Reader Checked|12/07/2011 OA|Revised Reader Checked - AK - 29/01/2012
In this paper I would like to offer some reflections on the recent debates on the nature of the Yachad, conducted in a series of publications by John Collins, Sarianna Metso, Eyal Regev, myself, and others. I would like to focus in particular on the evidence of small-scale gatherings which appears in legislative discussion in the first half of column 6 of the Community Rule. My own position on this material is that it reflects rather primitive forms of social interaction among Second Temple Jews in activities such as communal prayer, meals, and deliberations. Such an interpretation is highly relevant in the historical evaluation of the Dead Sea Scrolls. If small-scale gatherings of like-minded Jews are attested in parts of the Community Rule that pre-date the highly developed Yachad structure, then such structures may well mirror similar gatherings of other groups of like-minded Jews in Second Temple times.