The Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls: The ... - josephprestonkirk

SHEMARYAHU TALMON 29
the Muslim faithful venerated Muhammad as the founder of a new world
order. In both cases the inception of the new creedal system was bound
up with the incipience of a special and exclusive time schema.
In the course of their history, religious entities experience internal
diversifications and calendaric schisms. In reference to ancient Israel the
process can be illustrated by the split of the Samaritan community from
Judaism in the Persian or Hellenistic era, and the secession of the Karaites
who separated from the Rabbanites in the seventh or the eighth century
C.E., and persist as a schismatic denomination to this day. The
Samaritans, like the Karaites, gear their communal and individual pace
of life each to a particular lunar calendar, which constitutes a visible
demarcation line between their communities and contemporary Judaism.
For example, the Samaritan sacrifice of the paschal lamb rarely coincides
with the Jewish Seder on the first night of the Feast of Unleavened Bread
(Mazzot), although both observe the ritual on the date prescribed by biblical
law, namely the fourteenth of the first month (Nissan). Likewise, the
Orthodox Churches celebrate Christmas, Easter, and Palm Sunday at different
times from their observance in the Western Churches, 12 although
all depend on the dates prescribed in the hallowed Scriptures. 13
Differences within a Common Ephemeris
In the orbit of Judaism, the high esteem of the positive unifying effect of
a common ephemeris and, in contrast, the disapprobation of the divisive
impact of calendar contumacy, come to light in episodes and texts relating
to events in various stages in Jewish history.
12. Hans Maier, Die christliche Zeitrechnung (Freiburg: Herder, 1991), provides a concise
and illuminating survey of calendar controversy in Christendom throughout history.
13. A comparable situation obtains in the political arena. The nineteenth century
French revolutionaries made the foundation of their “new regime” the launching pad
of an equally new ephemeris commencing on 18 Brumaire 1798. In the twentieth century
a similar attempt was made after the Russian revolution. In our own days, the
introduction of a new calendar as a symbol of “otherness” is not feasible anymore.
As a result, the quest for visible expressions of socio-political separateness generated
surrogate measures involving “time.” Here are two recent illustrations. Before the
reunification with West Germany, the East German government consistently maintained
a one hour difference between their and the West-German daylight savings
time. Similarly during the “Intifada” uprising, the Palestinian-Arab leadership signaled
independence from the Jewish state by introducing daylight savings time in East
Jerusalem at a date that differed from its introduction in the western part of the city,
and by imposing upon the Arab population a midday closing of shops at hours that
did not coincide with the “siesta” hours in the Jewish sector.