historical perspectives: from the hasmoneans to bar kokhba in light ...

COMMUNAL FASTS IN THE JUDEAN
DESERT SCROLLS*
NOAH HACHAM
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
The purpose of this paper is to examine the phenomenon of communal
fasts 1 in the Qumran literature. Although Flusser interpreted
several of the Qumran texts as referring to a communal fast, 2 in my
opinion, with the exception of Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), the
communal fast does not appear in this corpus. 3 In the first part of
this paper I try to establish this argument by examining all occurrences
of and and their meanings in the Qumran literature.
The lack of communal fasts in the Qumran literature seems especially
interesting since the texts belong to a separatist dissident group 4
with ascetic characteristics. 5 Moreover, the Qumran literature was
* This paper is based on part of my M.A. thesis (see n. 1), written under the supervision
of Prof. M. D. Herr. I would like to thank him for his valuable assistance, as
well as teachers and friends who read earlier drafts of this paper and offered comments:
Mr. U. Fuchs, Prof. D. R. Schwartz, Prof. S. Talmon, Prof. I. Y. Yuval.
1 The main difference between communal and private fasts is that the first is a
group activity that has public and social, in addition to religious, aspects. See
N. Hacham, Public Fasts in the Second Temple Period (M.A. thesis, Hebrew University
of Jerusalem, 1995), 3—4 (Hebrew); D. Levine, Communal Fasts in Talmudic Literature:
Theory and Practice (Ph.D. diss., Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1998), 1 (Hebrew).
Since the Dead Sea Scrolls deal mainly with the group's characteristics, I focus on
the public aspect. I deal with individual fasts on pp. 138—39 below.
2 D. Flusser, "Qumran and the Famine during the Reign of Herod," Israel Museum
Journal 6 (1987): 7-16.
3 E. Schurer, The History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus Christ (175 B.C.-
A.D. 135), vol. 2, rev. and ed. by G. Vermes et al. (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1979),
484 n. 110, notes that there is no reference to special fasts in the Qumran literature
but does not offer any explanation.
4 One would expect fasts to be characteristic of this group, as was the case for
other groups of separatists and dissidents towards the end of the Second Temple period,
e.g., the Therapeutae, according to Philo (Vit. Cont. 34-35) and John the Baptist
and his disciples, according to the Gospels (Matt. 9:14-17, Luke 5:33, Mark 2:18-22).
5 Thus Josephus describes them:
"They
shun pleasures as a vice and regard temperance and the control of the passions as
a special virtue" (War 2.120; trans. H. St. J. Thackeray, Josephus, vol. 2 [LCL;
London: Heinemann, 1927]). See also: J. Milgrom, "Fasting and Fast Days: In the
Bible," EJ 6 (1971): 1189-91; R. Rader, "Fasting," Encyclopedia of Religion 5 (1987):