Scholars of early Jewish mysticism have, with increasing confidence, located the initial formation of Hekhalot literature in Byzantine Palestine and Sasanian or early Islamic Babylonia (ca. 500-900 C.E.). Yet questions remain regarding the specific cultural contexts and institutional settings out of which the various strands of Hekhalot literature emerged as well as the multiple trajectories they subsequently traveled. In the present volume, an international team of experts explores, from a variety of disciplinary perspective, the literary formation, cultural meanings, religious functions, and textual transmission of Hekhalot literature. Contributors: Gideon Bohak, Ra'anan Boustan, David M. Grossberg, Klaus Herrmann, Reimund Leicht, Rebecca Lesses, Michael Meerson, Noam Mizrahi, Ophir Munz-Manor, Andrei A. Orlov, Peter Schafer, Alexei Sivertsev, Michael D. Swartz, Moulie Vidas, Annette Yoshiko Reed