Onias’ Son Hananyah and High Priest Heritage
Reader question: Do we know which of Onias IV’s sons took on the High Priest position after their father? In reading your book ‘From Text to Tradition’ it struck me as to where is their place in history, life and who and where did they disappear?
Answer: We do know that this Temple lasted until about the time of the Great Revolt, according to War VII, 10, 4 it lasted for 343 years. As far as I know there is no information anywhere with which to answer your question. It would be great to know more. All the known information is in the article on “Leontopolis” in the Jewish Encyclopedia, which is available online.
History of Liturgy and Poetry
Shema text, http://cojs.org/cojswiki/Shema_Yisrael%2C_3rd_century_CE
From first Temple times it is apparent that prayer was a significant part of the individual piety of a fair number of Israelites. Individual prayer was accompanied apparently by poems written for the collective people of Israel. Such prayers seem definitely do have attained a place in the psalmody of the Temple by the second Temple period. In various second Temple texts there are individual and collective prayers, and toward the end of the second Temple period, prayer was becoming institutionalized increasingly, at least as appears from the tannaitic evidence.
From the set liturgical texts preserved at Qumran, it seems that daily statutory ritual had become part of the life of the sectarians who had separated from the sanctuary that they regarded as impure and improperly conducted. These texts appear not to be of sectarian content and may typify wider trends in the Jewish community. Further, the scrolls give evidence of the twice daily recital of the Shema and the use of mezuzot and phylacteries, some of which were prepared very much in the same way as the Pharisaic-rabbinic tradition requires.
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February 2014 Lectures
Upcoming lectures in February:
Shabbaton at Chabad of Binghamton
Scholars, Scrolls, Scandals and Judaism
February 21-22
Friday Night: Scholars, Scrolls,and Scandals: Judaism, Christianity, and the Dead Sea Scrolls
Shabbat Lunch: Confronting Academic Challenges to the Jewish Tradition
Chabad of Hunterdon County
90 Beaver Ave Clinton, NJ 08809
Scholars, Scrolls and Scandals: The Dead Sea Scrolls and the History of Judaism
