Table of Contents The Legal Characterization of God in the Pentateuch James W. Watts, Hastings College “Profane” Slaughter and the Integrity of the Priestly Code BaruchJ . Schwartz, Tel-Aviv University ; Did Xerxes Wage War on Jerusalem? Sidney G. Sowers, Salem, Oregon “He Slew the Egyptian and Hid Him in the Sand”: Jewish Tradition and the Moral Element Avi Sagi, Bar-Ilan University Genealogy and Polemics in Rabbinic Literature of Late Antiquity Richard Kalmin, Jewish Theological Seminary Kalir Was a Tanna: Rabbenu Tam’s Invocation of Antiquity in Defense of the Ashkenazi Payyetanic Tradition Ruth Langer, Boston College The “Ways of Midrash” in the Biblical Commentaries of Isaac Abarbanel Eric Lawee, Stanford University The Son of the Messiah: Ishmael Zevi and the Sabbatian Aqedah DavidJ .H alperin, University of North Carolina DwIN OVI :PIVP PT DIDF BIT FOV apy? an Kimmy Caplan, Harvard University,