Joshua A. Fogel is Canada Research Chair in the Department of History at York University. His research interests include Jewish history and thought, as well as the cultural dimension of Sino-Japanese relations. His most recent works include: Decisions, Decisions, Decisions: Reading Tractate Horayot of the Babylonian Talmud (Hamilton Books, 2013); Daily Reflections on Idolatry: Reading Tractate Avodah Zarah of the Babylonian Talmud (Hamilton Books, 2012); Japanese Historiography and the Gold Seal of 57 C.E.: Relic, Text, Object, Fake (Brill, 2013); and Articulating the Sinosphere: Sino-Japanese Relations in Space and Time (Harvard University Press, 2009).

This volume looks at tractate Menachot, which is concerned mostly with grain offered at the Temple (when it stood) to atone for various misdeeds. Fogel approaches the text, page by page, commenting with doses of humor and comparisons in a manner meant to explain the text for contemporary readers.

Author's Introduction
1. All Grain Offerings (dapim 2a-13a)
2. Performing Kometz on a Grain Offering (dapim 13a-17a)
3. The Great Kometz (dapim 17a-38a)
4. The Techelet (dapim 38a-52b)
5. All Grain Offerings Are Brought as Unleavened Bread (dapim 52b-63b)
6. Rabbi Yishmael (dapim 63b-72b)
7. These Grain Offerings Subject to Kemitzah (dapim 72b-76b)
8. The Thanksgiving Offering Used to Be Brought (dapim 76b-83b)
9. All Community Offerings (dapim 83b-87a)
10. Two Measures (dapim 87a-94a)
11. Two Loaves (dapim 94a-100b)
12. Grain Offerings and Libations (dapim 100b-104b)
13. I Must Bring an Issaron of Flour (dapim 104b-110a)
Glossary of Selected Terms
Index of Tannaim and Amoraim
Index to Biblical and Rabbinic References