In Pow­er and Emo­tion in Ancient Judaism: Com­mu­ni­ty and Iden­ti­ty in For­ma­tion, Ari Mer­mel­stein engages ancient texts in a way that is pro­found­ly gen­er­a­tive for con­tem­po­rary com­mu­ni­ties. The book is not only a nuanced study of pow­er and emo­tion and the rela­tion­ship between them, but also of the way in which text and rit­u­al lead to feel­ing Jew­ish — that is, adher­ing to the rules that gov­ern Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ties and expe­ri­enc­ing the emo­tions that derive from a Jew­ish analy­sis of power.

High­light­ing the con­cept of feel­ing Jew­ish as a cen­tral com­po­nent of how ancient writ­ers per­ceived Jew­ish iden­ti­ty is rev­e­la­to­ry. Read­ers inter­est­ed in antiq­ui­ty can find in Pow­er and Emo­tion a fresh lens for under­stand­ing ancient texts and the com­mu­ni­ties that pro­duced them. At the same time, read­ers with more con­tem­po­rary con­cerns can find in it insights to more effec­tive­ly chal­lenge social ills like racism and anti­semitism. Although the book devotes lim­it­ed atten­tion to the present, its analy­sis of pow­er and emo­tion illu­mi­nates cur­rent social dynam­ics as well as ancient ones. More­over, rec­og­niz­ing how ancient texts trans­form pow­er rela­tions by engag­ing emo­tion can inspire read­ers to a new appre­ci­a­tion of the pos­si­bil­i­ties inher­ent in the way in which con­tem­po­rary com­mu­ni­ties con­tin­ue to make text and rit­u­al cen­tral to Jew­ish life.