Jewish continuity has preoccupied Jews throughout the ages. How am I, an Israeli living in the 21st century, linked to the Jewish patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? Do Moshe Katsav, Natan Sharansky, Shoshana Damari and Abba Eban share ethnic and cultural roots that go back to antiquity?
The Bible attests to an unbroken chain between the patriarchs of old and the Jewish people. Genesis emphasizes the direct line of descent from Abraham to the sons of Jacob. Exodus starts off with a listing of the sons of Jacob who went to Egypt as a kind of prologue to the story of how the nation was born. Numbers presents "census reports" and painstakingly records the genealogical ties between the tribes and the sons of Jacob. Before he dies, Joshua reminds the conquerors of the Land of Israel of their ancestral ties. The prophets and the book of Psalms dwell on traditions of old. Ezra accentuates the ethnic-geographical ties of the returnees to Zion.
"Sefer Hazikhronot" by Elazar Ben-Asher Halevi, which was recently printed, is a moving attempt by a 14th-century Jew to trace the history of his people up to his own time. This claim of descent has continued over the generations, also serving as a basis for Zionist ideology. The biblical beginnings of this phenomenon sprang from the need to consolidate a national identity to distinguish the Jewish people from the pagan cultures around it. From Hellenistic times, such chronology was important for dispelling anti-Jewish claims.
At the end of the first century C.E., for example, Josephus begins his controversial book "Flavius Josephus Against Apion" as follows: "I suppose that by my books of the antiquity of the Jews ... to have made it evident to those who peruse them that our Jewish nation is of very great antiquity ... However, since I observe a considerable number of people giving ear to the reproaches that are laid against us by those who bear ill will to us ... I therefore have thought myself under an obligation to write somewhat briefly about these subjects, in order to convict those that reproach us of spite and voluntary falsehood, and to correct the ignorance of others ..."
At the same time, the author of the "Gospels According to St. Matthew" begins his book with a genealogical account that illustrates the continuity between the Jewish patriarchs and Jesus. This is the basis for the argument that believers in Jesus, and not the Jews, are the true (i.e., spiritual) descendants of the ancient Israelites. This argument in its current guise, thinly veiled as scientific research, can be found in the books of Lemche, Thompson, Prior and Whitelam, who deny any connection between Israel and the First Temple period (Thompson denies the existence of the Temple altogether). Prior, author of "Bible and Colonialism," advises that historical claims to all land be dropped because according to St. Paul, our true citizenship is in Heaven. The title of Whitelam's book, "The Invention of Ancient Israel: Silencing Palestinian History," speaks for itself.
`Convoluted history'
Viewed in this context, Moshe Weinfeld's new book is a clear statement regarding the cultural continuity of the Jewish people from antiquity until today. The greater part of this book is devoted to the Decalogue (the Ten Commandments), with a smaller section on the recitation of the Sh'ma (Hear O Israel) prayer - two "declarations of faith" that have "a long, convoluted history, predating the biblical text and going far beyond it, deep into the Middle Ages and extending even into our own day."
Weinfeld's research sheds light on the critical religious importance of these declarations from the beginning of the biblical period and throughout Jewish history. One of the world's leading Bible scholars, he accomplishes this task through erudite references to a vast array of Jewish sources: the Apocrypha and pseudo-epigrapha, Hellenistic Jewish literature (Philo, the Nash papyrus), the Dead Sea Scrolls, the writings of Josephus, the New Testament (specifically, the Jewish customs practiced by the disciples of Jesus), the Talmud, the Midrash, translations of the Bible and the Jewish prayerbook.
In the process, Weinfeld shows that the Jews of the Bible were not a "people that dwelled alone," and that in order to understand the Bible, we must explore "its cultural world and historical development." Toward this end, he cites a plethora of extra-Biblical sources: the Code of Hammurabi; Assyrian treaties that called for declarations of faith and love for the king; Hittite, Ugaritic, Phoenician and Egyptian literature; Aeschylus, Aristotle, Herodotus and more.
The end product is a fascinating mosaic of sources from the ancient East, from the Bible, from Greek and Christian culture, from Judaism in later times. In the span of three pages (pages 150-153), one can find references to the Scriptures, the Mikhilta of Rabbi Ishmael, the Mishna, Ennuma-Elish, a Nabunaid inscription and the Cairo Geniza; or (on pages 110-115), the Scriptures, Josephus, the Acts, Maccabees, Philo, Qumran, Sefer Hayovlim, Mikhilta, the Aramaic Targum (Pseudo-Jonathan), Joseph Caro and the Babylonian Talmud.
