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"[T]HE[Y] DID NOT READ IN THE SEALED BOOK" 123 most "traditionalist" of all the rabbis, Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus. 55 All this leads to one and the same conclusion, as we have formulated it: the appeal to the written text of the Torah as an authoritative source for halakhic matters, and as a means by which one is able to discuss halakhic questions, was a revolutionary innovation of firstcentury BCE Judaism, and it was actually unknown prior to that era. 56 ("although he sat down and explicated [Scripture] all day long they did not accept from him until he said to them 'I swear, so I heard from Shemma'aya and Avtalion'"), found in the version of the Palestinian Talmud, reflects "a principle refusal to the drasha as a base for the halakha" (n. 35). However, not only this phrase is absent from the parallel (and more primitive?) version of the Tosefta, but also a comparison with the Babylonian version seems to indicate that the issue might be different—namely, the tension between "remembrance" and knowledge, on the one hand, and scholastic abilities, on the other hand. On this tension, which is fundamental to the rabbinic study circles, see A. Schremer, "'He Posed Him a Difficulty and Placed Him': A Study in the Evolution of the Text of TB Bam Kama 117a," Tarbiz 66 (1997): 415 n. 47. 50 On Rabbi Eliezer's conservative character, see Y. D. Gilat, R. Eliezer Ben Hyrcanus: A Scholar Outcast (Ramat Gan: Bar-Ilan University Press, 1984); M. Fisch, Rational Rabbis: Science and Talmudic Culture (Bloomington and Minneapolis: Indiana University Press, 1997), 63-64. 56 The affinity of Sadducean halakha to Scripture (Josephus, Ant. 13.297; scholion to Megillat Ta'anit, 4 of Tammuz [I hope to touch upon this issue in a forthcoming study; see above, end of n. 46]) has led most scholars, starting with A. Geiger, Urschrift und Ubersetzungen der Bible in ihrer Abhangigkeit von der innern Entwicklung des Judentums (Breslau: Julius Hainauer, 1857), 134, to view the Sadducean halakha as a 'conservative' halakha, as opposed to the more 'liberal' one of the Pharisees. Seen in that light, it was customarily assumed that the Sadducean position was extremely conservative and faithful to ancient halakha and that they preserved the ancient Israelite religious cult that persisted from the time of the First Temple, through the Exile, until the late days of the Second Temple era. See, for example: R. Meyer, "Saddoukaios," TDNT 7:50; Schurer, History of the Jewish People, 411; Sussman, "History of Halakha," 65 n. 206, 69 n. 226; I. Knohl, "The Priestly Torah versus the Holiness School: Sabbath and the Festivals," HUCA 58 (1987): 104-6; I. Knohl, "Post-Biblical Sectarianism and the Priestly Schools of the Pentateuch: The Issue of Popular Participation in the Temple Cult on Festivals," in The Madrid Qumran Congress, 607—9. Also on the antiquity of several Sadducean (but also Pharisaic) halakhic positions, see A. Rofe, "The Onset of Sects in Postexilic Judaism: Neglected Evidence from the Septuagint, Trito- Isaiah, Ben Sira, and Malachi," in The Social World of Formative Christianity and Judaism: Essays in Tribute to Howard Clark Kee, ed. J. Neusner et al. (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1988), 39-49; S. Naeh, "Did the Tannaim Interpret the Script of the Torah Differently from the Authorized Reading?," Tarbiz 61 (1992): 439 (Hebrew). As I noted above, however, since text-based ideologies, as a rule, are of secondary and reformative character vis-a-vis the prevailing, 'tradition-based,' type of religiosity, it might be argued that the Sadducean halakha is a revolutionary return to the text, not a conservative preservation of ancient, biblical tradition. Here I find myself in agreement with Goodman, "Note on Josephus, the Pharisees and Ancestral Tradition," who writes, "the Pharisees were essentially conservative in behaviour, and, incidentally, the Sadducean rejection of normal custom far more radical than it is usually portrayed" (p. 18). Cf. A. I. Baumgarten, "The Pharisaic Paradosis" 63-77.
