During the several years I spent researching and writing this manuscript, I was surrounded by colleagues and friends who pushed this project toward its successful finalization each in his own way. I want to thank Adi Ophir for his stimulating responses and unceasing encouragement. I direct my thanks to Alfred Tauber for his extraordinary support and insightful notes on an earlier version of this manuscript. I am also tremendously thankful to Oded Schechter for his reading of the major parts of the manuscript and the countless conversations from which I learned enormously. Special thanks to Judith Butler for her generous and attentive reading of the manuscript. Also thanks to CUP’s two anonymous readers for their thoughtful notes which left their stamp on the last version of this book.
I was lucky for being granted the help, support, advice, notes, and thoughts of all those who led the early versions of this manuscript to wear the form of this book. My distinctive thanks go to Amnon Raz-Krakotzkin, Christiane Aurich, Christoph Schmidt, Eliav Brand, Georges Khalil, Gideon Freudenthal, Kamal Aljafari, Samah Selim, Samera Esmeir, Uta Ruge, Yizhak Melamed, and Yossef Schwartz.