Talmudic Stories: Narrative Art, Composition, and Culture (review)

Hebrew Studies 42 (2001) 382 Reviews transcriber," and consequent spurious or misplaced pesiqs, since, as with former studies, not all examples of the sign fit the categories of use set up. After a few pages on further developments in the use of the sign, the bulk of the book, pp. 29-551 (not 29-530 as stated in the table of contents), is taken up with the discussion of specific examples. Pages 552-558 give the author's views on "Earlier stages in the Evolution (so table of contents; p. 552 has Evolutions) of the Masoretic Text." The problems of the book are clearly displayed in the second paragraph on p. 163. In the first few lines, the failures of proofreading common in the book have resulted in the loss of some Hebrew words and the mis­ placement of others. The author's single-minded concentration on his own views is shown in his statement that the Masora Parva notes the use of a pesiq. This appears to refer to 1 Sam 7:14, where the purpose of the cir­ cellus between the words ysr'llysr'l and its note l(aU) is much more likely to mark that particular combination of words as unique than to note the presence ofpesiq. The paragraph presents examples of "the familiar pesiq for duplicated words," but half of it is taken up with an explanation of why pesiq does not occur in 1 Sam 2:3. Since the case in 1 Sam 3: lOis noted, we might also hope for an explanation of why the sign is not always used where a name is repeated in address, as in Exod 3:4, but none is offered. This passage may be discussed on some other page, but since there is no in~ dex of biblical verses (despite the apparent reference to one at the bottom of p. 29), this cannot be checked. It is conventional to blame an author for all such problems. One wonders, however, whether presses which pride theJ,llselves on publishing works which would not be commercially viable are really doing scholars a service if they fail (because, of course, of com­ mercial pressures) to provide adequate support in terms of indexing, proofreading, and editorial aid generally, to allow the production of a truly useful book. . E. J. Revell University qf Toronto Toronto, Ontario M5S 1CI CANADA jrevelll@compuserve.com TALMUDIC STORIES: NARRATIVE ART, COMPOSITION, AND CULTURE. By Jeffrey L. Rubenstein. Pp. xvi + 435. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999. Cloth, $49.95 In recent decades, there has been tremendous development in the study of rabbinic aggadah, or non-legal material, particularly among scholars ...