When Babylonian rabbis produced and preserve midrashic discussions, they compiled them into relatively short, oral collections, using the mishnaic structure underlying the Bavli as a bibliographic “storage system.” Why did the Babylonian rabbis compile and preserve a complete midrash on Esther if this was not their regular working method? What technique did they use to preserve and store this midrash? 

Excessive drinking on Purim is recommended by the amora Rabbah, in a rare Aramaic ruling that is followed by a strange account of a drunk Rabbah slaughtering his colleague, R. Zeira, at a Purim feast. What are we to make of this shocking law and story, and what do can they teach us about the unique, carnivalesque quality of Purim?

The Babylonian Talmud as an oral library for rabbinic collections.