Messages from the Dead Sea Scrolls
What do the Dead Sea Scrolls teach us about the biblical and extra-biblical texts? Lecture at the Skirball Center for Adult Jewish Learning at Temple Emanu-El.
Messages from the Dead Sea Scrolls from Rob Buchwald on Vimeo.
The Benediction against the Minim
Masada Synagogue, courtesy of Kat Sniffen, Wikimedia Commons
A new set of circumstances confronted the tannaitic leadership when it reassembled at Yavneh after the war with Rome was lost. By this time, the need to close ranks and to face the future as a united community was greater than ever. We shall see, though, that the Rabbis still did not elect to see the Jewish Christians as a separate religion. After all, they still met the halakhic criteria for Jewish status. Instead, action would be taken to bar them from officiating as precentors in the synagogue in order to make them feel unwanted there and to exclude their books from sanctified status. Other restrictions would attempt to separate the Jewish Christians from the mainstream Jewish community. Tannaitic law would eventually have to face the Gentile Christians, but the Rabbis as yet had little opportunity for contact with them.
While our sources show no attempt on the part of the tannaim to read anyone out of the Jewish people on account of heretical beliefs, the Rabbis did impose certain restrictions on those whom they regarded as standing outside the accepted system of Jewish belief. Such heretics who were subjected to legal… Continue reading
Ask Me Anything
On Dec. 26th, from 6-8 PM EST you have the opportunity to ask me anything on Reddit’s Judaism forum. In order to post a question you must have a Reddit account (registration is simple).
Looking forward to seeing my readers there. Feel free to ask questions about the Dead Sea Scrolls, Second Temple Judaism, sectariansim, early Christianity and any other relevant topic.
