Acknowledgements
My plan was to finish this book in the land of Israel in the context of a research trip to the Ben Gurion University of Beer Sheva. This was not possible because of the war that broke out in the wake of a terror attack in Israel on 7th October 2023.
During the years that writing this book has taken me, I had the chance to exchange ideas with several colleagues, friends, and students, in the Diaspora and in the land of Israel, in the Austrian hostland which has become a homeland to me and in my native Argentina, colleagues from the field of Jewish studies, but also from other disciplines. I want to thank Leonard V. Rutgers, who led the interdisciplinary NWO-funded project Reconfiguring Diaspora: The Transformation of the Jewish Diaspora in Late Antiquity in the context of which I conducted a significant part of the research for this book. I am particularly grateful towards three colleagues for their comments on an earlier version of this book, which was presented as Habilitationsschrift to the Faculty of Historical and Cultural Studies of the University of Vienna: Tal Ilan, Catherine Hezser, and Eyal Ben-Eliyahu. I also want to express my thanks to Alissa Jones-Nelson for improving the language of this book.
I began thinking about this book in Vienna—where my interest for rabbinic literature began, at a seminar on the Mishnah held by Professor Günter Stemberger. Ever since those classes I have had the privilege to learn from him in innumerable talks at the department. This book is dedicated to him.
Vienna, 7th December 2023