Concepts of Scripture in Mordechai Breuer 277not explicit in either the narrative about Sinai (Exodus 19 – 20 and Deuter-
onomy 5) or in the legal portions devoted to the festivals, though Exodus
hints at a date early in the third month (known in postbiblical Hebrew as
Sivan). Consequently, Breuer arrives at three diff erent themes connected
with Shavuot, each of which, taken entirely on its own terms, would man-
date a diff erent date for the celebration. As noted, Breuer takes the Sad-
ducee date seriously on the evidence of the biblical text. He also must posit
that, since biblical holidays usually coincide with the full moon, the Jubi-
lees dating is also a legitimate option, despite the total absence of this date
in the Torah.
In a footnote, Breuer states, astonishingly, that he discovered the Jubi-
lees text only aft er he had already deduced the full-moon dating indepen-
dently.9 It is conceivable that a creative thinker juggling the massive legacy
of the Jewish biblical and rabbinic scholarship and the literature of source
criticism could misplace the evidence of Jubilees. However that might be,
one might consider the possibility that the regimen of seeking signifi cance
in all phenomena connected to biblical study may lead one to appeal to
data that would otherwise be dismissed as fl atly irrelevant. Th eology and
literary sensitivity promote a technique that takes on a life of its own. Th us,
the theologically and literarily motivated impulse to omnisignifi cance may
lead to theologically curious procedures and conclusions that Breuer him-
self fi nds it necessary to disavow.
Breuer’s programmatic essays focus on the Higher Criticism, and his
major volumes parallel its themes. His expertise on the Masoretic tradi-
tion also manifested itself in a similar approach to questioning of Lower
Criticism. Here, too, Breuer teases out diff erences of interpretation from
textual traditions and even from traditions of cantillation (ta’amei ha-
mikra — the notations in the Masoretic text that serve both as a guide to a
verse’s syntax and as musical notation for chanting biblical texts in syna-
gogue services). Here, too, one may raise questions about the proper limits
of omnisignifi cance.
Th e book jacket of Breuer’s collection of essays, Pirkei Moadot, describes
it as a commentary of the Torah and the festivals from the biblical text and
the words of the Rabbis. R. Breuer hardly, if ever, mentions the critics in
the body of his oeuvre, except when he explains his method, when he dis-
cusses little else. Oft en he branches out far beyond the standard pale of
Jewish biblical exegesis, as he explores the implications of his ideas for sun-
dry halakhic subjects. Contrary to common opinion, the substance of his