The mag­nif­i­cent work of mod­ern fic­tion that brings the age of the Tal­mud to life. The char­ac­ters include the well-known his­tor­i­cal fig­ures: Aki­ba, Yohanan, Joshua, Eleazar, Beruri­ah, and Elisha ben Abuyah, whose strug­gle to live in two worlds destroyed his chance to live in either. Fore­word by Chaim Potok.