This collection is a unique contribution to Jewish studies by one of its leading scholars. Re-imagining the Bible presents a dozen essays from Howard Schwartz's published work. Some of them appeared as introductions to his books; others are taken from journals. United by the important thesis that there is indeed a continuity in Jewish literature extending from the biblical era to our own times, the essays reflect on the ways in which each successive phase of Jewish literature has drawn upon and re-imagined the previous ones. Divided into four sections--The Ancient Models, The Folk Tradition, Mythic Echoes, and Modern Jewish Literature and the Ancient Models--the essays each reflect on a specific genre, ranging from Torah and Haggadah to kabbala, fairy tales, and the modern Yiddish stories of S.Y. Agnon and Isaac Bashevis Singer.

Howard Schwartz, Professor of English, University of Missouri, St. Louis