Torah in the Mouth.pdf

Torah in the Mouth, Writing and Oral Tradition in Palestinian Judaism, 200 BCE - 400 CE
Jaffee, Martin S., Samuel and Althea Stroum Professor of Jewish Studies, University of Washington
Print publication date: 2001, Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: November 2003
Print ISBN-13: 978-0-19-514067-5, doi:10.1093/0195140672.001.0001
Scrolls, p. 123, S. Fraade, “The Book of Hagu”). A problem with this interpretation is that CD in particular frequently uses the term htwrh
(“the Torah”) in a variety of constructions, such as spr htwrh (“the book of the Torah”: CD 5:2), ‘l py htwrh (“according to the Torah”: CD
20:28), and so forth. Why should it now resort to an epithet? Moreover, in the reconstructed text of CD 14:7–8, the “book of Hagi” appears
in apposition to “all the rulings of the Torah,” suggesting a distinction between the two. The other possibility, suggested by M. Goshen-
Gottstein, “ ‘Sefer Hagu’—The End of a Puzzle,”Vetus Testamentum 8 (1958), p. 288, is that “the Sefer Hahege contained basic
commandments and customs of the sect.” This view has been followed most recently by J. Baumgarten and D. Schwartz in their
translation (“The Damascus Document,” p. 45).
26. See L. Schiffman, The Halakhah at Qumran, pp. 54–60.
27. The establishment of a minimum of ten as a communal quorum clearly anticipates rabbinic practice, in which a minimum of ten men is
necessary for the performance of certain public rituals (e.g., M. Megillah 4::3). The principle, enunciated in the Babylonian Talmud, is that
“any activity invoking holiness shall take place among no less than ten” (B. Megillah 23b; cf. Y. Megillah 4:4, 75a–b). The point is linked
exegetically to Lev. 22:32 and Num. 14:27. None of the Qumran texts appears to offer an exegetical warrant for the institution of the
communal quorum of ten.
28. The division of the night into three units has its echoes in early rabbinic sources as well (e.g., M. Berakhot 1:1/T. Berakhot 1:1 [ed.
Lieberman]). This supports the majority of interpreters who argue that the requirement is to spend the latter third of each night in study.
See P. Wernberg-Møller, The Manual of Discipline , p. 104, and A. Leaney, The Rule of Qumran and Its Meaning , p. 185.
29. The conception here is clearly related to the explicit indication in 1QpHab 7:1–8 that the Righteous Teacher's inspired interpretations of
prophetic words disclosed meanings hidden to the prophetic authors themselves. Yet neither CD nor 1QS gives any indication that the
Teacher is to be equated with the “expounder of the Torah.” In fact, the Teacher is mentioned only as an expositor of prophetic visions,
decoding them in light of the Yahad's historical experience. For an account of the role of the Teacher, and the relation of his oral teaching
to written traditions circulated in his name, see S. Byrskog, Jesus the Only Teacher , pp. 165–170.
30. See especially L. Schiffman, The Halakhah at Qumran, pp. 22–32.
31. This phrase is absent in two Cave 4 fragments (4Q256, fr.5, and 4Q258, fr.1, col.1), both of which locate the reception of definitive
revelation in “the council of the men of the Community” (‘ t ’nšy hy d ) rather than in the sons of Tzadok. Metso, The Textual
Development of the Qumran Community Rule, p. 106, considers these fragments to represent earlier versions of the text preserved in
1QS. The implications of this tradition-historical observation for reconstructing the history of the community behind 1QS have been
discussed by A. Baumgarten in “The Zadokite Priests at Qumran.”
32. I follow the rendering of J. Charlesworth, “Rule of the Community,” p. 37. Compare G. Vermes, The Dead Sea Scrolls in English , p.
81, and F. Martinez, The Dead Sea Scrolls Translated , p. 13: “age to age,” and M. Wise et al., The Dead Sea Scrolls , p. 34: “time and
again.”
33. S. Fraade, “Interpretive Authority in the Studying Community at Qumran,” pp. 63–64.
end p.174
34. See, for example, A. Leaney, The Rule of Qumran and Its Meaning , pp. 224–225.
35. Compare the following renderings of the italicized text: “the right offerings of lips as a proper sweetness” (P. Wernberg-Møller, The
Manual of Discipline, p. 35); “and the offering of the lips according to precept is like a sweet-savoured offering” (A. Leaney, The Rule of
Qumran and Its Meaning, p. 210); “And prayer rightly offered shall be as an acceptable fragrance” (G. Vermes, Dead Sea Scrolls in
English, p. 82); “the offering of the lips in compliance with the decree will be like the pleasant aroma of justice” (F. Martinez, The Dead
Sea Scrolls Translated , p. 13); “and prayer, becoming—as it were—justice itself, a sweet savor of righteousness” (M. Wise et al., The
Dead Sea Scrolls, p. 139); “The proper offerings of the lips for judgment [is as] a righteous sweetness” (J. Charlesworth, “The Rule of the
Community,” p. 39).
36. L. Schiffman, The Halakhah at Qumran, pp. 42–49.
37. So Fraade, “Looking for Legal Midrash at Qumran,” p. 77: “Whereas the earlier revelation was nglh, revealed to all of Israel, the more
recent revelation was nstr , hidden from unworthy Israel as a whole and made known to the covenantal returnees alone” (original italics).
38. This has been Schiffman's consistent view. See L. Schiffman, The Halakhah at Qumran, pp. 75–76.
39. See Fraade, “Looking for Legal Midrash at Qumran,” p. 76.
40. Cf. Baumgarten, “The Unwritten Law in the Pre-Rabbinic Period,” pp. 9–11, and S. Fraade, “Interpretive Authority in the Studying
Community of Qumran,” pp. 65–69.
41. The discovery of Cave 4 fragments of both CD and 1QS has made it possible to study the recension history of both documents. J.
Baumgarten summarizes some key implications for the history of CD's laws and their relationship to those of 1QS in “The Laws of the
Damascus Document in Current Research,” pp. 51–57. A comprehensive study of the recension history of 1QS is provided by S. Metso,
The Textual Development of the Qumran Community Rule , pp. 107–149.
42. See Golb, Who Wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls? pp. 151–171.
43. S. Byrskog, Jesus the Only Teacher , p. 170. See also the detailed discussion of the entire range of textual material used in the Yahad
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