The declared purpose of this volume is to encourage and facilitate the use of rabbinic writings by historians of the eastern Mediterranean region in the period between Hadrian and the Arab conquest. This is a laudable aim. While it would be an exaggeration to say that there is a chasm between rabbinic studies and historical study of Palestine in the period in question (second to seventh centuries), it is certainly true that the rabbinic literature from Palestine constitutes a rich and under-exploited resource for historians. The twenty-one essays are organised under three heads: ‘The issues’, ‘The rabbinic texts’ and ‘History’. Some of them illustrate well the reasons why many historians prefer to leave rabbinic evidence to one side, being laden with technical jargon and addressing issues of interest only to insiders. The best are admirable presentations accessible to any ancient or late antique historian. In the latter category are Fergus Millar's lucid explanation of the Palestinian context of rabbinic Judaism, stressing the important point that the literature was composed in a society marked ‘by a complex interplay of beliefs, ethnic identities and languages’; Günter Stemberger's presentation of the halakhic midrashim; Sacha Stern on the Talmud Yerushalmi; Robert Hayward on targum; Catherine Hezser on material culture and daily life; William Horbury on rabbinic perceptions of Christianity; and Aharon Oppenheimer on the urbanisation policy of the Severans. To single these out for mention is not to belittle the others: the general standard of the contributions is high, and they are equipped with useful bibliographies. The volume as a whole indicates clearly that historians have much to gain from drawing the relevant rabbinic sources into their investigations, but equally it makes it plain that their use is not straightforward. (Analogies might have been drawn with bodies of literature as diverse as the patristic writings and the Roman law-books.) While examples are not lacking of historians who can master the rabbinic evidence, these are rare and perhaps becoming rarer: what is required no doubt is a greater degree of collaboration between historians and rabbinic scholars.