Acknowledgments
This book is the fruit of an initial year’s labor at the tail end of a global pandemic at The Center for Jewish Studies at Harvard. Thus, it is a product of at first blazing foliage viewed through masks. Eerily empty foggy streets, later – a blizzard that made sure one would read all those books one typically says one will, as well as the comfort of the auto-illuminating darkness of the Weiner stacks as summer rolled back again.
I first meddled with Late Midrash narrative for three chapters of my dissertation. Both Tanchuma and Esther Rabbah surprised me differently, respectively immense familiarity with rabbinic sources and hidden editorial agendas. I vowed to one day return to late Midrash. I had not imagined the focus would be the tales of rabbinic sages rather than the biblical characters that accompanied me throughout my life. I hope the resulting study will spread genuine aesthetic enthusiasm about late tales.
It is a pleasure to thank, first Prof. Noah Feldman for the opportunity to do something worthwhile during a trying time, and second Prof. David Stern, whose feedback showed me the need for a more accurate theoretical framework for discussing late Midrash and Talmudic redaction. More so, I am grateful to all my peers during the fellowship for their companionship, but particularly to Dr. Anna Sierka for suggesting I had been reading the wrong Genette, and to Dr. Sophia Schmitt, and Dr. Chana Shacham-Rosby for their aid with Ashkenaz. I must thank Rachel Rockenmacher, and Sandy Cantave Vil, whose assistance and welcome were vital when crossing oceans both literal and bureaucratic. Lastly, appreciation is highly deserved for the people at Brill, chiefly Alan J. Avery-Peck, Katelyn Chin, William Scott Green, Katerina Sofiano, Dove Morissette, and the anonymous reviewer.