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

140 NOAH HACHAM
public fasts instituted for war, mourning, and other purposes. 51 The
Qumran literature, in contrast, completely ignores this phenomenon.
This distinct and unexpected 52 disregard of public fasts would not
seem to be incidental but rather is an intentional consequence of a
position regarding public fasts, that, with the exception of Yom
Kippur, negates them.
II
What is the meaning of this position? Why does the literature of the
Judean Desert sect ignore the religious-communal phenomenon of
public fasts? In the following section I will suggest an explanation.
The priestly sect 53 whose writings were found in the Judean desert
severed its ties with Jerusalem, the Temple, and its rituals, and was
severely critical of the administration of the Temple. The sect regarded
the worship conducted in the Temple as invalid and impure, applying
various epithets to their rivals who officiated in the Temple. 54
This stance was likely to lead to two opposing results: fanatical adherence
to the laws of the Temple and the halakhic demand to maintain
its uniqueness and sanctity, on the one hand, 55 and the creation
of 'substitutes' for the Temple rites for the sectarians who had been
dissociated from it for so many years, on the other. 56 The subject
of atonement is one example of replacing sacrifices with substitutes. 57
51 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, Judith, Assumption of Moses, 1 Baruch, 2 (Syriac)
Baruch, 4 Ezra, Josephus (Antiquities and Life), and Treatise of Shem.
52 Further proof of this expectation can be seen in Flusser's interpretation of
in 4QpPs which, perhaps, stems from the assumption that the scrolls contained
evidence of communal fasts.
53 On the sect's priesdy aspects, see, for example, Sussman, "History of Halakha
and the Dead Sea Scrolls," 61, 70 71, and D. R. Schwartz, "Qumran between
Priesdiness and Christianity," in The Scrolls of the Judaean Desert: Forty Tears of Research,
ed. M. Broshi et al. (Jerusalem: Bialik Institute and Israel Exploration Society,
1992), 178 nn. 4, 5 (Hebrew).
54 Various epithets appear in the Damascus Document, e.g., ,
See Sussman, "History of Halakha and the Dead Sea Scrolls," 62 and
n. 195.
55 Sussman, "History of Halakha and the Dead Sea Scrolls," 67-68.
56 Sussman, "History of Halakha and the Dead Sea Scrolls," 73-74 n. 238.
57 Much has been written on the sect's alternative means of atonement. I mention
only a few examples: the passage from CD published by Baumgarten, "A 'Scriptural'
Citation"; Kister, "On a New Fragment of the Damascus Covenant"; Schwartz,
"Qumran between Priestliness and Christianity," 178-79; and H. Lichtenberger,
"Atonement and Sacrifice in the Qumran Community," in Approaches to Ancient
Judaism, vol. 2, ed. W. S. Green, BJS 9 (Chico: Scholars Press, 1980), 159-71.