Book of the Wars of the LORD - found???

Yup, clickbait title.

To my chagrin, I have not updated the blog in quite a while. I've considered a few post ideas but never got around to writing them down. I've spread myself too thin in recent months, trying to balance my doctorate, research assistant commitments, personal research projects, and other things.

I'm here just to post something small but perhaps significant that caught my attention last night. I was skimming editions of an old scholarly Jewish Studies journal published by Yeshiva University in the 40s-50s (if I'm not mistaken), called Talpiyot (תלפיות; all articles are in Hebrew). In volume 4, issues 3-4 (published in Kislev of 5710 - winter of 1949), pp. 677-691 there's an article by Rabbi Menachem Mendel Kasher entitled "חות דעת ע"ד המגלות הגנוזות" (An Opinion on the Hidden Scrolls). The Hidden Scrolls in the title is an old term sometimes used for the Dead Sea Scrolls, which were still a very new discovery back in late 1949. In fact, a great many of the current cache had not yet been found. Rabbi Kasher was a big talmid chacham (sage) in the 20th century. He's most famous for his encyclopedic compendium called "Torah Shelemah" (תורה שלמה), and he was also involved in several serious halachic debates, including the dateline issue (Shabbat and holiday observance in the case of someone crossing the international dateline).

The article in Talpiyot noted the publication of four of the newly-discovered Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS), among them the Scroll of the War of the Sons of Light and the Sons of Darkness, and the Scroll of the Thanksgiving Hymns. Rabbi Kasher argued for something very interesting and unorthodox (though very Orthodox - note the capital): The vast majority of DSS scholars, both then and today, believe that the scrolls were authored either by a single sect or by a few sects whose theological and ideological views were at odds with the views of the Pharisees, as well as even the Sadducees. Rabbi Kasher, however, argued that the two scrolls, especially the War Scroll, perfectly align with rabbinical tradition and halacha. He then proposed something which is relevant to the topic of this blog: That these scrolls contain fragments of the now-lost Book of the Wars of the LORD (ספר מלחמות ה') mentioned in the Torah (Bamidbar 21:14-20).

Well, you know me. I find such proposals to be tantalizing, even if they probably can never be proven (at least, so long as we lack a copy of the original). For now, just food for thought.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pre-Islamic Arabian Dust Worship

One of my interests is researching idolatrous practices mentioned in Tanach and later Jewish sources. For the last three years or so, I've been conducting an on-and-off search for the possible identity of a deity hinted at in this section of the Talmud, tractate  Bava Metzia 86b : "The Gemara continues its analysis of the verse: “Let now a little water be fetched and wash your feet” ( Genesis 18:4 ). Rabbi Yannai, son of Rabbi Yishmael, said that the guests said to Abraham: Are you suspicious that we are  Arabs who bow to the dust of their feet ?" It is reasonable to conclude that the sages were aware of an Arabian pagan cult that practiced some form of dust worship. Last year I discovered that one of my professors shares this interest in researching idolatry and even wrote his doctorate on idol worship mentioned in Talmudic literature, although he was focused on particular pagan religions (Greece, Rome, and a couple of others) and didn't analyze this quote. But I did...
Read more

Compilation of names of nameless figures in Tanach

Just sharing a cool resource I came across yesterday: A Hebrew Wikipedia entry that lists suggested names of figures who are nameless in Tanach, along with references to many sources (e.g., the classic Avraham's mother was Amtalai bat Karnevo from the Talmud, but also Kayin's wife was Hoyah according to a list brought in Keter Aram Tzova, and so forth). Of course, they don't have everything (I've come across a few that aren't listed and I'll do my best to add them soon, once I figure out how to navigate that template), but it's still a treasure load of information.  
Read more

Anakim, Rephaim, oh my!

This week's parsha features Bnei Yisrael passing through Edom and the two Emorite countries - Sichon's country and Og's country ( Bamidbar 21:21-35 ). Og was the last of the Rephaim ( Devarim 3:11 ), a race of giants that were wiped out way back during the War of the Four and Five Kings in Beresheet ( 14:5 ). Some midrashim state that Sichon was also a giant, of the antediluvian kind (for example, Devarim Rabbah 11:10 ). Looking through Tanach it occurred to me that giants might be frightening, but they obviously aren't unbeatable. David and his men defeated a number of giants, and, as mentioned already, the four Mesopotamian kings managed to defeat the Rephaim. And yet, two parshas ago, when the spies told Bnei Yisrael that there were Anakim in the Land of Yisrael ( Bamidbar 13:28 ), Kalev and Yehoshua said nothing about "hey, guys, giants are not unbeatable!" Kalev made a more generalized statement, that "yes we can, because we have Hashem!" ( ibid...
Read more