sign in sign up
<<
Home , Halakha

Chapter Three

Halakha Shmuel Safrai

General Characteristics

DEFINITION AND SIGNIFICANCE One of the most important elements of in the period under discussion is what is known as il.:J'il , that is to say, the sum total of rules and - derived from the , from religious thought and teaching, from and custom- that govern all aspects of Jewish life. As is the case with with other technical terms, nowhere in from the talmudic period do we find any attempt to define, or even to interpret, the word halakha. It is only in the Arukh, the eleventh century talmudic lexicon compiled by R. Natan of Rome, that two definitions are suggested: 'something that goes on (holekh u-ba) from beginning to end'; and, 'that in which goes'. 1 Modern scholars have proposed to trace the word to the administra• tive term l'il halakh (Ezra 4:13) or .K.:J'il halkha, meaning a (land) tax. Our 'halakha' would then originally have the same meaning as the Latin regula (whence the modern 'regie', 'Regel', 'rule') which also could denote a fixed land tax. In effect, the prime meaning of halakha would be 'fixed rule'. 2 Whatever the original meaning may have been, the wider phenomenon of halakha encompasses both: 'that in which Israel goes', i.e., the ways of life of the Jewish people, and the fixed laws which emerged from the thought and study of the Pharisaic Sages and other circles within Jewish society. Therefore an adequate understanding of the literature of halakha cannot be derived merely from the literary form in which it was eventually fixed and preserved, but requires an insight into the nature and historical development of halakha. The aim of the present survey is to contribute to that insight. In time, the term came to denote several things: 1) 'a halakha', a , the smallest unit of a halakhic collection, such as 'a halakha' from the -

1 Arukh completum 3, 208. 2 See Lieberman, Hellenism, 83 n.3, with references to further literature. The Greek xavoov had the same meaning: fixed land tax- at least since the 4th cent. c.E.

121 HALAKHA involving the plural 'halakhot'; 2) 'the halakha' as the accepted law, where different opinions exist, such as in the usage, 'A says .... , B says, but the halakha is .. .'; 3) halakha (or 'halakhot') as an object of study and a literary genre, as opposed to aggada (aggadot); 4) 'the Halakha' as the legal aspect of Jewish life and the legal tradition of , in which one can distinguish, for example, between the halakha of the Sages and the halakha of Qumran. That halakha occupied a place of prime importance in Jewish literature, as well as in life and thought, in the periods of the and the , we can see from various sources. First of all, there are the halakhic collections which reached final redaction beginning about the end of the second century c.E., and which by their size, literary form and content reflect the great impor• tance attached to them. Furthermore, the great significance of halakha can also be seen in the other genres of rabbinic literature, such as the various collections and the Targumim.3 We could easily the impression that preoc• cupation with halakha was always regarded as the very essence of Oral Tora. That would clearly be an exaggeration, as it would also be exaggerated to assume that among all Pharisaic teachers and their circles (havurot) halakha was the most important subject of teaching. However, there can be no doubt that in their circles the study and creation of halakha was a basic object of attention. 4 This internal of the rabbinic tradition can be augmented with other testimony. Thus we know that even within circles which, to a greater or lesser extent, were quite remote from the world of the Pharisaic Sages, halakha occupied a a substantial place in thought and literature. In the writings of the Dead Sea sect, as well as in related earlier works such as the Book of Jubilees, we find many halakhic elements and discussions, and some of these works are in fact primarily halakhic in content.5 Furthermore, despite their opposition to particular halakhic details, the Gospels, too, contain many elements of halakhic discussion, testifying to the importance of halakha even in the world of earliest Christianity. 6 Finally, the great significance of Halakha is confirmed by sources close to Pharisaic circles. Many halakhic elements can be discerned in the narratives dating from the early , such as Judith and Tobit, or in historical works such as First / just as halakhic discus• sions are to be found in the writings of Philo and Josephus. 8

3 Cf. Albeck, 'External Halakha'; Heinemann, 'Early Halakha'. 4 For some examples illustrating this seeM. Ber. 8:1; T. Ed. 1:1; T. Sota 7:21; A.R.N. a 27 (41b); B. T. Tem. 14a. 5 In the eyes of the , the Dead Sea sect would belong to 'those who write halakhot', but from the historian's point of view, their library gives us invaluable information as to the actual existence of halakhic genres and documents in the middle of the Second Temple period. See the Temple Scroll, the Damascus Covenant and large parts of the Community Rule. 6 See Matt 5:31-37, 12:1-12; Mark 7:1-22; Luke 6:1-11,2:21-41. 7 On Judith and see below. On Tobit see Tob 1:6-8; 2:1; 2:9; 7:4 (particularly according to the longer version). 8 For Josephus, see esp. Ant. 4:1; for Philo, e.g., De spec. leg., passim.

122