Marc Dollinger

Fragments of the Brooklyn Talmud

Fiction

“In this creative, imaginative, original, and provocative work, Andrew Ramer once again challenges us to rethink our assumptions about Jewish life. Set in a futuristic moment seemingly unrelated to debates in contemporary Jewish life, Fragments of the Brooklyn Talmud predicts the past as much as the future. It investigates traditional rabbinic authority by offering Ramer’s view of a new progressive halachah. Read forward in time, we learn how a future generation crafts its own Talmud. Read backward in time, we get to re-imagine the potential of a Babylonian or Palestinian Talmud interpreted with a more expansive, inclusive, and pluralist frame. Packed with scores of rhetorical nuggets that deepen meaning, Ramer gifts us a hopeful vision of the world’s future even as he describes an era marked by the most challenging day-to-day circumstance.”