Tracking the Continuity of the Leviticus Laws of Genital Fluids in the Dead Sea Scrolls and Rabbinic Literature

This comparative study explores Leviticus’ rules on the impurity caused by genital fluxes as attested in the Dead Sea Scrolls and rabbinic literature to shed light on the state of halakhah in the pre-rabbinic stage. Using the five impurity categories of genital fluxes outlined in Lev 15 and 12, this study demonstrates the Dead Sea Scrolls' relevance as a textual product of the Second Temple period for tracking the antiquity of some rabbinic halakhic rulings. As a starting point, an analysis of the biblical exposition of each impurity category is undertaken, noting hermeneutical, textual, and text-critical difficulties in the text but selectively limiting the detailed examination to problems that have implications in the attestation of these rules in the Dead Sea Scrolls or other Second Temple period texts in comparison with their attestation in the rabbinic literature. The study pays particular attention to variant readings found in ancient translations (the LXX and the Targumim) and the Samaritan Pentateuch, and to cases of word choices in the DSS and other Second Temple period texts. It contends that these variants and word-choices are hermeneutically pertinent to our understanding of the state of halakhah in the Second Temple period when verified by their conformity with a particular position on a halakhic issue for which rabbinic opinions diverge. The investigation leads to the conclusion that difficulties in the biblical text are responsible for many divergences or innovations in later attestations of the biblical rules, and that many rabbinic rulings can be linked to the innovations or polemical texts in the Dead Sea Scrolls or to variant readings in ancient translations or versions of the Hebrew Bible. This study stands out from other comparative approaches to the DSS and rabbinic texts which tend to have broader perspectives by narrowing down the scope of the investigation to one type of impurity to demonstrate from that standpoint how a textual, text-critical, and hermeneutical analysis of the Dead Sea Scrolls texts can yield valuable pieces of evidence on the state of halakha in the Second Temple period, and thus shed light on the trajectory of halakhic development.

Department dc:contributor.department

Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations

Year dc:date.issued

2023

Author dc:creator

• Nziwa, Kambale

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Meacham, Tirzah
• Metso, Sarianna

• Dead Sea Scrolls
• Hebrew Bible
• Jewish Law
• Rabbinic Texts
• Second Temple Period

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1807/128198

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:utoronto.scholaris.ca:1807/128198