Penalty and Temptation: Hebrew Tales in Ashkenaz by Rella Kushelevsky , discusses thirteen tales copied in MS. Parma 2295 (thirteenth century, North France). The tales, which originated in Rabbinic Literature and in medieval story compilations from the East, were re-worked and re-formulated in Ashkenaz. A careful reading of these narrative versions, mostly published here for the first time, and an attentiveness to their unique characteristics compared to classic and modern versions, portrays a broad and panoramic view of Ashkenazi culture: concrete depictions of Paradise and Hell, martyrdom as a central value, repentance practices and other central topics in Ashkenazi piety, as well as images of women and religious symbols from the non-Jewish surroundings. The book offers a double perspective: literary, since these narratives are artistic works in every respect, and hermeneutic, since they trigger a multi-participant dialogue. The readings offered in Penalty and Temptation are the result of the interaction between narratives copied in North France – themselves readings of earlier narrative traditions – and the reader, who becomes acquainted with different modes of being while also similar to his or her own. Ashkenaz in this book is not a historical reality but a fictive entity that bestows this reality with significance, and in which the reader takes part in its establishment.