Prior to this ground-breaking book, almost everyone has acknowledged the key role meals played in early Judaism. Nevertheless, only contemporary rabbinical studies, early Christian liturgical scholarship, and a few classicists wrote about this topic, resulting in a very fragmented view of meals and their formative role in early Judaism. With its keen analysis of the basic influences and the historical form of early Jewish meals, Meals in Early Judaism lays the groundwork for more detailed portraits of specific communal meal celebrations in the early centuries of the Common Era. Capitalizing on their ten-year collaborative research project within the Society of Biblical Literature, scholars Susan Marks, Jonathan Brumberg-Kraus, and Jordan Rosenblum provide and elaborate ten basic theses on these meals. Their further work offers intense examination of early rabbinic meal practices and the meals of the Jewish Therapeutae community in first century Egypt. In keeping with the book's application of these theses to specific settings, Professor Judith Hauptman assesses this new perspective and foundation for further study of rabbinic meals. Taussig, McGowan, Klinghardt and Smith contribute further to an exploration of Philo's portrait of the Therapeutae and beyond.

Susan Marks is an Associate Professor of the Klingenstein Chair of Judaic Studies at New College in Florida, USA. Her recent book, First Came Marriage: The Rabbinic Appropriation of Early Jewish Wedding Ritual, investigates formerly unexamined differences between 2nd century and 4th century Jewish wedding ritual.

Hal Taussig holds professorial rank at both the Recontructionist Rabbinical College and the Union Theological Seminary in New York, USA. His 13 books include A New New Testament: A Bible for the 21st Century Combining Traditional and Newly Discovered Texts; In the Beginning Was the Meal: Social Experimentation and Early Christian Identity; Re-Reading the Gospel of Mark Amidst Loss and Trauma (with Maia Kotrosits); and Meals in the Early Christian World: Social Formation, Experimentation, and Conflict at the Table (with Dennis Smith).

Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
Preface; Hal Taussig
Introduction; Susan Marks
1. Ten Theses Concerning Meals and Early Judaism; Jonathan Brumberg-Kraus, Susan Marks and Jordan Rosenblum
PART I
2. Thinking about the Ten Theses in Relation to the Passover Seder and Women's Participation; Judith Hauptman
3. Food and Identity in Early Rabbinic Judaism; Jordan Rosenblum 
4. In the place of Libation: Birkat Hamazon Navigates New Ground; Susan Marks 
5. Performing Myth, Performing Midrash at Rabbinic Meals; Jonathan Brumberg-Kraus 
PART II
6. The Pivotal Place of the Therapeutae in Understanding the Meals of Early Judaism; Hal Taussig
7. The Food of the Therapeutae: A Thick Description; Andrew McGowan
8. The Ritual Dynamics of Inspiration: The Therapeutae's Dance; Matthias Klinghardt
9. Contrasting Banquets: A Literary Commonplace in Philo's On the Contemplative Life and other Greek and Roman Symposia; Jonathan Brumberg-Kraus
10. Next Steps: Placing this Study of Jewish Meals in the Larger Picture of Meals in the Ancient World, Early Judaism, and Early Christianity; Dennis Smith
Bibliography