I enjoyed this book very much. The presentation was consistently clear and engaging – even though I had to re-read many passages and flip back and forth within chapters frequently.Many of the chapters read like little detective stories, collecting clues and analyzing them to arrive at a greater understanding. I have to admit though, that in some sense I find what I’ve learned to be somewhat deflating: I can struggle to understand a sugya (a portion of Talmud), but without the access to other versions in other sources, variants and manuscripts, knowledge of other languages and cultural realia and the other scholarly tools explored in the book, my understanding would very likely be superficial at best and erroneous at worst! So, I took some comfort from the Afterword, that even the non-scientific student can leave “filled with blessing and good.” (Note: this is not a spoiler. I think it’s OK to flip to the Afterword!)I particularly enjoyed the material about Afikomen and hope to share some of it at my own Passover seders this year.The book gave me a whole new understanding of the crucial importance of the stam (the anonymous voice in the Gemara) in its selection, arrangement and changing (and inventing!) earlier materials. It’s almost as if the authors and editors of the stam are hiding, anonymously, behind feigned subordination to the earlier, named masters, while at the same time successfully pushing their own agenda, which became decisive to later generations.There was some personal irony for me in the penultimate chapter, about when special blessings are to be recited for the personal study of Torah, since throughout the time I read the book, I wondered if I should have been wearing a kippah, as is my custom when reading sifrei kodesh (holy literature). Reading from Tanakh, Mishnah, Talmud, etc. is engaging in a sacred activity which needs to be recognized as such. I wasn’t sure about reading a book such as this, which extensively cites from, explains, and deepens one’s understanding of sifrei kodesh – without itself having pretending to be a sefer kodesh? What status does that activity have? (I was lenient on myself in this respect, although in retrospect I think I should have been more strict.)My almost 60-year-old brain is more of a sieve than a steel trap. I feel like I retain, at least overtly, few of the specifics of what I learn. So I must believe that the act of study in itself is enriching, worthwhile and, dare I say, holy. Or to put it crassly, it’s about the journey, not the destination. Reading the book was quite a journey for me.(Disclosure: Josh Kulp, one of the authors, is also the author of the Conservative Yeshiva’s “Daf Shevui” program, which every week presents a full daf (folio page) of Talmud in six digestible bites, including Hebrew/Aramaic text, translation and commentary. I’ve been a participant in Daf Shevui since its inception, so in a sense I learn with Josh every day.)