This collection of five essays and two book reviews draws on a half-year of work, from mid-2008 to early 2009. The collection begins with historical theological essays: one on the apologetics of Judaism, the other on its soteriology. Both were written in response to invitations to contribute to collections of historical theology. The second set of two essays deals with the canon of Rabbinic Judaism. This is The Jack Chester Memorial Lecture to the Tenth Anniversary Celebration of the Sue and Leonard Miller Center for Contemporary Judaic Studies at the University of Miami. Two brief reviews complete the collection of six months of work.