- Dead Sea Scrolls, Rabbinic Literature, Second Temple Judaism, Rabbinic Judaism, Ancient Jewish History, Midrash, and 17 moreMishnah, Rabbinical literature (The Mishnah, Babylonian and Palestinian Talmudim, aggadic midrashim), Talmud, Philo of Alexandria, Apocrypha/Pseudepigrapha, Targum, Multilingualism, Tannaitic Literature, Aramaic inscriptions, ancient Synagogues, Asceticism, Ancient Judaism, Dead Sea Scrolls (Religion), Rabbinics, Jewish Law, Qumran, and History of Judaism In Antiquityedit
- For my professional web site, go to <http://campuspress.yale.edu/stevenfraade/>edit
The Damascus Document. The Oxford Commentary on the Dead Sea Scrolls. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021.
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Although the question of Moses' intermediary role in revelation comes up frequently, albeit often only implicitly, in post-biblical literature of Second Temple and early rabbinic times, this chapter focuses on a parallel pair of early... more
Although the question of Moses' intermediary role in revelation comes up frequently, albeit often only implicitly, in post-biblical literature of Second Temple and early rabbinic times, this chapter focuses on a parallel pair of early midrashic texts that comment on one locus of a larger question, and which have not received the attention they deserve, in part because they have been previously misunderstood and mistranslated. Rabbinic texts specify and celebrate specific acts or rules initiated by Moses on his own, but to which God immediately agrees. In contrast to the preceding traditions, other midrashim emphasize that Qorah's chief complaint against Moses, for which he was killed, was that Moses had instituted commandments on his own, without divine authorization.Keywords: midrashic text; Moses; Qorah
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Scholars of Miqsat Maʿaśe Ha-Torah (4QMMT) have concentrated on elucidating (1) the contours of Sadducean religious law, as adapted by the Qumran community; (2) the early stages of development of the Qumran community and its sectarian... more
Scholars of Miqsat Maʿaśe Ha-Torah (4QMMT) have concentrated on elucidating (1) the contours of Sadducean religious law, as adapted by the Qumran community; (2) the early stages of development of the Qumran community and its sectarian ideology; (3) early rabbinic accounts of pre-rabbinic sectarian controversies; (4) the influence of the Pharisees and their teachings on late Second Temple Jewish law and institutions. To begin with, of the approximately twenty extant rules contained in Section B of the composite text, not one identifies an opposing practice of the addressees. When we turn to the final section of 4QMMT, we find, as befits its parenetic, or exhortative, rhetoric, many more instances of second person address. The language of 4QMMT displays, among the Dead Sea Scrolls, a unique combination of proto-mishnaic, Aramaic, and biblicizing elements, making it difficult to locate within the history of ancient Hebrew.Keywords: Hebrew; Miqsat Maʿaśe Ha-Torah (4QMMT); Qumran
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One of the most celebrated aspects of rabbinic literature is its adducing of multiple interpretations of scriptural verses and its valorizing of multiple legal opinions as expressed in debate among the rabbinic sages. This celebration has... more
One of the most celebrated aspects of rabbinic literature is its adducing of multiple interpretations of scriptural verses and its valorizing of multiple legal opinions as expressed in debate among the rabbinic sages. This celebration has come from several quarters, with each finding in the purported rabbinic polysemy and pluralism support for agendas that could not possibly have been those of the ancient rabbis. For example, in the 1980s, some literary critics and philosophers found support in rabbinic midrash for their theories of indeterminacy of textual meaning in literature and language in general. Likewise, moving from the linguistic to the social domain, those seeking more harmonious relations among modern Judaism's competing denominations have found a pluralistic model to emulate in ancient Judaism, following the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, when sectarian rivalry is thought to have been replaced by the “big tent” inclusiveness, marked by respectful debate ...
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Review: Aryeh Amihay, Theory and Practice in Essene Law. Dead Sea Discoveries 25.2 (2018): 285-87.
