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

136 NOAH HACHAM
the feasts of the Sons of Light and of the sinners. 40 The expression
Since the expression offers a contrast to
. . ., one may infer that the source of guilt is the differences
.n the appointed times for festivals between the sect and the rest of
[srael. In other words, the passage is concerned with the differences
.n calendar. The specific festival mentioned here is it would
appear, therefore, that the subject matter is the dispute between the
sect followers and the Wicked Priest over the date of Yom Kippur. 41
is used with the word 'guilt' in the construct
state thus suggesting that the appointed times (feasts) of the
sinners are connected to their guilt (sins).
Mention of this day in the context of the calendrical dispute is paricularly
appropriate since it was on Yom Kippur that the Wicked
40 The standard meaning of the word in the scrolls is "season, age," but this
word has other meanings. See S. Talmon, , TWAT1 (1993): 89-92. In the phrase
the meaning appears to be a "specific time" or a "festival." For these
meanings see IQpHab 11:6: . . . the time of the festival
of the resting of the Day of Atonement..." (see Nitzan, Pesher Habakkuk, 191;
Talmon, TWAT, col. 91). The plural refers to Yom Kippur over the course of
years or to the various appointed times of those smitten by evil which differ from
those of the Sons of Light. For an interpretation of as a defined period of
time, see E. Qimron, Hebrew of the Dead Sea Scrolls, 115; for an example of this, see
The Dead Sea Scrolls: Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek Texts with English Translations, vol. 1,
Rule of Community and Related Documents, ed. J. H. Charlesworth (Tubingen: J. C. B.
Mohr [Paul Siebeck]; Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1994), 5 n. 54.
According to my suggestion, has two different meanings within the same fragment.
At the beginning and end it means "age" or "period." In the middle
means "appointed times," "festivals," as in IQpHab. The notion that the same
word can appear twice in a sentence with two different meanings should not be
ruled out: e.g., appears three times, each time with a different meaning, in
1QM 3:4-7. The plural usage of can be interpreted as "each and every fast,"
thus referring to one particular fast day which recurs after a set period of time
such as a year. Also compare the use of plural expressions of time in m. Ber. 1:1,
2, 5: ... "For what
ime in the evening ... in the morning. . . . The going forth from Egypt is
rehearsed ... at night" (Danby's translation; the expressions of time in the Hebrew
original are plural). In addition, the plural may be used here since it is used in the
construct state in conjunction with the plural and, as is the case in the writings
of the Sages, when a word is used in the construct state in conjunction with
a plural word, then it too must be plural. The word is plural here like other
words of time that occur in the scrolls in the plural; see Qimron, Hebrew of the Dead
Sea Scrolls, 68. I wish to thank Dr. Yochanan Breuer and Dr. Joseph Offer who
helped me with these linguistic questions.
41 The beginning of the fragment refers to
"they who strike suddenly to lead astray the spirit of understanding
and to appall their heart and their so[uls]," and is highly appropriate as
a reference to the persecution of the Teacher of Righteousness on Yom Kippur by
the Wicked Priest who . . . "he manifested ... in order to make
them reel and to trip them."