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Re: orion Essenes = 'osey hatorah?



At 05:24 PM 1/15/99 -0500, Stephen Goranson wrote:

>	As to long and short forms of  (self-)designation, perhaps it
>would be useful to consider some analogies. If Pharisees were "specifiers,"
>what they specified (halakha), is, as it were, unspecified, at least
>explictly--understood. Same for Pharisees as "separatists"--separate from
>something, surely. Though it may be a folk etymology, Samaritans considered
>themselves the true keepers of torah: keepers, with torah sometimes
>unstated. 
> 

Stephen - could you explain whether you have a criterion to distinguish
between a "designation" and a description ? I am thinking of something that
would allow us to distinguish between the situation where people whish to
say about themselves that they do the Torah, and the situation where,
without necessarily being interested in the sense of the description,  a
group of people is known by the label of "doers of the Torah". 

For example, in a phrase "we have seceded [parashnu] from the people" the
word "parashnu" is there to describe an action performed, whilst in a
phrase "the pharisees went to Jerusalem" the secession is not as much
interesting in itself, as it is a means to designate a particular group and
distinguish it from others. 

In essence, what I want to ask is this: can any description appearing in a
text be taken as a label, or would you be able to point out something that
distinguishes labels from descriptions in the case of "osei ha-Tora"?


Thanks and all best,	Asia Lerner
For private reply, e-mail to asia@checkpoint.com
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