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The rabbinic halakhic system, with its many facets and the literary works that comprise it, reflects a new Jewish culture, almost completely distinct in its halakhic content and scope from the biblical and postbiblical culture that preceded it. By examining Jewish legislation in the area of corpse impurity as a test case, the article studies the implications of Qumranic halakhah, as a way-station between the Bible and the Mishnah, for understanding how Tannaitic halakhah developed. The impression obtained from the material reviewed in the article is that the direction of the “Tannaitic revolution” was charted, its methods set up, and its principles established, at a surprisingly early stage, before the destruction of the Second Temple, and thus at the same time that the Qumran literature was created.
This paper examines the rabbinic concept of impurity in terms of the essence of the reality that this term implies. Did the Rabbis consider impurity to be a force of nature, or rather an abstract formalistic structure devoid of any actual existence? A review of rabbinic sources regarding corpse impurity reveals that the essential structures of tannaitic halakhah are grounded in a natural, immanent perception of impurity, which gave rise to an entire system, intricate and coherent, of “natural laws of impurity.”
Layered onto this system, as a secondary stratum of sorts comprising exceptions and “addenda,” is a more subtle halakhic tapestry woven from a diametrically opposed perception. This view subjects the concept of impurity to human awareness and intention, severing it from reality and, in so doing, also stripping it of its “natural” substance.
Die Reihe „Journal of Ancient Judaism Supplements“ ( JAJSup) widmet sich der Geschichte, den Texten und institutionellen religiösen Formationsprozessen, die die reiche kulturelle Spur vom Babylonischen Exil bis zum babylonischen Talmud ausmachen. Die interdisziplinäre Reihe dient als Diskussionsforum für Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftler aller Disziplinen. Die Reihe unterliegt dem Peer-Review und akzeptiert Manuskripte in deutscher, englischer und französischer Sprache.
Publications from the JAJS series before 2020 can be found at Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht: www.vandenhoeck-ruprecht-verlage.com