Shai Secunda, Ph.D. (2008), Yeshiva University, is Mandel Fellow at the Scholion Center for Interdisciplianary Jewish Research at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has published articles on Rabbinic and Zoroastrian literature, and has recently completed a study entitled, Reading the Talmud in Iran.Steven Fine is professor of Jewish history at Yeshiva University, director of the Yeshiva University Center for Israel Studies and of the Arch of Titus Digital Restoration Project. Fine’s most recent monograph, Art and Judaism in the Greco-Roman World: Toward a New Jewish Archaeology (2005, revised edition 2010), received the Association for Jewish Studies’ Jordan Schnitzer Book Award in 2009.

"The scholarship in this festschrift provides an interdisciplinary exploration of the intersection between Persian and rabbinic culture. An enlightening survey of the literature, it is a critical work not to be missed by any library with a focus on Middle Eastern studies." -Randall C. Belinfante, American Sephardi Federation, Association of Jewish Libraries Reviews, vol.3, no.3

• Preface1. The Re-Presentation of “Biblical” Legal Material at Qumran: Three Cases from 4Q159 (4QOrdinancesa) Moshe Bernstein2. Medieval and Modern Philology: Notes on the First Sugya of BT Nazir Daniel Boyarin3. What must the Jew do to Help the Cooking? An Analytic Resolution to Avoda Zara 38 Shalom Carmy 4. Biblical Influence on Virgil Louis Feldman 5. ‘For this Schoolhouse is Beautiful’: A Note on Samaritan ‘Schools’ in Late Antique Palestine Steven Fine6. Sorting Out the Wages of Adultery: Execution, Ordeal or Divorce Shamma Friedman7. ‘One Day David went out for the hunt of the falconers’: Persian Themes in the Babylonian Talmud Geoffrey Herman8. The Agonistic Bavli: Greco-Roman Rhetoric in Sasanian Persia Richard Hidary9. A Late Antique Babylonian Rabbinic Treatise on Astrology Richard Kalmin10. Redesigning Tzitzit in the Babylonian Talmud in Light of Literary Depictions of the Zoroastrian kustīg Yishai Kiel11. Irano-Talmudica II: Leviathan, Behemoth and the “Domestication” of Iranian Mythological Creatures in Eschatological Narratives of the Babylonian Talmud Reuven Kiperwasser and Dan Shapira12. Learning from the Tāg: On a Persian word for ‘Crown’ in Jewish Aramaic Aaron Koller13. The adwadād Offence in Zoroastrian Law Maria Macuch14. Qui coierit cum muliere in fluxu menstruo… interficientur ambo (Lev. 20:18) – The Biblical Prohibition of Sexual Relations with a Menstruant in the Eyes of Some Medieval Christian Theologians Evyatar Marienberg15. ‘Until Zadok Arose’ in the Damascus Document: Zadok and his Appointment as High Priest in Early Jewish Interpretation Chaim Milikowsky16. Astrology and the Head of the Academy Jeffrey L. Rubenstein17. The Curving Shore of Time and Space: Notes on the Prologue to Pushkin’s Ruslan and Ludmila James Russel18. The Samaritans in Amoraic Halakhah Lawrence H. Schiffman19. Parva – a Magus Shai Secunda20. Religious Actions Evaluated by Intention: Zoroastrian Concepts Shared with Judaism Shaul Shaked 21. Hairy Meat? On Nērangestān, chapter 47.1-20 Prods Oktor Skjærvø22. Yefet in the House of Shem: The Influence of the Septuagint Translation of the Scroll of Esther on Rabbinic Literature Joseph Tabory23. Scripture Versus Contemporary (Interpretive) Needs: Towards a Mapping of the Hermeneutic Contours of Zoroastrianism Yuhan Sohrab-Dinshaw Vevaina Hebrew Sectionדוד הנשקה, "סעודת ליל הסדר: בין הלל להגדה"צבי אריה שטיינפלד, "להגדרתם של קרבן יחיד ושל קרבן ציבור"