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“Retrospective on the Intersection of Translation and Commentary in Ancient Judaism and Its Greco-Roman Context.” Ancient Jew Review, October 6, 2021.... more
“Retrospective on the Intersection of Translation and Commentary in Ancient Judaism and Its Greco-Roman Context.” Ancient Jew Review, October 6, 2021. https://www.ancientjewreview.com/read/2021/10/5/retrospective-on-the-intersection-of-translation-and-commentary-in-ancient-judaism-and-its-greco-roman-context-steven-fraade
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“Tractate Rosh Hashanah.” Volume 1, pages 678–96 in The Oxford Annotated Mishnah: A New Translation of the Mishnah With Introductions and Notes. Edited by Shaye J. D. Cohen, Robert Goldenberg, and Hayim Lapin. Oxford: Oxford University... more
“Tractate Rosh Hashanah.” Volume 1, pages 678–96 in The Oxford Annotated Mishnah: A New Translation of the Mishnah With Introductions and Notes. Edited by Shaye J. D. Cohen, Robert Goldenberg, and Hayim Lapin. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022.
Research Interests: Tannaitic Literature, Mishnaic Hebrew, Mishna, Rabbinical literature (The Mishnah, Babylonian and Palestinian Talmudim, aggadic midrashim), Research Interests: Rabbinical Literature (The Mishnah, Babylonian and Palestinian Talmudim, Aggadic Midrashim), Midrash, Redactional Criticism of Rabbinic Literature, Literary Criticism, Rabbinic Literature, and Rabbinics, and 5 moreMishnah. Midrash, Rosh HaShanah, Lunar Calendar, Tannaitic Hebrew, and MS Kaufmann of the Mishnah
“The Torah Inscribed/Transcribed in Seventy Languages.” Pages 21–47 in Hebrew Between Jews and Christians. Edited by Daniel Stein Kokin. Studia Judaica 77 . Berlin: de Gruyter, 2022.
Research Interests: Translation Studies, Multilingualism, Targum, Translation theory, Bible Translation, and 14 moreBible Translations, Rabbinics, Rabbinic Literature, Targums, Bilingualism and Multilingualism, Literary translation, Talmud Midrash Genizah Judaism Rabbinic-Literature Conversion Gender Haggadah, Rabbinic Judaism, Targum, Aramaic, Rabbinic Judaism, Midrash and Targum, Midrash, Talmud, Comparative study of Rabbinic Literature, Targumim, Aramaic and Targum, and Talmud and Rabbinics
“‘Reading Leads to Translating’ in a Multilingual Context: The View from Early Rabbinic Texts (and Beyond).” Pages 217–31 in Social History of the Jews in Antiquity: Studies in Dialogue with Albert Baumgarten. Edited by Michal Bar-Asher... more
“‘Reading Leads to Translating’ in a Multilingual Context: The View from Early Rabbinic Texts (and Beyond).” Pages 217–31 in Social History of the Jews in Antiquity: Studies in Dialogue with Albert Baumgarten. Edited by Michal Bar-Asher Siegal and Jonathan Ben-Dov. Texts and Studies in Ancient Judaism 185. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2021.
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“The Vital Intersection of Halakha and Aggada.” Pages 463–71 in The Literature of the Rabbis. Compendia Rerum Iudaicarum ad Novum Testamentum. Edited by Christine Hayes. Leiden: Brill, 2022.
Research Interests: Rabbinics, Rabbinic Literature, Historical Development of Halakhah, Talmud Midrash Genizah Judaism Rabbinic-Literature Conversion Gender Haggadah, Rabbinic Judaism, and 11 moreHistory of Halakhah, Midrash, Talmud, Comparative study of Rabbinic Literature, Rabbinical literature (The Mishnah, Babylonian and Palestinian Talmudim, aggadic midrashim), Ancient Halakhah, Philosophy of halakhah, Research Interests: Rabbinical Literature (The Mishnah, Babylonian and Palestinian Talmudim, Aggadic Midrashim), Midrash, Redactional Criticism of Rabbinic Literature, Literary Criticism, Rabbinic Literature, and Rabbinics, Talmud and Rabbinics, Talmud Literature of the Midrash and Aggadah, History of Aggadic Interpretation, Aggadah, and Aggadah and Halakha
“‘Enjoin Them upon Your Children to Keep’ (Deut 32:46): Law as Commandment and Legacy, Or, Robert Cover Meets Midrash.” Pages 273–90 in Law as Religion, Religion as Law. Edited by David C. Flatto and Benjamin Porat. Cambridge: Cambridge... more
“‘Enjoin Them upon Your Children to Keep’ (Deut 32:46): Law as Commandment and Legacy, Or, Robert Cover Meets Midrash.” Pages 273–90 in Law as Religion, Religion as Law. Edited by David C. Flatto and Benjamin Porat. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022.