124 ADIEL SGHREMER True, there had been instruction in Israel since biblical days and there were occasions when the Torah was read and explained in public. 57 But it was only in the last generations before Hillel that the learning of the Torah became a principal force in Judaism: First, in the sectarian movements and in the Diaspora, then, through Hillel, in Jerusalem and in classical Judaism. 58 VI This new trend of appeal to the written text of the Torah in halakhic contexts, however, had the potential of revealing that the common, accepted, traditional way of observance is contradicted by the Torah, and thus to threaten this tradition. The simple 'traditionalist' reply, "This is how it is customary among us," could no longer suffice. The following account of a conversation between R. Joshua and a certain pious priest in Ramat Bnei Anat is illuminating in this context: There was a case of a certain pious priest in Ramat Bnei Anat, and R. Joshua went to speak with him, and they were discussing laws of piety. When it was time for the meal he said to his wife: Go bring us a drop of oil into the beans. She went and took the flask from the stove. Said [R. Joshua] to him: Rabbi, is the stove clean? Said [the pious priest] to him: Is there an unclean stove or an unclean oven [at all]?! Said [R. Joshua] to him: But Scripture says "Oven, or ranges, they shall be broken down, for they are unclean" (Lev. 11:35), so there can be that an oven and a stove may be unclean! Said [the pious priest]: Rabbi, this is how I used to do all my life. Said [R. Joshua] to him: If this is how you used to do all your life, you have never eaten sacramental food properly! 59 57 See above, n. 29. 58 N. N. Glatzer, Hillel the Elder: The Emergence of Classical Judaism (New York: Schocken, 1966), 55. See also Vermes, "Bible and Midrash," 80-81, and further below, n. 62. 59 ARN, Version B, chap. 27 (ed. Schechter, 28b-29a). On this story see S. Safrai, In Times of Temple and Mishnah: Studies in Jewish History, vol. 2 (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1994), 510-11, 521-22.
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HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES: FROM THE H
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HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES: FROM THE H
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CONTENTS Preface vii Abbreviations
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PREFACE After the first three Orion
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ABBREVIATIONS AB Anchor Bible ANRW
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HISTORY OF THE JEWS AND JUDAISM
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JUDEAN NATIONALISM IN THE LIGHT OF
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JUDEAN NATIONALISM 5 The absence of
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JUDEAN NATIONALISM 7 was not a vagu
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JUDEAN NATIONALISM 9 'tribal' natur
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JUDEAN NATIONALISM 1 1 rnon culture
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JUDEAN NATIONALISM 13 Anderson emph
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JUDEAN NATIONALISM 15 Jews of antiq
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JUDEAN NATIONALISM 17 we find refer
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JUDEAN NATIONALISM 19 The evidence
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JUDEAN NATIONALISM 21 cannot learn
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JUDEAN NATIONALISM 23 the removal o
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12 Community Rule 13 Leviticus 14 E
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JUDEAN NATIONALISM 27 dence from ot
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THE KITTIM IN THE WAR SCROLL AND IN
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KITTIM IN THE WAR SCROLL AND IN THE
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Page 50 and 51:
Page 52 and 53:
Page 54 and 55:
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ANTIOCHUS IV EPIPHANES IN JERUSALEM
