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1. Writing Halakhah in Qumran
- University of California Press
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21 one Writing Halakhah in Qumran The library of Qumran contains a wide range of different compositions . Among them, not a few concentrate on legal issues. These scrolls are the prime source for our knowledge of the legal system of the Qumran community, though not the exclusive source. In some of the discussions to follow, we will employ information about legal subjects extracted from nonlegal sources, such as the liturgy or wisdom literature. In what follows here, I will survey and describe two main aspects of the halakhic compositions found in the caves: their literary genre and their content and intent. This is not always an easy task, because most of the scrolls have reached us in very fragmentary condition, and often it is difficult to determine the original size of any given composition or the right order of its remaining fragments. THE LITERARY GENRE OF THE HALAKHIC SCROLLS Twomainliterarygenresaretobefoundinthescrollsdealingwith legal issues. They are best represented by Temple Scroll, on the one Writing Halakhah in Qumran / 22 hand, and by the legal part of the Damascus Document, on the other. Instead of defining each genre theoretically, I will describe the writing style of these two compositions empirically. As we will see, other compositions exhibit several different combinations of these two basic genres. THE TEMPLE SCROLL AND THE REWRITTEN BIBLE Because the Temple Scroll is primarily a halakhic work, a description of its style in phrasing the halakhah is equivalent to describing its literary genre. Briefly put, its language is biblical in nature, and this text may be assigned to the broad category of the rewritten Bible.1 Even the pericopes containing innovative content are worded in biblical style. Witness the Temple Scroll’s presentation oftheDeuteronomiclawpermittingthoselivingatadistancefrom the Temple to slaughter sheep and cattle for consumption (Deuteronomy 12), to which it introduces two changes: one halakhic and the other linguistic: And you shall eat in your towns, the clean and the unclean among you alike (may eat), as though it were a gazelle or a hart. Only be sure that you do not eat the blood; you shall pour it out upon the earth like water, and cover it with dust; for the blood is the life, and you shall not eat the life with the flesh; that all may go well with you and with your children after you for ever. And you shall do what is right and good in my sight, for I am the Lord your God. (53:4–8) [For Hebrew, see Appendix, no. 1] Halakhically, the main difference between the Pentateuchal pericope and the Temple Scroll lies in the latter’s addition of the [107.23.85.179] Project MUSE (2024-03-19 14:12 GMT) Writing Halakhah in Qumran / 23 obligation to cover the blood with dust, taken from Leviticus 17:13, where it relates to a captured bird or wild animal. The Deuteronomic verse, on the other hand, speaks of consuming cattle. In the rabbinic tradition, the requirement to cover the blood of a slaughtered animal applies only to wild animals or to birds, whereas the Temple Scroll’s incorporation of Leviticus’s “cover it with dust” in the Deuteronomic halakhah extends this obligation to cattle, as well. This type of exegesis, which applies details regarding one matter to a second, similar one, typifies the priestly halakhah’s solution of contradictions between different biblical commandments.2 What is noteworthy is that the biblical source is indistinguishable from the exegetical innovation , which is seamlessly incorporated into the biblical text.3 The exegesis is implicit, never explicit, as in formal commentaries such as the Pesharim.4 The second change is grammatical. Another prominent feature of the scroll is its use of direct divine speech, often shifting from the biblical third person to the divine first person, as in the conclusion of our passage: “And you shall do what is right and good in my sight, for I am the Lord your God.” This contrasts with the biblical “for you will be doing what is right in the eyes of the Lord.” The intent of this characteristic shift is to convey the statements in question as the unmediated words of God: not Moses speaking in God’s name, as in Deuteronomy, but as a direct , divine command issued at Sinai.5 In short, the Temple Scroll does not refer to the biblical text. Rather, it presents itself as the Torah. This is true for all compositions written in this style. Even if the...