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The chapter provides a critical representation of the text(s), based on manuscript comparison and consulting of digital images, an English translation that cleaves to the original Hebrew while rendering it in accessible prose. Critical... more
The chapter provides a critical representation of the text(s), based on manuscript comparison and consulting of digital images, an English translation that cleaves to the original Hebrew while rendering it in accessible prose. Critical Notes to both the Hebrew text and its English translation, and a Commentary that seeks to highlight and interconnect the overarching themes and rhetorical strategies of the text, as it might have been communally performed in the intellectual and ritual life of the Qumran community (or communities). Suggestions for Further Reading are incorporated into each section. The Notes, which form the largest part of this chapter, identify and analyze the plenitude of both explicit (citation) and implicit (allusion) scriptural interpretation, both legal and non-legal, as well as convergences and divergences with a panoply of ancient Jewish sources, including, in addition to the Hebrew Bible, other scrolls, other second temple Jewish literature, New Testament, an...
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“Early Rabbinic Midrash Between Philo and Qumran.” Pages 281-93 in Strength to Strength: Essays in Appreciation of Shaye J. D. Cohen. Edited by Michael L. Satlow. Providence , Rhode Island: Brown Judaic Studies, 2018.
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Le manuscrit de Qumran 4QMMT a ete beaucoup etudie, meme avant sa publication officielle en 1994, et l'A. du present article propose de laisser tout cela de cote pour ecouter ce document comme si nous l'etudions en tant que... more
Le manuscrit de Qumran 4QMMT a ete beaucoup etudie, meme avant sa publication officielle en 1994, et l'A. du present article propose de laisser tout cela de cote pour ecouter ce document comme si nous l'etudions en tant que membres de la communaute de Qumran du 1er siecle de notre ere. Il examine ainsi tour a tour la section B, la section C, la section A et le langage employe dans ce texte, et conclut en affirmant qu'il convient de le lire avec la perspective de comment il aurait pu fonctionner comme communication pedagogique interne a la communaute de Qumran.
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Three converging factors make the early Rabbinic midrashim (scriptural commentaries) an appropriate place to begin an examination of the complex interplay of oral and textual registers of tradition and its transmission, so much the focus... more
Three converging factors make the early Rabbinic midrashim (scriptural commentaries) an appropriate place to begin an examination of the complex interplay of oral and textual registers of tradition and its transmission, so much the focus of recent study of other traditional cultures and so much the character of Rabbinic culture from antiquity to the present. First of all, recent scholarship of Rabbinic midrash has tended to vacillate between viewing it as the product of popular oral transmission and sophisticated literary composition. Second, it is in our earliest (so-called “halakhic” or “Tannaitic”) midrashic collections that we find the first Rabbinic expressions of what will subsequently be more fully enunciated: the idea of a twofold revelation of Torah at Sinai and a twofold repertoire of its continuous performance and study: written and oral. Lastly, midrashic commentary, by its very structure and rhetoric, provides a glimpse of how Written and Oral Torahs are dialogically co...
The Damascus Document is an ancient Hebrew text that is one of the longest, oldest, and most important of the ancient scrolls found near Khirbet (ruins of) Qumran, usually referred to collectively as the Dead Sea Scrolls for the proximity... more
The Damascus Document is an ancient Hebrew text that is one of the longest, oldest, and most important of the ancient scrolls found near Khirbet (ruins of) Qumran, usually referred to collectively as the Dead Sea Scrolls for the proximity of the Qumran settlement and eleven nearby caves to the Dead Sea. Its oldest parts originate in the mid- to late second century BCE. While the earliest discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls occurred in 1947, the Qumran Damascus Document fragments were discovered in 1952 (but not published in full until 1996), mainly in what is designated as Qumran Cave Four (some ten manuscripts altogether). However, it is unique in that two manuscripts (MS A and MS B) containing parts and variations of the same text were discovered much earlier, in 1896 (and published in 1910), among the discarded texts of the Cairo Geniza, the latter being written in the tenth-eleventh centuries CE. Together, the manuscripts of the Damascus Document, both ancient and medieval, are an...
