Halakhah in Light of Epigraphy 9783666550171, 9783525550175

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Journal of Ancient Judaism Supplements Edited by Armin Lange, Bernard M. Levinson and Vered Noam

Advisory Board Katell Berthelot (University of Aix-Marseille), George Brooke (University of Manchester), Jonathan Ben Dov (University of Haifa), Beate Ego (University of Osnabrück), Ester Eshel (Bar-Ilan University), Heinz-Josef Fabry University of Bonn), Steven Fraade (Yale University), Maxine L. Grossman (University of Maryland), Christine Hayes (Yale University), Catherine Hezser (University of London), Jodi Magness (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), Carol Meyers, (Duke University), Eric Meyers (Duke University), Hillel Newman (University of Haifa), Christophe Nihan (University of Lausanne), Lawrence H. Schiffman (New York University), Konrad Schmid (University of Zurich), Adiel Schremer (Bar-Ilan University), Michael Segal (Hebrew University of Jerusalem), Aharon Shemesh (Bar-Ilan University), Günter Stemberger (University of Vienna), Kristin De Troyer (University of St Andrews), Azzan Yadin (Rutgers University)

Volume 3

Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht

Albert I. Baumgarten / Hanan Eshel ʬ"ʦ / Ranon Katzoff / Shani Tzoref (ed.)

Halakhah in Light of Epigraphy

Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht

Mit 16 Abbildungen

Bibliografische Information der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen Nationalbibliografie; detaillierte bibliografische Daten sind im Internet über http://dnb.d-nb.de abrufbar. ISBN 978-3-525-55017-5

Umschlagabbildung: Ostracon from water cistern 911, Masada, photography © by Gabi Laron

© 2011, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen/ Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht LLC, Oakville, CT, U.S.A. Alle Rechte vorbehalten. Das Werk und seine Teile sind urheberrechtlich geschützt. Jede Verwertung in anderen als den gesetzlich zugelassenen Fällen bedarf der vorherigen schriftlichen Einwilligung des Verlages. Hinweis zu § 52a UrhG: Weder das Werk noch seine Teile dürfen ohne vorherige schriftliche Einwilligung des Verlages öffentlich zugänglich gemacht werden. Dies gilt auch bei einer entsprechenden Nutzung für Lehr- und Unterrichtszwecke. Printed in Germany. Druck und Bindung: b Hubert & Co, Göttinge n. Gedruckt auf alterungsbeständigem Papier.

Contents

Preface ......................................................................................................

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Abbreviations ........................................................................................... 11 Contributors .............................................................................................. 13

1. Halakhah and the Scrolls from Qumran MOSHE BENOVITZ Booths on the Roof of the Parwar and Branches on the Roof of the Stoa: Echoes of an Early Halakhah in the Temple Scroll and Mishnah Sukkah ............................................... 17 VERED NOAM “You Shall Pass Through Fire” (Numbers 31:23): An Early Exegetic Tradition .................................................................... 27 EYAL REGEV From Qumran to Alexandria and Rome: Qumranic Halakhah in Josephus and Philo .............................................. 43 LAWRENCE H. SCHIFFMAN Laws Pertaining to Forbidden Foods in the Dead Sea Scrolls ................. 65 AHARON SHEMESH The Laws of Incest in the Dead Sea Scrolls and the History of Halakhah .................................................................... 81

2. Halakhah and Quotidian Documents from the Judean Desert HANAN ESHEL +"$ A Survey of Scholarship on the Legal Documents Found in the Refuge Caves ......................................... 103

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Contents

STEVEN D. FRAADE Local Jewish Leadership in Roman Palestine: The Case of the Parnas in Early Rabbinic Sources in Light of Extra-Rabbinic Evidence ....................................................... 155 SHAMMA FRIEDMAN The Jewish Bill of Divorce from Masada Onwards ................................. 175 DAVID GOODBLATT Tannaitic Traditions and Dating Documents in Second Temple Judah ... 185

3. Halakhah and Epigraphic Sources YONATAN ADLER The Content and Order of the Scriptural Passages in Tefillin: A Reexamination of the Early Rabbinic Sources In Light of the Evidence From the Judean Desert ................................................. 205 CHAIM BEN DAVID The Rehov Inscription: A Galilean Halakhic Text Formula? .................. 231 TAL ILAN Kever Israel: Since When Do Jews Bury their Dead Separately and What Did They Do Beforehand? ..................................... 241 ZE’EV SAFRAI AND CHANA SAFRAI +"$ Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 840 ....................................................................... 255 GUY D. STIEBEL “Meager Bread and Scant Water”–Food for Thought at Masada ............ 283