Historical and cultural continuity were interwoven. Weinfeld's discussion of the Tablets of the Law is an eye-opener in this respect. The Israelite custom of placing the Tablets of the Law in the Ark of the Covenant, symbolizing the Sanctuary of God, recalls a custom of the Hittites and Egyptians. A letter from Ramses II states: "See my covenant with the great Hittite King, placed at the feet of the Storm God, as the great gods are my witness." When Moses breaks the Tablets of the Law, he is not doing so in a fit of anger. In the ancient East, "breaking the tablets was a symbolic act, signifying the annulment of a contract." In Jewish law, the rabbis used this same verb, "shavar" ("to break") in reference to promissory notes and marriage contracts: as in "shoveret ketubata" - a woman who "breaks" her marriage contract.
Weinfeld argues for continuity even when the findings are partial, and proof exists only for the ancient link (ancient Eastern culture) and the later link (post-biblical Judaism), with the intermediate, biblical, link missing. In keeping with this methodological principle, he writes: "Although the liturgical consolidation of the recitation of the Sh'ma is relatively late, and we have no direct testimony prior to the Second Temple period, the practice has ancient roots in the judicial and religious literature of the ancient East." The author also finds echoes of Akkadian, Aramaic and Hellenistic expressions in the concepts of "emet veyatziv" ("true and enduring") and "emet ve'emuna" ("true and faithful"), found in the Jewish prayerbook.
The same goes for practices for which there is only later proof: "Although the temple in Philadelphia, in Asia Minor, was built in the first century B.C.E., we can assume that rituals performed there had more ancient roots," Weinfeld points outs. The evolution of the canonic text of the Ten Commandments probably underwent a similar process.
`Priestly document'
In his introduction, Weinfeld says the book is intended first and foremost for the lay reader, and not specifically for Bible scholars. That being the case, he wisely begins with a methodological explanation, outlining where he stands on the question of biblical chronology. He belongs to the "Jerusalem school," inspired by Yehezkel Kaufman, which holds that the "priestly document" predates the "Deuteronomic document," and hence all the books of the Bible were composed before the destruction of the First Temple.
This book may be addressed to the general public, but no future researcher of the Decalogue and the Sh'ma will be able to ignore it. With its wealth of ideas and sources, painstaking textual analysis, references to other research, and critical approach to Bible study, Weinfeld has produced a book that is not only a good read, but also an important piece of research. As such, it is not above criticism.
Apart from "new historians" of this school or that, few will deny the unbroken Israeli-Jewish continuum since the days of the Bible. And yet some of Weinfeld's arguments do not dovetail with the evidence. He claims, for example, that the holiday of Shavuot was already celebrated as the festival of the giving of the Torah in biblical times. But there is no mention of such a festival in any biblical narrative, in the laws governing festivals and sacrifices, or in the prayer of those bringing bikurim (first fruits) to the Temple. Nor is it mentioned in the books of the prophets, in biblical historiography - or even the Book of Ruth, which we read on Shavuot.
On what does Weinfeld base this claim? On Mowinckel's opinion that the revelation on Mount Sinai was commemorated every year in a ceremonial renewal of the covenant, which is inferred from some vague wording in Psalms 50 and 81. Weinfeld also interprets "Blow the horn on the new moon, on the full moon for our feast day" (Psalms, 81:4) as a reference to the revelation on Mt. Sinai.
But there is nothing here that proves Shavuot was celebrated in biblical times. Mowinckel is talking about Rosh Hashanah (which is a dubious claim in itself) - not Shavuot, and Psalm 81 is about blowing the ram's horn on Rosh Hodesh (the first day of the month). The reference to "Sefer Hayovlim" is not helpful either: In this book, Shavuot celebrates God's covenant with Noah, not the giving of the Torah. Moreover, there is no mention of Shavuot as the day on which the people of Israel received the Torah in either the Dead Sea Scrolls or the Mishna. We have no proof of this event being celebrated in the time of the Bible - on Shavuot or at any other time.
On a few occasions, Weinfeld's wording is hazy and his methodology questionable. But this book, which begins with the Ten Commandments, handed down by Moses, and ends with a quote from Deuteronomy in which Moses addresses the people of Israel, bears the clear stamp of another Moses, a scholarly Moses - Prof. Moshe Weinfeld, recipient of the Israel Prize in Bible, whose work is familiar to Bible researchers all over the world. Now Weinfeld has enriched us all with another work of fine scholarship - a thorough, meticulously researched book with none of the heaviness that so often permeates scientific writing.
Prof. Yair Hoffman is the head of Tel Aviv University's School of Jewish Studies. His two-volume scientific commentary on Jeremiah was recently published by Am Oved and Magnes.