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In this volume in honor of Moshe J. Bernstein, students and colleagues offer their latest research on scriptural interpretation in the Dead Sea Scrolls and other literature, and on related themes.
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This essay explores depictions of the ark of the covenant in late antique Jewish and Christian texts, as well as ancient art. It explores the interrelationships between the arks of the covenant from the wilderness tabernacle and the first... more
This essay explores depictions of the ark of the covenant in late antique Jewish and Christian texts, as well as ancient art. It explores the interrelationships between the arks of the covenant from the wilderness tabernacle and the first Jerusalem temple, and the ark for Torah scrolls in late antique synagogues. The inaccessibility or invisibility of the arks of the covenant in the tabernacle and temple is contrasted against the visibility and symbolic depictions of the Torah arks in late antique synagogues. Moreover, the author demonstrates how early rabbinic texts depicted Torah scrolls within or alongside the arks of the covenant, fusing all three arks into one. In doing so, the rabbis draw a connection between the late antique present and the biblical past, which can be juxtaposed against claims of discontinuity by other sources from late antiquity.
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The "late" Jewish apocalypses of 4Ezra and 2Baruch , usually dated to the very end of first century or beginning of second century ce, and considered to have been composed in Palestine in either Hebrew or Aramaic, are often... more
The "late" Jewish apocalypses of 4Ezra and 2Baruch , usually dated to the very end of first century or beginning of second century ce, and considered to have been composed in Palestine in either Hebrew or Aramaic, are often thought to represent a transitional period in the history of ancient Judaism between the end of the Second Temple period and the beginnings of rabbinic Judaism. Although both 4Ezra and 2Baruch are composite texts that include a variety of literary forms, two stand out in the overall structure of these texts, with both functioning as central media of revelation: visions and dialogues. The author reads these texts from the perspective of someone more schooled in early rabbinic literature than in apocalyptic literature, in order to see what lines of similarity and difference might emerge, without presuming any direct contact or familiarity between the two, or any overall confluence of form or content. Keywords: 2Baruch ; 4Ezra ; Jewish apocalypses; Judaism; rabbinic literature; revelation; Second Temple period
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Given the multiplicity of legal interpretations and opinions, the question of the place of legal debate within early rabbinic literature of late antiquity—both as textual practice and as hermeneutical and legal theory—has occupied a... more
Given the multiplicity of legal interpretations and opinions, the question of the place of legal debate within early rabbinic literature of late antiquity—both as textual practice and as hermeneutical and legal theory—has occupied a particularly busy space within recent scholarship. This question centers on several issues of broad significance for the history of rabbinic Judaism and its literature: Does this phenomenon (if we can speak of it in the singular) represent a defining characteristic of rabbinic culture overall, or rather an aspect better attributed to specific times, places, and rabbinic “schools”? Did it emerge and develop internally within rabbinic Judaism, or is it, on the one hand, the continuation of antecedents in the pre-rabbinic, late Second Temple period, or, on the other hand, the result of external influences or pressures (e.g., Greco-Roman or early Christian) of a later time? Does such legal multivocality reflect the actual nature of either/both rabbinic juris...
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The author revisits texts and arguments from his 2007 article in AJS Review 31 no. 1 in response to a “response” by Azzan Yadin-Israel in the April 2014 issue (38, no. 1). The central question is whether the widespread rabbinic textual... more
The author revisits texts and arguments from his 2007 article in AJS Review 31 no. 1 in response to a “response” by Azzan Yadin-Israel in the April 2014 issue (38, no. 1). The central question is whether the widespread rabbinic textual practices of interpretive polysemy and legal multivocality are the product of the post-amoraic (“stammaitic”) editorial layer of the Babylonian Talmud (Yadin-Israel) or are already evidenced and theologically thematized in the earlier “tannaitic” rabbinic collections from the Land of Israel (Fraade).
