Early Judaism- A Comprehensive Overview

Qumran decrees that the tax be paid only once in a person’s lifetime

(4Q159 1 ii 6-7) — perhaps a polemical view based on Exod. 30:11-16.

Festivals

Besides the daily and other sacrifices and ceremonies performed regularly

at the Temple in Jerusalem, the cycle of festivals was centered there. As

noted above, the Passover (1/14) and the three pilgrimage festivals took

place at the sanctuary as the Mosaic Law directed. For the Passover, the

representative of each household presented the paschal lamb at the Tem-

ple, where it was sacrificed. The Festival of Unleavened Bread, lasting from

1/15 to 1/21, coincided with the barley harvest; the Festival of Weeks, occur-

ring at some unspecified point in the third month, marked the wheat har-

vest; and the Festival of Booths, celebrated on 7/15-21, came at the end of

the entire harvest season. Each of the three pilgrimage holidays was also a

firstfruits festival that required presentation of a part of the relevant crop

at the sanctuary. The two additional firstfruits festivals mandated in the

Temple Scroll(of wine and oil) would have taken place at the Temple, if

they were ever implemented (11QTa19:11–23:2). The Second Passover (2/14;

for individuals who, for certain legitimate causes, were not able to cele-

brate the Passover in the first month [see Num. 9:6-14]) also was a Temple

festival, while the ceremonies for the Day of Atonement (7/10) necessarily

took place at the Temple (Leviticus 16). The book of Esther provides the

dramatic story that gave rise to the holiday called Purim (lots), but there

was no requirement that it be observed at the sanctuary. And Hanukkah,

an eight-day festival commemorating and celebrating the rededication of

the Temple in 164b.c.e.(1 Macc. 4:36-59; 2 Macc. 10:1-8), was by definition

associated with the Temple, but there was no requirement that one had to

travel there to mark it properly.

Each of the festivals summarized in Leviticus 23 and Numbers 28–29

required sacrifices at the Temple beyond the daily ones offered, and the

firstfruits holidays, as noted, involved the appropriate offering from the

harvest of that season. This meant that the Temple became a very busy and

crowded place on these occasions. As a result, the priests who happened to

be on duty at the Temple at the time of a major festival were not able to

handle the large increase in sacrifices and related activities; they were aug-

mented by priests from the other rotations.

It is not possible to infer from the way in which the Pentateuch dates

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Judaism in the Land of Israel

EERDMANS -- Early Judaism (Collins and Harlow) final text
Tuesday, October 09, 2012 12:03:53 PM