Michael Segal
- Fourth-year fruits.^22 Lev 19:23-25 defines the halakic status of fruits
during the first five years of a tree's life. During the first three years, it is pro
hibited to partake in these fruits (v. 23), while in the fifth year it is permitted
to eat of them (v. 25). Regarding the fourth year, the Pentateuchal law (v. 24)
defines the fruit as "qodes hillulim (SP hillulim) to the Lord." Rabbinic exege
sis interpreted this expression as an obligation to eat the fourth-year fruits in
Jerusalem, or to redeem the fruits with money and to buy food with this
money in Jerusalem, as is done with the second tithe.^23 In contrast, Qumran
sectarian compositions posit a different meaning for this enigmatic expres
sion: the fourth-year fruits are considered one of the priestly prerogatives.^24
Jub 7:35-37 agrees with the sectarian position: "in the fourth year its fruit will
be sanctified. It will be offered as firstfruits that are acceptable before the
most high Lord ... so that they may offer in abundance the first of the wine
and oil as firstfruits on the altar of the Lord who accepts (it). What is left
over those who serve in the Lord's house are to eat before the altar which re
ceives (it)" (v. 36). However, according to the story at the beginning of Jub 7,
in the fourth year Noah picked grapes from which he made wine, which he
then put in a container. Noah did not offer the grapes on an altar, nor did he
drink from the wine until the fifth year (w. 1-6).^25 According to the sectarian
halakah, Noah and his sons should have offered the wine on the altar, and
then been allowed to drink from it already in the fourth year, in light of their
priestly status (compare the detailed description of his offering of sacrifices
in w. 3-6). Scholars have attempted to harmonize the laws in w. 35-37 with
the story in w. 1-6;^26 Kister, however, concluded from this contradiction that
Jubilees includes multiple traditions of different origins. - The length of Abraham's journey and the Akedah as a source for which
parison is similar to that expressed in Damascus Document 5:7-11, which views the incest
prohibitions in Lev 18 and 20 as applying equally and symmetrically both to men and
women.
- This example was identified by Kister, "Some Aspects of Qumranic Halakhah."
- m. Ma 'aser Sheni 5:1; Sifre Numbers 6; y. Pe'ah y:6 (2ob-c), and similarly Josephus,
Ant 4.227. See C. Albeck, Das Buch der Jubilaen und die Halacha, Hochschule fiir die
Wissenschaft des Judentums 27 (Berlin: Siegfried Scholem, 1930), 32-33; J. M. Baumgarten,
"The Laws of 'Orlah and First Fruits in Light of Jubilees, the Qumran Writings, and Targum
Ps. Jonathan," JJS 38 (1987): 195-202 (here 196); Kister, "Some Aspects," 577-78. - 11QT 60:3-4; 4QMMT B 62-64; in addition to Targum Pseudo-Jonathan to Lev
19:24, cf. Baumgarten, "The Laws of 'Orlah," 196; Kister, "Some Aspects," 577-78. - The story at the beginning of the chapter is very similar to that presented in
lQapGen 12, as Kister, "Some Aspects," 583-85, noted. - Albeck, Das Buch der Jubilaen, 33; Baumgarten, "The Laws of 'Orlah," 198 n. 20.