Damascus Document Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Code that has long eluded full explanation. CD 10:20-21 seems to proscribe an individual from walking through a field on the Sabbath, though the precise details of the law are unclear. The uncertainty regarding the meaning of this passage is due in large part to the apparent textual corruption found in the medieval manuscript of the Damascus Document (Ms A). Analysis of this passage begins by examining the textual evidence along with a review of the merits and drawbacks of the three primary explanations proposed by Solomon Schechter, Louis Ginzberg, and Chaim Rabin. This article argues that the full meaning of this passage an4 its correct emendation can only be understood through exploration of its legal-exegetical use of Isa 58: 13. A more nuanced treatment of the exegetical technique of this passage argues in favor of the general interpretaon of this passage as a prohibition against traveling through one's field on the Sabbath to assess what tasks need to be done after the Sab bath. Examination of CD 10:20-21 in the context of its exegetical reformula tion of Isa 58: 13 brings into sharper focus the textual difficulties and provides a context for the emendation of CD 10:20-21 proposed here. (1) Various aspects of the larger study from which this article draws were pre sented at the 2009 Annual Meeting of the Associaton for Jewish Studies (Los Ange les); the John Cardinal Cody Colloquium at Loyola University Chicago (Chicago, March 2010); the Open History Seminar at Hebrew Union College -Jewish lnstibltc of Religion (Cincinnati. March 2010); a Dead Sea Scrolls graduate seminar at New Yott University (October 2010). 1bank you to all those in attendan for their helpful feedback. I am also grateful to Moshe Bernstein for bis insightful comments on an earlier draft. 44 Al.BX P. JASSEN (11) n:iton 21 20. He shall not walk in the field (12) in onfer to do his desired labor 21. · the Sabbath Text and Meaning This law is the third general legal unit in the Damascus Docu ment's Sabbath code. (13) CD 10: 14-17 opens the Sabbath Code with the requirement to extend the timeframe for the beginning of the Sab bath on Friday. CD 10: 17-19 continues with a set of laws prohibiting specific activities related to financial and business matters that are performed primarily through speech. (14) CD 10: 17-19 begins with a general classificatory statement: "one may not speak a vile and empty word" (P,, � .,� tD"lC -,::rr 'nc). This general prohibition is followed by three specific laws that all include activity that involve si,eech: (1) demanding repayment of a loan; (2) entering into a dispute about money; (3) and speaking (i::rr) about work matters related to the fol lowing week. As has been noted by many scholars, the general statea waw, and indeed this is how nearly all subsequent commentators have deciphered lhc text (i.e., aside from suggested emendations to a yod). See, e.g., R. H. Charles, "Fragments of a Zadokite Work," in idem, ed., Apocrypha and Pselllkpigrapha of the Old Testament (2 vols.; Oxford: Clarendon, 1913), 2:826; Leonhard Rost, Die Damascuuchrift: Neu Bearbeitet (Klein Tcxte ftlr Vorlcsungco und Obungcn 167; Berlin: de Gruytcr, 1933), 20; Rabin, udoldte Documents, 53; Schiffma Halakhah, 90; Qimron, "CDC," 29; Joseph M. Baumgarten and Daniel R. Schwartz in J.H. Cbarleswmth, ed., The Dead Sea Scrolls: Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek Tuts with English Translations: Damasau DOCIIIMnt, War Scroll and Related DOCllmDll (Pl'S DSSP 2; TUbingco: J.c.B. Mohr [Paul Sicbcck]; Louisvile: Westminster John Knox. 1995), 46; Fl ORntino Garc(a Martmcz and Hibert J.C. Tigcbclaar, The Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition (2 vols.; Leiden: Brill, 1997-1998), 1:568; Doering. Schabbat, 143; Ben Zion Wacholder, The New Damascus Document: The Mu/rash on the Escha tological Torah of the Dead Sea Scrolls: Reconstruction, TrtlMlation, and ColnltU!n tary (STDJ 56; Leiden: Brill, 2007). 88. ( 11) On the various suggested emendations and interpretations of this word. sec full discussion below. (12) The suggestion of A. Dupont-Sommer, The Essene Writings From Qumran (trans. G. Vennes; Cleveland: Meridian. 1962), 152. to translate mw as "country" is unwammtcd. He assumes that some aspect of the Sabbath boundary is involved in this law but admits that this interpretaon makes little sense. This translation. however, is followed by S.T. Kimbrough Jr., .. Tho Concept of Sabbath at Qumran." RevQ 5 (1966): 489, who conflate this law with the Sabbalb boundary law that follows. AB I argue below, CD 10:20-21 is not directed at the Sabbath boundary law. (13) On the Damascus Document's Sabbath code, sec cspcclaly Schiffma, Halakhah. 77-133; Doering, Schabbal, 119-215. (14) In a fortbcomi study, I examine the litcnuy and exegetical clements in CD 10: 17-19. See also Scbiffma Halalchah, 87-90, Doering, Schabbal, 138-43. WHAT BXACILY IS PROHIBITED IN nm FIELD? 4S ment and the third specific law both paraphrase Isa 58: 13 in an attempt to understand what type of condemned speech exactly is intended by the expression .,� -,:ii,, "nor speak a word" in Isa 58: 13. (15) 'Through a series of exegetical maneuvers, the Damascus Document transforms the enigmatic.,� ,:iii of Isa 58: 13 into practical Sabbath law.