Ronit Nikolsky has a PhD from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. She is a lecturer in Jewish and Israel Studies at the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, The Netherlands. She specializes in the spread of Midrashic narratives and in the cognitive approach to the study of culture. Tal Ilan has a PhD from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. She is Professor of Jewish Studies at the Freie Universität, Berlin. She specializes in rabbinic Judaism, ancient Jewish onomastics, and gender questions.

• Ronit Nikolsky and Tal Ilan, Introduction Shamma Friedman, Now You See it, Now You Don’t: Can Source-Criticism Perform Magic on Talmudic Passages about Sorcery? Moshe Lavee, No Boundaries for the Construction of Boundaries: The Babylonian Talmud’s Emphasis over Demarcation of IdentityGeoffrey Herman, Midgets and Mules, Elephants, and Exilarchs: On the Metamorphosis of a Polemical Amoraic StoryChristiane Tsuberi, Rescue from Transgression through Death; Rescue from Death through a TransgressionAmram Tropper, A Tale of Two Sinais: On the Reception of the Torah according to Bavli Shabbat 88aTal Ilan, Heaven and Hell: Babylonia and the Land of Israel in the BavliDavid Brodsky, From Disagreement to Talmudic Discourse: Progymnasmata and the Evolution of a Rabbinic GenreReuven Kiperwasser, The Misfortunes and Adventures of Elihoreph and Ahiah in the Land of Israel and in Babylonia: The Metamorphosis of a Narrative Tradition and Ways of AcculturationYaakov Elman, Commercial Law in Rome and Ctesiphon: Roman Jurisconsults, Rabbis and Sasanian Dastwars on RiskRonit Nikolsky, From Palestine to Babylonia and Back: The Place of the Bavli and the Tanhuma on the Rabbinic Cultural ContinuumPaul Mandel, Was Rabbi Aqiva a Martyr? Palestinian and Babylonian Influences in the Development of a Legend