L. Schiffman

Abstract: "The Dead Sea Scrolls and Rabbinic Halakhah"

Lawrence H. Schiffman

This study sets forth the relationship, both historical and legal, between the Dead Sea Scrolls and the later Rabbinic law. It begins by carefully defining the nature of the two corpora to be discussed. Each set of sources includes not only material arguing for its own specific approach to Jewish law but also polemics against the approach of others which allow us to learn much more than would otherwise be possible. The Dead Sea Scrolls provide us with information about a sectarian system of Jewish law that is very much at variance with that of the later Rabbis. It is most probable that whereas the later Rabbinic tradition continues that of the Pharisees, that of the Dead Sea Scrolls sect and allied groups in Second Temple times is that followed by the Sadducees. This study provides information about the specific contents of the laws that each group of texts puts forward as well as providing a general methodological framework for understanding their relationship. The paper discusses the role of Jewish law in sectarian disputes and its centrality in ancient Judaism. In addition, we trace how each of these Jewish legal systems understood the authority of the law and its theological basis, as well as the role of apodictic as opposed to exegetical statements in both the Qumran and Rabbinic texts. Also treated are laws pertaining to sacrifice and liturgy, and ritual purity and impurity, all of which served as sectarian boundary markers. Finally, the study argues for the need to recognize more fully the extensive continuity between pre- and post-destruction Judaism based on the many commonalities in the sources discussed.

(c) 2001
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