ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the complex phenomenology of the epistolary material, and provides a succinct survey of the history of the Jewish letter in an attempt to reassess its importance for scholarship. In the light of the fact that these criteria are still too general, some theoreticians have added other normative parameters, such as that a letter should not be too lengthy, that it should be written in a simple and straightforward style, and that it should contain a limited set of conventional formulae of salutation at the beginning and/or at the end. The chapter also provides basic information concerning the main collections of letters written by Jews in Hebrew and in the languages of the Diaspora, both published and in manuscript. Modernity is also the epoch of the acceleration of transport, affecting the flow of letters, and of democratization of travel, with masses of tourists sending home postcards and souvenirs from every corner of the world.
