The Dead Sea Scrolls, Hebrew Union College, and Reform Judaism 1948–2008

THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS, HEBREW UNION COLLEGE, AND REFORM JUDAISM 1948–2008 Richard Freund This paper is a part of a much longer, ongoing, research project based upon a systematic review of how the Dead Sea Scrolls influenced modern religious life in general and modern Jewish religious movements in particular (Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, Reconstructionism, Renewal, etc.). Our focus here is upon the impact of the Scrolls on the Reform movement. The paper can be broken down into four different parts: 1. How the Cairo Geniza “discovery” influenced modern Reform (Hebrew Union College-HUC) and Conservative Judaism (Jewish Theological Seminary-JTS) in the early twentieth century and paved the way for the influence of the Dead Sea Scrolls in the mid-twentieth century. 2. The issues concerning the importance of the Scrolls for modern Jews (in the 1950s–1990s) in the Reform and Conservative movements become clearer through some comparisons between the movements. 3. The Dead Sea Scrolls in Friday Night Sermons of Reform Rabbis with special attention to developments at Hebrew Union College from 1950–2000. 4. The influence of the Dead Sea Scrolls upon Reform and Conserva- tive Responsa, Liturgy, and Bible Commentaries (1950s–2000). 1. The “Discovery” of the Cairo Geniza Anticipates the Discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls Few archaeological discoveries have had an effect upon modern Jew- ish practice and doctrine as the discovery of the Cairo Geniza. In the beginning of the twentieth century, when the Geniza was not well known, the Hebrew Union College and the Jewish Theological Semi- nary in Cincinnati and New York respectively, developed two different attitudes towards these unknown fragments of Jewish life from 622 richard freund the past. Scholars from both institutions concluded that most of the Geniza texts included rabbinic correspondence, responsa recorded elsewhere (but some that had no parallels), rabbinic texts in manu- scripts that were different from our published editions, fragments of materials discussing Jewish life and customs that were otherwise only hinted at in rabbinic texts and fragments of documents that had no parallel in any rabbinic literature. Among the Geniza fragments were the famous “Zadokite Frag- ments” (now, Taylor-Schechter 10K6 and 16.311).1 Dr. Schechter, a Jewish scholar of rabbinics at Cambridge, UK and then later the Presi- dent of the Jewish Theological Seminary, came to regard these fragments as originating from a heretofore unknown ancient sect of the Sadducees and not the Pharisees (hence he called them by the name Zadokite). Louis Ginzberg, who was appointed by Schechter as a pro- fessor of Talmud in 1903, spent the next 50 years at the Jewish Theo- logical Seminary until his death in 1953, working on the Geniza texts. He came to a very different conclusion about who wrote the fragments that Schechter had earlier identified as “Zadokite.” He concluded that the Zadokite fragments represented a proto-rabbinic Pharisaic group whose practices could be compared to the kinds of Talmudic and Geonic work that were normative parts of the tradition.2 If anything, the Geniza fragments were seen as Jewish precedents that added to the understanding of the development of the Halakha and could be used as such. Halakha was, therefore, to be understood and treated as a progressive legal system that was not as canonized as was once thought. This became one of the fundamental points for the Conserva- tive movement’s view of Jewish Law and the Geniza continued to be important in Halakhic studies in the Conservative movement. The Reform movement at the turn of the century was itself engaged in a campaign to demonstrate the variety of different “Judaisms” that pre-existed their own period and so the Geniza became another area of 1 Solomon Schechter, Documents of Jewish Sectaries: Fragments of a Zadokite Work (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1910), Introduction, xv, xvi. For citations on the work of Schechter and an in-depth understanding of the Geniza, see Stefan C. Reif, Judaism and Hebrew Prayer (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995). 2 Louis Ginzberg, An Unknown Jewish Sect (Moreshet Series 1; New York: Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 1976), 15. Ginzberg was responsible for the publication of some of Schechter’s materials that were not ready for publication before his untimely death. So, Louis Ginzberg’s Ginzei Schechter (repr. New York: Hermon, 1969). .

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