Dr. Swartz specializes in the cultural history of Judaism in late antiquity, rabbinic studies, early Jewish mysticism and magic, and ritual studies. He is the author of Scholastic Magic: Ritual and Revelation in Early Jewish Mysticism (1996) and Mystical Prayer in Ancient Judaism: An Analysis of Ma'aseh Merkavah (1992); and co-author, with Joseph Yahalom, of Avodah: Ancient Poems for Yom Kippur (2005) and Hebrew and Aramaic Incantation Texts from the Cairo Genizah: Selected Texts from Taylor-Schechter Box K1 (1992), with Lawrence H. Schiffman. He also served as the Associate Editor for Judaica for the second edition of the Encyclopedia of Religion (2005).

 

Dr. Swartz is currently working on a history of ideas of sacrifice in post-biblical Judaism.