Following his first wide-ranging collection on biblical text and exegetical culture, Michael Fishbane supplements his previous investigations with this second volume of collected writings. It includes close studies in medieval Jewish liturgical poetry, Jewish biblical exegesis (plain sense, allegorical sense, philosophical and mystical senses), and modern Jewish thought (traditional, especially Hasidic, literature as well as modern Jewish theology). Emphasizing the varieties of Jewish exegetical culture, and the interplay between culture, text and theology, each study is intended to be paradigmatic for a particular cultural or literary subject and includes many comparative examples, while placing special emphasis on hermeneutical and expository matters.

Born 1943; 1971 PhD, Brandeis University; 1971?90 Samuel Lane Professor of Jewish Religious History, Brandeis University; 1991-2022 Nathan Cummings Distinguished Service Professor of Jewish Studies, University of Chicago; emeritus.