David Weiss Halivni is Lucius N. Littauer Professor of Classical Jewish Civilization at Columbia University. A world-renowned Talmud scholar, Halivni's lifelong study of the Talmud finds expression in a 10-volume study of the history of the transmission of the Talmudic text; six volumes have already been published. Born in Romania, Halivni is a Holocaust survivor and has recently published an autobiographical memoir, The Book and the Sword: A Life of Learning in the Throes of the Holocaust.