Traveling Homeland

Daniel Boyarin is Hermann P. and Sophia Taubman Professor of Talmudic Culture, Departments of Near Eastern Studies and Rhetoric, University of California, Berkeley. He is author of many books, including Border Lines: The Partition of Judaeo-Christianity, also available from the University of Pennsylvania Press.

• Prelude. A Different DiasporaChapter 1. Diaspora and the Jewish DiasporasChapter 2. At Home in Babylonia: The Talmud as Diasporist ManifestoChapter 3. In the Land of Talmud: The Textual Making of a Diasporic FolkChapter 4. Looking for Our Routes; or, the Talmud and the Making of Diasporas: Sefarad and AshkenazNotesBibliographyIndexAcknowledgments

"Boyarin's book can be seen as a diasporic creation itself in terms of its embeddedness both in the details of the Talmudic discourse and in sociological theories outside of Jewish studies. Boyarin is engaged in a dialogue with scholars outside of Jewish studies and convincingly shows how Jewish studies can influence and be influenced by these 'foreign' fields. His scholarship is exemplary in showing how mutually fruitful and important those discussions can be. A Traveling Homeland is very well written and a most worthwhile read for anyone who wants to get a fresh look at the phenomena of diaspora, the Talmud, and the nature of Jewishness itself as a diaspora. It opens up needed debates on these issues as it challenges commonly held views." (Reading Religion) "After two decades of exciting debate, the theory of diaspora studies is now in gridlock and in need of new interventions. This is such an intervention-a strong and exhilarating book." (Khachig Tölölyan, Wesleyan University) "Daniel Boyarin demolishes the long-standing notion that diaspora was born out of despair and sorrow. A Traveling Homeland is a highly erudite, suggestive, and provocative study on the concept of diaspora, and the Jewish diaspora in particular." (Oded Irshai, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)