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This chapter highlights aspects of Second Temple scriptural interpretation that help to historically contextualize rabbinic midrash socially, culturally, and intellectually. In comparing the exegetical contents of early rabbinic midrash... more
This chapter highlights aspects of Second Temple scriptural interpretation that help to historically contextualize rabbinic midrash socially, culturally, and intellectually. In comparing the exegetical contents of early rabbinic midrash with its Second Temple antecedents, we need to be as attentive to those aspects that concord as to those that do not. The explosion of evidence for scriptural interpretation among the varieties of pre-rabbinic Judaism has had, perhaps, the greatest impact on our realization of the great diversity of literary forms that such cultural activity could assume, defying the neat rubrics under which we had previously thought it could be sorted.Keywords: Dead Sea Scrolls; jewish biblical interpretation; rabbinic midrash
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Research Interests: History, Sociology, Law, Narrative, Ideology, and 5 moreJudaism, Legal Fictions, Torah, Arts and Humanities, and Narrative History
This chapter looks at a few early rabbinic interpretations that conceive of the relation between the hearing and seeing of Sinaitic revelation in striking ways, but with some very interesting antecedents. It begins with a midrashic set of... more
This chapter looks at a few early rabbinic interpretations that conceive of the relation between the hearing and seeing of Sinaitic revelation in striking ways, but with some very interesting antecedents. It begins with a midrashic set of comments to Exodus 20:15. It then considers one final passage from Mekilta 's commentary on the Book of Exodus's account of revelation at Sinai, which suggests that Philonic and the early rabbinic interpretation share other interpretive moves, notwithstanding their very different historical/cultural contexts and ideological/rhetorical programs. The chapter examines two rabbinic midrashic passages in which the visualization of revelatory word or revealer plays an important role in authorizing and valorizing specifically rabbinic modes of discourse and interpretation. The first is from Sifre Deuteronomy 313, commenting on Deut 32:10 as it relates to the revelation at Sinai. A similar idea is expressed by later midrash to the decalogue, from the Pesiqta de Rab Kahana . Keywords: Exodus; Mekilta 's commentary; midrashic passages; Pesiqta de Rab Kahana ; Philonic interpretation; rabbinic interpretations; Sifre Deuteronomy ; Sinaitic revelation
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While the Damascus Document, like other writings found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, has been mined for historical information, with which to reconstruct the history of the Yaḥad, including the process and conditions of its formation and... more
While the Damascus Document, like other writings found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, has been mined for historical information, with which to reconstruct the history of the Yaḥad, including the process and conditions of its formation and development over time, the present study is interested in discerning the text’s own understanding of the place in history occupied by its community of auditors and learners. Particular attention will be given to the text’s recurring reference to its beginnings (“first ones”) and ends (“last ones”) and to its sense of living in a truncated time-between. Through the close reading of two hortatory sections of the text, the question of how the Yaḥad’s collective social memory informs its self-understanding and practices as it faces both backward and forward in time.
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Review: Geoffrey Herman and Jeffrey Rubenstein, eds. The Aggada of the Bavli and Its Cultural World. Journal of Semitic Studies 65.2 (Autumn 2020): 647–48.
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Aryeh Amihay's book makes an important, original, and very readable contribution to the study of the principal legal texts of the Dead Sea Scrolls. His approach is highly innovative, even as his arguments are in respectful and... more
Aryeh Amihay's book makes an important, original, and very readable contribution to the study of the principal legal texts of the Dead Sea Scrolls. His approach is highly innovative, even as his arguments are in respectful and constructive dialogue with prior scholarship. The most important aspect of Amihay's book is its treatment of the laws of the Scrolls as a (relatively) unified whole, rather than as either an extension of the Hebrew Bible or as a precursor to rabbinic halakhah. Amihay combines or alternates between the lens of legal theory and those of social and literary theory, without being slavishly beholden to any, meaning that he is methodologically eclectic, in the best sense of the term. Even Monty Python makes a brief appearance (37). As denoted in his book's title, the chief tension (a frequently appearing word) that Amihay seeks to uncover and understand is that between legal "theory" (or concepts or ideals) and its socially applied (real) "practice," that is, the ways the former must adapt to the latter and vice versa. But before turning to those tensions, a few words need be said on Amihay's own choices of terminology and their justifications.