., replete with pagans, Christians, and the rock stars of the Rabbinic world, sages like Rabbi Akiba and Rabbi Meir.