Dear Joseph, The biblical story of the ten plagues in the book of Exodus, the series of disasters that forced the Egyptians to liberate the Israelites, is recounted every spring during the Jewish holiday of Passover. And this story still resonates today, as we try to make sense of such calamities of modern life as pandemics, climate change, and war. In DISASTERS OF BIBLICAL PROPORTIONS: The Ten Plagues Then, Now, and at the End of the World (Princeton University Press; on-sale: February 3, 2026), Steven Weitzman explores how artists, writers, activists, philosophers, believers and unbelievers alike have reshaped the story of the ten plagues to give expression to their own trauma, outrage, guilt, humor, and hope.
"Weitzman's Disasters of Biblical Proportions offers a brilliant exploration of the twists and turns in the exegetical history of the Ten Plagues story, following the paths it has taken in different contexts from late antiquity to the present. In Weitzman's hands, the plagues become an incredibly rich turf for the exploration of responses to disaster that are only too relevant today."-Ilana Pardes, author of The Song of Songs: A Biography Tracing the interpretation and retelling of each plague across time and space, Weitzman uncovers how this ancient tale found new meaning among Jews, Christians and Muslims and continues to shape how people today understand the present and envision the future. Even as it recounts the history of how the ten plagues have been reimagined, Disasters of Biblical Proportions is also a history of people's search for shelter from the calamities of their own times-and of humanity's striving for justice, freedom, and redemption. Please let me know if you would be interested in an early pdf of Disasters of Biblical Proportions (available now) or a physical review copy of the book (available in late 2025). I have included more information about the author below. Thank you for your consideration, Maria Whelan, Assistant Director of Publicity Princeton University Press Steven Weitzman is the Abraham M. Ellis Professor of Hebrew and Semitic Languages and Literatures at the University of Pennsylvania, where he also serves as the Ella Darivoff Director of the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies. He is the author of Solomon: The Lure of Wisdom and The Origin of the Jews: The Quest for Roots in a Rootless Age (Princeton), the winner of a National Jewish Book Award. He is also a coeditor of The Princeton Companion to Jewish Studies (Princeton).
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