About
I am a professor in the Talmud department and currently serving as the chair of the department. My research focuses on the history of early rabbinic literature and law against the background of Second Temple Judaism and within its Greco-Roman context. The rabbis of the first centuries CE devised new forms of study and legal thinking, and my work traces the emergence of this new legal discourse, especially as it is reflected in the literary evolution of the Mishnah. My previous book, Purity and Identity in Ancient Judaism: From the Temple to the Mishnah (revised English version), applies this approach in the field of purity law, which acquired new meanings as it was transformed from Second Temple to rabbinic Judaism.
Contact
Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Institute for Jewish Studies
The Faculty of Humanities
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
9190501, Israel
Office: Rabin Building, room 1211
Telephone: +972-2-5880426
Office hours: by prior arrangement
E-mail: yair.furstenberg@mail.huji.ac.il