Me? I thought, hesitant. Who am I to write a book about the Tannaim and Amoraim?

I’ve always been intrigued by history, but my passion for researching and writing Jewish history manifested only about ten years ago, when I was in kollel in Eretz Yisrael. I was compiling brief biographical notes about the Tannaim and Amoraim, both because it was fun — I enjoy this type of stuff — and because I wanted to create biographical sketches that I could look back at. Mainly, I was curious to figure out the rebbi-talmid relationships, so I wanted to put to paper the basic concepts of who lived where and when, along with other biographical information, so I could work my way through it.

One afternoon during bein hasedorim, as I was diligently typing away on my laptop while peering back and forth between a Gemara and the screen, a close friend glanced over my shoulder and started reading. He was fascinated.

“Why don’t you write a book?” he asked. “No one knows this stuff.”

Me? I thought, hesitant. Who am I to write a book about the Tannaim and Amoraim?

But my friend is really persuasive, and he soon had me convinced.

For the next year, I gathered information from a lot of sources: Seder Hadoros, Sefer Yuchsin, Koreh Hadoros, the Chida in Shem Hagedolim, Iggeres Rabbeinu Sherira Gaon, Seder Olam, Gemara Bavli and Yerushalmi, Rashi, Tosafos, the Rambam, the Meiri, Acharonim like the Yaavetz, Maharatz Chayes, Toldos Tannaim v’Amoraim. I researched the lives of the primary Tannaim and Amoraim: Ezra Hasofer, Hillel, Shammai, Rabi Yehuda Hanasi, Rav, Shmuel, Rabi Yochanan, Reish Lakish, Abaye, Rava, Rav Ashi, and many more.

It took three years of research, writing, and editing, and in September 2019, Judaica Press published The Tannaim and Amoraim.

My brief foray in a career of writing, I assumed, and I resumed my full-time kollel schedule. People would ask, “So what’s next, a book on the Rishonim?” and I’d smile, appreciative of the feedback, but I didn’t think about it seriously.

One day two years later, my phone rang. By then I’d joined the community kollel in Cincinnati, Ohio, where we still live.

“Nosson, would you consider writing a book on the Rishonim?” Judaica Press’s managing editor Nachum Shapiro asked.

Wow — what?

I was excited about the prospect, but I was also taken by surprise — and somewhat overwhelmed by the fact that I would need to fit this into my busy full-time kollel and family schedule. I was motivated, though, because I’m passionate about the subject, and I knew my wife would love the idea.

“Of course!” I said.

It was the only answer I could think of.