Focusing on the concepts of time and the life cycle this collection of articles examines Jewish life in the Talmudic period through the lens of Jewish law and custom of the time The essays are the work of Nissan Rubin one of them written in collaboration with Admiel Kosman and come together to present the cultural perspective of the sages and scholars who produced the stepping stones of Jewish life and custom By using a structural approach Rubin is able to identify processes of long term change in a society that remains largely traditional and stable Symbolic analysis supplies an additional dimension to these studies enabling the reader to experience the cultural subtexts