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ANTIOGHUS IV EPIPHANES IN JERUSALEM
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SHELAMZION IN QUMRAN: NEW INSIGHTS
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SHELAMZION IN QUMRAN 59 Pharisees,
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SHELAMZION IN QUMRAN 61 also alludi
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SHELAMZION IN QUMRAN 63 ["If you wi
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SHELAMZION IN QUMRAN 65 the same va
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SHELAMZION IN QUMRAN 67 pesher was
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DESCRIPTIONS OF THE JERUSALEM TEMPL
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DESCRIPTIONS OF THE JERUSALEM TEMPL
Page 84 and 85: DESCRIPTIONS OF THE JERUSALEM TEMPL
Page 94 and 95: COMMUNITY AND COVENANT
Page 96 and 97: THE CONCEPT OF THE COVENANT IN QUMR
Page 98 and 99: THE CONCEPT OF THE COVENANT 87 nuit
Page 100 and 101: THE CONCEPT OF THE COVENANT 89 refo
Page 102 and 103: THE CONCEPT OF THE COVENANT 91 the
Page 104 and 105: THE CONCEPT OF THE COVENANT 93 cove
Page 106 and 107: THE CONCEPT OF THE COVENANT 95 ment
Page 108 and 109: THE CONCEPT OF THE COVENANT 97 puni
Page 110 and 111: THE CONCEPT OF THE COVENANT 99 "who
Page 112 and 113: THE CONCEPT OF THE COVENANT 101 nam
Page 114 and 115: THE CONCEPT OF THE COVENANT 103 it"
Page 116 and 117: "[T]HE[Y] DID NOT READ IN THE SEALE
Page 138 and 139: COMMUNAL FASTS IN THE JUDEAN DESERT
Page 140 and 141: COMMUNAL FASTS 129 The word (also t
Page 142 and 143: COMMUNAL FASTS 131 the time of Hero
Page 144 and 145: COMMUNAL FASTS 133 It is clear that
Page 146 and 147: COMMUNAL FASTS 135 snares of Belial
Page 148 and 149: COMMUNAL FASTS 137 Priest persecute
Page 150 and 151: COMMUNAL FASTS 139 law-breakers in
Page 152 and 153: COMMUNAL FASTS 141 It may also be r
Page 154 and 155: COMMUNAL FASTS 143 These excerpts s
Page 156 and 157: COMMUNAL FASTS 145 to suggest other
Page 158 and 159: THE COMMUNITY OF GOODS AMONG THE FI
Page 160 and 161: COMMUNITY OF GOODS 149 The two Gree
Page 162 and 163: COMMUNITY OF GOODS 151 summary repe
Page 164 and 165: COMMUNITY OF GOODS 153 no buying or
Page 166 and 167: COMMUNITY OF GOODS 155 Although the
Page 168 and 169: COMMUNITY OF GOODS 157 her husband,
Page 170 and 171: COMMUNITY OF GOODS 159 makes use of
Page 172 and 173: 4:36-37 to each as any might have n
Page 174 and 175: NATURAL SCIENCES AND THE SCROLLS
Page 176 and 177: THE GENETIC SIGNATURE OF THE DEAD S
Page 178 and 179: GENETIC SIGNATURE OF THE DEAD SEA S
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ANALYSIS OF MICROSCOPIC MATERIAL AN
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ANALYSIS OF MICROSCOPIC MATERIAL 17
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ANALYSIS OF MICROSCOPIC MATERIAL 17
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HOW NEUTRON ACTIVATION ANALYSIS CAN
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NEUTRON ACTIVATION ANALYSIS 181 Met
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NEUTRON ACTIVATION ANALYSIS 183 tai
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NEUTRON ACTIVATION ANALYSIS 185 tai
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INDEX OF MODERN AUTHORS Abegg, M. G
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Lauterbach, J. Z. 114 n. 30 Lehnard
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Genesis 9:4 10:4 Exodus 14:13 19:8
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8:13-14 9-10 1 Chronicles 3:3 12:39
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Pseudo-Philo, LAB 8-9 Testament of
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CD (Damascus Document) 1:7 1:10-13
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. Baba Batra 21a b. B Mesi'a 104a b
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Aristotle, Me. Eth. 19.8.1168b Cice
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STUDIES ON THE TEXTS OF THE DESERT
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37. Goodblatt, D., A. Pinnick & D.R
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