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

COMMUNAL FASTS 139
law-breakers in the passage cited above from the Damascus Document
are described in either the singular or collective singular. 48
Thus, except for Yom Kippur, there are no public fasts in the
scrolls. Other occurrences of do not negate this conclusion. 49
Public fasts do not appear in the War Scroll or in other contexts concerned
with war in the Dead Sea Scrolls. This is in marked contrast
to contemporary sources concerned with wars. 50 Further, public
fasts do not appear in other contexts.
This silence appears to speak volumes. One would expect other
occurrences of public fasts in the sectarian literature, since the sect
was ascetic and centralized; that is to say, this group would logically
accept upon itself communal fasts or mark them in some form.
Additionally, sources from the same period or proximate to it mention
48 "let him accept his judgement willingly";
"concerning the soul that sins unwittingly, that they shall
bring." The first sentence after our passage is also in the singular:
"and whoever disobeys the laws."
49 The word appears in another unpublished fragment that has been discussed
by a few scholars, 4Q265 1 ii 4: . . . . There is not enough
evidence in the text that precedes and follows this fragment to allow reconstruction
of the missing sentences or the subject under discussion. J. M. Baumgarten,
"Scripture and Law in 4Q265," in Biblical Perspectives: Early Use and Interpretation of
the Bible in Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Proceedings of the First International Symposium of
the Orion Center for the Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Associated Literature, 12-14 May
1996, ed. M. E. Stone and E. G. Chazon, STJD 28 (Leiden: Brill, 1998), 26-27,
points out that it was initially suggested that there was a connection between this
verse and Passover, even though he himself claims that there is no other mention
of a fast being observed on Passover and, indeed, he goes on to discuss some of
the problems with this suggestion. Baumgarten himself reconstructs the sentence
differently, and connects the under discussion to Yom Kippur. This connection
seems reasonable and concurs with the view offered here. However, even if this
connection is denied, the use of this fragmented sentence to question the theory
that the only fast day mentioned by the scrolls is Yom Kippur is tenuous.
Other unpublished fragments contain or the root but, to the best
of my understanding, one cannot draw any conclusions from them: 4Q525 157
(E. Puech, ed., Qumran Cave 4.XVIII. Textes Hebreux [4Q521-4Q528, 4Q576~4Q579],
DJD 25 [Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998], 151-53), 4Q417 3 4, 4Q428 11 4.
50 1 Mace. 3:17, 47; 2 Macc. 13:12; Jdt. 4:9, 15; Josephus, Ant. 12.290, 20.86-89;
Life 290 303. The absence of fasts in descriptions of war stands in contrast to biblical
accounts of fasts before or during times of war (e.g., Jud. 20:26, 1 Sam. 7:6,
2 Chron. 20:3; see also 1 Sam. 14:24 and 28:20; in connection with Jer. 36:9, see
A. Malamat, "A New Record of Nebuchadrezzar's Palestinian Campaigns," IEJ 6
[1956]: 251-52). For fasts during time of war, see N. Hacham, Public Fasts in the
Second Temple Period, 12-63; D. Levine, Communal Fasts in Talmudic Literature, 92-94,
96-99, 100; A. Tropper, The Fast: Its Meaning and Causes in the Second Temple Period
(M.A. thesis, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1999), 49-62 (Hebrew).