?כיא בחרו בקלות': חומרה קומראנית או מהפכה תנאית'

Scholarly research tends to attribute extreme stringency to the legislation of the sect of the Yahad. It is indeed undeniable that the sect generally adopts stringent positions as compared to rabbinic halakhah. However, closer examination indicates that Qumranic law reflects simple, necessary inferences from Scripture itself, whereas tannaitic leniency represents a surprisingly revolutionary divergence from Scripture's plain meaning. In other words, the strictness of Qumranic law is not "objective" but relative. The understanding that sectarian law reflects a series of inductions not altogether removed from the simple sense of Scripture facilitates a more accurate appreciation of the depth of tannaitic halakhah's ground breaking leniency.