Nominalism and realism in Qumranic and rabbinic law: A reassessment

Dead Sea Discoveries

Volumn 6, Issue 2, 1999, Pages 157-183

  Rubenstein, Jeffrey L ^a  

^a NEW YORK UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 61449181827     PISSN: 09290761     EISSN: 15685179     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1163/156851799X00199     Document Type: Review

References (44)

1. D.R. Schwartz, "Law and Truth: On Qumran-Sadducean and Rabbinic Views of Law," The Dead Sea Scrolls: Forty Years of Research (eds D. Dimant and U. Rappaport; STDJ 10; Leiden: Brill; Jerusalem: Magnes Press and Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi, 1992)
2. Schwartz bases the connection between Qumran and Sadducean law on J.M. Baumgarten, "The Pharisaic-Sadducean Controversies about Purity and the Qumran Texts," JJS 31 (1980) 157-70
3. J. Sussman, "The History of Halakha and the Dead Sea Scrolls: Preliminary Observations on Miqscombining dot belowat Ma'ase ha-Torah (4QMMT)," Tarbiz 59 (1989/90) 11-76 (Hebrew) and B.Z. Wacholder's lecture at the Eighth World Congress of Jewish Studies (1981)
4. To these studies should be added L.H. Schiffman, "The Temple Scroll and the Systems of Jewish Law of the Second Temple Period," Temple Scroll Studies (ed. G.J. Brooke; JSPSup 7; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1989) 250-53
5. idem, "The New Halakhic Letter (4QMMT) and the Origins of the Dead Sea Sect," BA 53 (1990) 64-73
6. Schwartz, "Law and Truth," 231 n. 8. Schwartz borrows this definition from Y. Silman, "Halakhic Determinations of a Nominalistic and Realistic Nature: Legal and Philosophical Considerations," Dine Yisrael 12 (1984-85) 251 (Hebrew); see below
7. See C. Werman, "The Rules of Consuming and Covering the Blood in Priestly and Rabbinic Law," RevQ 64 (1994) 622-36
8. A. Shemesh, "4Q271.3: A Key to Sectarian Matrimonial Law," JJS 49 (1998) 250-51
9. Dine Yisrael 12 (1984-85) 249-66 (Hebrew)
10. Silberg, "The Order of Holy Things," 10-11
11. Silman, "Halakhic Determinations," 252-53
12. See also M. Golding, "Reasoning and the Authoritative Expansion of the Law: A Study in Jewish Legal Theory," Studies in Jewish Philosophy (ed. N.M. Samuelson; Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1987) 427-28 and his comparison of physical and legal laws. See also M.A. Amiel, (Jerusalem: Ha'ivri, 1939) 1.25, 39-41
13. Schwartz, "Law and Truth," 235
14. Schwartz, "Law and Truth," 250
15. The Qumran exegete invokes Gen. 1:27 to support his case. He understood the words "Male and female he created them" to mean that God created one man with one woman. The verse, however, admits various interpretations
16. J. Milgrom, "The Scriptural Foundations and Deviations in the Laws of Purity of the Temple Scroll," Archaeology and History in the Dead Sea Scrolls (ed. L.H. Schiffman; JSPSup 8; JSOT/ASOR Monograph Series 2; JSOT Press, 1990) 91. The Qumran law proscribes entering the Temple City for three days following an emission
17. Y. Yadin, The Temple Scroll (Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 1983) 1.355-56
18. G. Vermes, "Sectarian Matrimonial Halakhah in the Damascus Rule," JJS 25 (1974) 197-202
19. It is also possible that the Karaites had access to some sources of Sadducean law. See Y. Erder, "When did the Karaites First Encounter Apocryphic Literature Akin to the Dead Sea Scrolls?" Cathedra 42 (1987) 57-60 (Hebrew)
20. idem, "Precedents Cited by Anan for the Postponement of Passover that Falls on Sabbath," Zion 52 (1987) 153-75 (Hebrew)
21. See CD 12:11-15. The Samaritans and some Karaites also prohibited the blood of fish; see N. Golb, "The Dietary Laws of the Damascus Covenant in Relation to Those of the Karaites," JJS 8 (1957) 55-56
22. The Karaites apparently understood the prohibition against a corpse to include the corpses of fish and not only of animals. See also L.H. Schiffman, "Sacral and Non-Sacral Slaughter according to the Temple Scroll," Time to Prepare the Way in the Wilderness (ed. D. Dimant and L.H. Schiffman; STDJ 16; Leiden: Brill, 1995) 69-84
23. Schwartz, "Law and Truth," 232; italics in the original
24. See M. Satlow, Tasting the Dish: Rabbinic Rhetorics of Sexuality (BJS 303; Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1995) 26
25. See L. Hoffman, Covenant of Blood: Circumcision and Gender in Rabbinic Judaism (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996) 42-44
26. See C. Rabin, The Zadokite Documents (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1954) 49 n. 3
27. L.H. Schiffman, Sectarian Law in the Dead Sea Scrolls (BJS 33; Chico, CA: Scholars Press, 1983) 55-65
28. Schwartz, "Law and Truth," 233 n. 12
29. B. Mak. 6b, in fact, directs that these provisions be applied in cases where the testimony cannot be accepted for technical reasons
30. B.A. Levine, "Damascus Document IX, 17-22 - A New Translation and Comments," RevQ 8 (1973) 195-99
31. Schiffman, Sectarian Law, 78-81
32. Schwartz, "Law and Truth," 233
33. The Mishnah explains that the Sadducean position is based on Deut. 19:21, "Nor must you show pity: life for life, eye for eye ...," which implies that one takes a life only if the witnesses caused a loss of life. The dispute thus centers on whether Deut. 19:19, "you shall do to him as he plotted to do to his fellow," is interpreted in light of Deut. 19:21 or not
34. Schwartz, "Law and Truth," 234, citing 1QS 1:15, 3:10-11 and 11QT 56
35. "Law and Truth," 235
36. S. Talmon, "The Calendar of the Covenanters of the Judean Desert," ScrHier 4 (1958) 167-74; L.H. Schiffman, The Halakhah at Qumran (SJLA 16; Leiden: Brill, 1976) 84-133
37. J.M. Baumgarten, "The Calendars of the Book of Jubilees and the Temple Scroll," VT 37 (1987) 77
38. J. Rubenstein, "The Sadducees and the Water Libation," JQR 84 (1994) 439-43
39. See the fragment 4Q513 discussed by J.M. Baumgarten, "Polemics in New Fragments," Biblical Archaeology Today (ed. J. Amitai; Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 1985) 395-97. The text condemns the opposing party, evidently precursors of the rabbis, for violating the Sabbath by performing the Omer ceremony
40. See D. Boyarin, Intertextuality and the Reading of Midrash (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1990)
41. J. Kugel, "Two Introductions to Midrash," Prooftexts 3 (1983) 131-55
42. See S. Talmon, "Between the Bible and the Mishna," The World of Qumran from Within (Jerusalem; Magnes Press; Leiden: Brill, 1989) 21-48
43. "Between the Bible and the Mishna," 25
44. Silman, "Halakhic Determinations," 251, from Pesiqta deRav Kahana (ed. B. Mandelbaum; New York: Jewish Theological Seminary, 1987) 77