Enoch and the Mosaic Torah- The Evidence of Jubilees

From a Movement of Dissent to a Distinct Form of Judaism

nounced — a shift that lays the foundations for the development of an alter­
native halakah (what the Enochians had never done before). Jubilees over­
comes the sense of despair and hopelessness of the Enoch literature and calls
people to follow alternative rules. Whoever was behind Jubilees, they were
tired of only complaining and being resigned, and much more eager to com­
pete aggressively.
The concept of the heavenly tablets is at the foundation of the entire
ideological building of Jubilees. It was the cornerstone that made possible a
synthesis of Enochic and Mosaic principles, where both components were
given equal dignity. It was the foundation that made possible the develop­
ment of a competing halakah, which was not completely separated from the
Mosaic Torah, while able to "correct" and integrate many of the key elements
of the Mosaic tradition (calendar, purity laws, etc.).

5. A Reform Movement, Becoming (against Its Hopes)

Partisan (and Sectarian)

All interpreters recognize that the author of Jubilees addresses himself to the
Jewish people as a whole (not to a minority group or a group of chosen
among the chosen).^37 As Regev presented at the conference, "Jubilees repre­
sents a group which aims to change society rather than withdraw from it." In
the aftermath of the Maccabean revolt, this attitude left open three outcomes:

a. If Jubilees' program were accepted by the majority of the Jewish people

(as the author obviously expected), Jubilees and its halakah would be­

come normative.

b. If Jubilees' program gained no significant acceptance (in spite of the

author's confidence), the movement would disappear in total failure.

c. If Jubilees' program were embraced only by a militant minority, it

would survive as the platform of a party or a sect, distinguished or sep­

arated (more or less radically) from the rest of the people.

The study of second temple Judaism tells us that Jubilees never reached an
undisputed status of Scripture, comparable to that of the Pentateuch. A clear
distinction must be made between what Jubilees wanted to be and what it

37. M. Himmelfarb, "Jubilees and Sectarianism," in Enoch and Qumran Origins: New
    Light on a Forgotten Connection, ed. G. Boccaccini (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005), 129-31.