Rebecca Lesses is an Associate Professor of Jewish Studies at Ithaca College. Lesses received her A.B., A.M, and Ph.D. all from Harvard in the Study of Religion. She has also been a visiting professor at Bucknell University, Vassar College, and Cornell University. Lesses received a Fulbright Training Grant, Mellon Fellowship, and the Raymond and Janine Ballag Fund Fellowship. Her first book, entitled Ritual Practices to Gain Power: Angels, Incantations, and Revelation in Early Jewish Mysticism, was published in 1998. Lesses has published numerous articles on the subject of women as it relates to Jewish religious rituals historically.