I grew up in a household in which the Bible played very little role.

Certainly professionally, yes [I was interested more in history]. And literary criticism, the structure of poetry. But it is primarily as a historian that I work, although text criticism and literary criticism are very much a part of my interests.

We want to live in ambiguity. This is the human condition.

I would not speak of Judaism as a Talmudic or Rabbinic religion. It's a Biblical religion.

My own interest is far more in the Hebrew Bible. My religion is more personally related to the Hebrew Bible than it is to the New Testament.

You have miracles [in the Hebrew Bible], yes, but they're not the work, normally, of demons.

In fact, we're both [with Elie Wiesel] engaged with the text. We search for different things, we find different things. There is a side of what he does that I'd like to do, a bit more privately. I'm not sure he is as interested in history, as I am.