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

134 NOAH HACHAM
Baillet's suggested reconstruction for 4Q508 2 2-6, 32 which connects
it with the prayer for Yom Kippur published in DJD 1, 33 or whether
we prefer—as would seem to be correct—Falk's reconstruction, 34 it
appears that, for these reasons, ('a season of a fast') in
this passage refers to Yom Kippur. 35
If so, we have a precedent for calling Yom Kippur by an appellation
that includes ; consequently, it is possible and reasonable
also to interpret in the Damascus Document as a reference
to Yom Kippur. 'the season of the fast' appears also in
the pesher on Psalms, and it is reasonable to assume that the phrase
has the same meaning there. 36 There is no reason to assume that
its meaning in the Psalms Pesher is different from that in the prayer
for Yom Kippur. Even if we were to accept Flusser's hypothesis and
identify the disasters described in the pesharim with the famine in
the time of Herod, there is no reason to infuse the familiar phrase
with the new meaning of an unknown fast.
"All who did not go out [. . .] to be
with the Congregation of his Elect" may definitely refer to the wellknown
disagreement over the calendar and the date of Yom Kippur;
those who accepted the season of the fast in accordance with the
reckoning of the sect received a good reward, were saved from the
32 Baillet, DJD 7.178-79.
33 lQ34 bis 2 + 1 6. D. Barthelemy and J. T. Milik, eds., Qumran Cave I, DJD 1
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1955), 152-54. See also Y. M. Grintz, "An 'Avoda'-
Service of the Day of Atonement from Qumran," in Chapters in the History of Second
Temple Times (Jerusalem: Y. Marcus, 1969), 155—58 (Hebrew). If, like Grintz and
Baillet, we assume that lQ34 bis 3 ii is from the prayer for Yom Kippur, then we
see that this prayer includes sections on the importance of the laws relating to light
and on the wickedness of those who do not follow these laws. Both subjects are
associated with the polemic over the appointed time of Yom Kippur. However, it
is not certain that this fragment is in fact a part of a Yom Kippur prayer (e.g., see
Falk, Festival Prayers, 178-80, and further references there). Since Milik's completion
of 1Q34 bis 2 + 1 2 has been shown to be incorrect (see Baillet,
DJD 7.186; Falk, Festival Prayers, 163), a connection cannot be made between this
paragraph and any fast at all.
34 Falk, Festival Prayers, 168.
35 It is unclear why Baillet, DJD 7.179, is uncertain whether this was also
a fast, since he himself lists the appearances of the word in the scrolls and
he reconstructs the text using the words "prayer for the Day of
Atonement."
36 Although the terms are identical, in the Psalms Pesher the phrase appears with
the definite article and in the prayer for Yom Kippur as indefinite
In the prayer for Yom Kippur the subject of the sentence is the season
(of mercy) and it is described as having been fixed as the appointed time of
fasting; thus the definite article is superfluous.