אל תקרי דוקָה אלא דְבֵקָה: עיון מחודש במשמעות מונח קלנדרי ייחודי בלוח השנה השמשי של עדת 'הבאים בברית החדשה' מימי בית שני

Qumran Hebrew vocabulary is often marked by terms and expressions peculiar to the Yaḥad. This article treats the Hebrew word duqah which occurs in two calendrical texts, 4Q321 (Mishmarot B) and 4Q321a (Mishmarot C), a term not found elsewhere in other Qumran documents, nor in the Bible, rabbinic writings, or the Apocrypha. In the fragments of the two calendrical documents, 4Q321 and 4Q321a, the term duqah appears repeatedly as a technical term referring to a specific day in each lunar month. Scholars have suggested different interpretations of duqah, debating whether it signified the beginning of the lunar month or the full moon. In the past, the present author suggested that it signified the beginning of the waning of the moon in the middle of the month. In this paper, the author suggests an understanding of the term duqah based on medieval Hebrew calendrical texts, which use the term debekah to signify the conjunction of the sun and the moon when the moon's light is totally eclipsed by the sun.