Preface

The privilege of writing this Preface should not have been ours. Prof. Hanan Eshel (1958–2010) was the living spirit behind all the activities of the David and Jemima Jeselsohn Center for Epigraphy at Bar-Ilan University, from its inception until the last days of his life, including the present volume. Unfortunately, as his illness entered its final stage, it became clear that Hanan would not be able to finish writing his own paper nor complete editorial tasks for this volume. His passing, on April 8, 2010, has left a void that we must now fill, as best we can. As editors, we have the unhappy responsibility of noting the death of another of our contributors. Prof. Chana Safrai (1946–2008) was a pioneer in the revolution of serious women’s Torah study, at the highest level. The paper below of which she is a co-author is one example of her contributions to academic scholarship. By the time the conference took place, on May 29, 2008, she was no longer alive. As colleagues and friends, we mourn these losses.

ii This volume will be the first in what is planned to be a series of publications resulting from Jeselsohn Center conferences. It will appear at the time of the second Jeselsohn Center conference, devoted to the topic of “Epigraphy and Daily Life, From the Bible to the Talmud,” to be held in January 2011. As its editors, we have numerous people to thank. The cooperation of the contributors was excellent and made our work easier. The encouragement of the Jeselsohns, the founders of the Center, insured that fewer delays than normal held up completion. Dr. Esther Eshel, the new Director of the Jeselsohn Center, made valuable connections and arrangements that allowed us to meet the timetable for publication. We were all extremely pleased by the enthusiastic and immediately favorable response by Prof. Armin Lange, Prof. Bernard M. Levinson, and Prof. Vered Noam, the editors of the Journal of Ancient Judaism Supplement Series, in which this volume appears. The professional collaboration of Christoph Spill, editor in charge of books on Theology and Religion at Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht in

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Preface

Göttingen, Germany, and the technical proficiency of Matthias Weigold were also much appreciated.

iii Epigraphy, as we study it under the auspices of the Jeselsohn Center at BarIlan University is defined in the broadest sense of the term. Although for the purpose of defining their academic disciplines papyrologists and epigraphists have divided the territory such that papyrologists deal with writing created by the application of one material (typically ink) onto another (typically papyrus, parchment, or pottery shard), and epigraphists deal with writing created by cutting, molding, or placing hard materials (such as inscriptions carved in stone, metal coins, and mosaics), we here use epigraphy to include all these forms of ancient writing. Like papyrologists, we do not exclude literary material if the writing is ancient. Epigraphy, in this sense, has immeasurably enriched our knowledge of the ancient Jewish past. Innumerable documents now attest to moments in the lives of individuals centuries ago, as well as to the texts they revered and by which they lived. At the same time, the epigraphic treasure has posed a problem common in historiographic endeavors: how does one integrate old knowledge, based on previously known sources, with new information. In one way or other, historians of the Jews have been wrestling with this question since the sixteenth century, when they first learned about Persian history in greater detail from Greek texts. The epigraphic discoveries of the more recent past have added to our knowledge, but seem at times to increase the dilemma. One especially acute example of this issue concerns the relationship between epigraphic testimony and rabbinic literature. We now recognize, at times after painful encounters with the evidence, that rabbinic texts are normative: they tell us how their authors believed life should be lived, rather than the details of ordinary, everyday, experience. To put the point in its most simplistic terms, one simply cannot open the Mishnah, study a tractate or two, and then write the history of the Jews of that era on the topics covered by those tractates, as if ancient Jews lived exactly according to those laws. Yet, just how should one assess the place of the evidence of halakhic texts in light of the documents? At the extremes, the solutions are simple but unrealistic: at one end, the Rabbis controlled all aspects of ancient Jewish life; at the other, the Rabbis were a small island in a vast sea of Jews who lived their lives in ignorant bliss of rabbinic regulation. Yet, common

Preface

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sense suggests that the truth must lie somewhere between these poles. Turning to the documents and the light they shed on the many small moments of ancient Jewish life, we must ask just how much halakhic context they reflect. How much halakhic background is implied in these sources? Naturally, there is room for legitimate scholarly disagreement in offering answers to these questions. We are asking questions of the epigraphic material that it was not written to answer—these documents were intended to record moments in ordinary life, not to teach us about the history of halakhah or about a legal context that was self-evident to the ancient Jews whose actions were preserved in the epigraphic record. Accordingly, what one scholar sees as the background implied in a particular document may differ widely from the perception of another. The reminder of the normative nature of halakhic sources should serve as a warning of the dangers of seeing a halakhic context everywhere. Yet, is the halakhah really nowhere? In convoking the conference whose papers are gathered here the organizing committee intended to generate discussion of these issues. Candidly, in their personal scholarship, at least two members of the committee that planned this conference staked out a position, arguing with much passion and learning for as large a role as possible for halakhah in constituting the background of the documents. They certainly hoped that the conference would yield a validation of their approach and its underlying assumptions. The letter of invitation to speakers was phrased in neutral terms. It asked them to consider the contribution of ancient non-literary documents to understanding the halakhah and of halakhah to understanding the documents. The English title was also non-committal: “Halakhah in Light of Epigraphy.” However, the title of the conference in Hebrew was explicit— "+"$% '/' !)+! =:'/