The Babylonian Talmud is an unusually large, intricate, and brilliant religious work that sometimes seems to almost create a world of its own. Yet, like every text, it was produced in real time and within a broader context that consisted of multiple, intersecting worlds - including the political realities of the Sasanian Empire, the religious diversity of neighboring communities, including Zoroastrians and Syriac Christians, as well as various forms of non-rabbinic Judaism.

The Babylonian Talmud is an unusually large, intricate, and brilliant religious work that sometimes seems to almost create a world of its own. Yet, like every text, it was produced in real time and within a broader context that consisted of multiple, intersecting worlds - including the political realities of the Sasanian Empire, the religious diversity of neighboring communities, including Zoroastrians and Syriac Christians, as well as various forms of non-rabbinic Judaism.