[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: orion-list More than enough



Dear Victor,
    In CD one has an older body of halachah (with affinities to MMT, 11QT) 
which is supplemented at a later stage by community organization rules 
influenced by (and on occasion quoting) 1QS.  (In the process of adding the 
serekh legal material, some of the older halachah was updated to apply to the 
community, as Hempel demonstrates, which shows the relative chronology).  
This would fit your model of a community with Sadducee affinities (indeed, 
the True Teacher's community) coming under the influence of the set of 
organizational rules that correlate with the Essenes.  I take note of your 
statement, "Assuming the two documents represent the same group" - I'm not 
sure that they do, since the serekh literature is of an entirely different 
character and knows nothing of the halachah, the land of Damascus, or such 
figures and groups as the Teacher of Righteousness, Man of Lies, Seekers of 
Smooth Things, etc.  However, I hope to treat such matters in an upcoming 
article or two.

   Best regards,
   Russell Gmirkin


> Dear Joe,
>  
>  If I may be simplistic and hopefully not too out of date and ignorant-
>  NOt so simple! Mnaual of Disciline suggests that communitity organization
>  resembled how Josephus describes that of the Essenes. MMT shows that the
>  halakhah advocated by its author resembled that attributed to
>  Saducees. Assumihg the two documents trepresent the same group, This
>  leaves open the possibility that you have a group of 
>  saducees living a life of isolation and following an Essene model, or a
>  group of Essenes who follow Saducee halakhah, or another group which does
>  both, and I assume there are other possibilities as well. Remember that a
>  religious qibbutz and a mapai qibbutz may have similar daily lives but
>  quite different faith systems.  So manual of discipline raises the
>  possibility of an Essene group but not sufficient proof. And the rest I'm
>  sure more qualified beney-Orion and benot-Orion of this list will be happy
>  to fill in.
>  
>  Victor
>  
For private reply, e-mail to RGmyrken@aol.com
----------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe from Orion, e-mail to majordomo@mscc.huji.ac.il with the
message: "unsubscribe Orion." Archives are on the Orion Web
site, http://orion.mscc.huji.ac.il.