"Three-days' journey from the temple": The use of this expression in the Temple Scroll

Dead Sea Discoveries

Volumn 6, Issue 2, 1999, Pages 126-138

  Shemesh, Aharon ^a  

^a BAR ILAN UNIVERSITY   (Israel)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 61949425609     PISSN: 09290761     EISSN: 15685179     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1163/156851799X00162     Document Type: Review

References (17)

1. See M. Bar-Ilan, "Myth and Ritual in the Laws Concerning Jerusalem," Eshel Beer Sheva 4 (1996) 48 n. 12
2. Y. Yadin, The Temple Scroll (Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 1983) 1.317
3. L.H. Schiffman, "Sacral and Non-Sacral Slaughter according to the Temple Scroll," Time to Prepare the Way in the Wilderness (eds D. Dimant and L.H. Schiffman; STDJ 16; Leiden: Brill 1995) 77
4. See Y. Yadin, Temple Scroll 1.315-20, 2.233-39
5. L.H. Schiffman, "The Deuteronomic Paraphrase of the Temple Scroll," RevQ 15 (1992) 558-61
6. idem, "Sacral and Non-Sacral Slaughter," 69-84
7. For a recent study of this issue, see E. Gruen, "The Origins and Objectives of Onias' Temple," Scripta Classica Israelica 16 (1997) 47-70, where he suggests that the lack of rabbinic opposition to Onias' Temple was based on their interpretation of the deuteronomic law of centralization as prohibiting sacrifice outside of Jerusalem, but not as banning the erection of additional temples. In light of my explanation given above concerning the opinion of the Temple Scroll, and the discussion of the rabbinic view which follows, I reject this explanation. While the law of centralization of worship is by no means totally sweeping, the rabbis recognized Onias' temple not because they believed that it was permissible to erect other temples, but because the obligation to sacrifice in the Jerusalem Temple alone applied only to Eretz-Israel and not to sacrifices offered beyond its boundaries. See also n. 11 below
8. According to this interpretation, the mishnah uses the temple of Onias as an example of a sacrifice offered outside the borders of the land of Israel. In this respect, I agree with those scholars who have argued that the mishnah does not indicate acceptance or even identification with the Temple at Leontopolis on the part of the rabbis. (See R. Yankelevitch, "The Temple of Onias: Law and Reality," Jews and Judaism in the Second Temple Period: Studies in Honor of Shmuel Safrai [eds I. Gafni, A. Oppenheimer and M. Stern; Jerusalem: Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi, 1993] 107-9 [Heb.]
9. D.R. Schwartz, "The Jews of Egypt between the Temple of Onias, the Temple of Jerusalem, and Heaven," Zion 62 [1997] 18 n. 24 [Heb.]. For a survey of the body of scholarly research and opinion on the status of the temple of Onias among Egyptian Jewry, see ibid., 7-8.)
10. For a detailed discussion of this halakhah, see J.M. Baumgarten, "The First and Second Tithes in the Temple Scroll," Biblical and Related Studies Presented to Samuel Iwry (eds A. Kort and S. Morschauser; Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1985) 5-15
11. For a survey of this issue, see S. Safrai, Pilgrimage at the Time of the Second Temple (Jerusalem: Akademon, 1965) 130-32 (Hebrew)
12. E. Qimron and J. Strugnell (eds), Qumran Cave 4.V: Miqscombining dot belowat Ma'aśe ha-Torah (DJD 10; Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994) 88, 164-65 (§5.7.13)
13. J.M. Baumgarten, "The Laws of 'Orlah and First Fruits in the Light of Jubilees, the Qumran Writings, and Targum Ps. Jonathan," JJS 38 (1987) 195-202
14. M. Kister, "Some Aspects of Qumranic Halakhah," The Madrid Qumran Congress: Proceedings of the International Congress on the Dead Sea Scrolls, Madrid, 18-21 March, 1991 (eds J. Trebolle Barrera and L. Vegas Montana; STDJ 11; Leiden: Brill, 1992) 2.571-88
15. It is worth noting that this opinion, which is close to the sectarian tradition, is cited by R. Eliezer b. Hyrcanus who is known for adopting the views of the ancient halakhah. See Y.D. Gilat, R. Eliezer Ben Hyrcanus: A Scholar Outcast (Ramat Gan: Bar-Ilan University Press, 1984) 23-67
16. The same is true for the Levite tithe in Num. 18:21
17. See M. Weinfeld, Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomic School (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972) 313-16