מחצית השקל במגילות כת מדבר יהודה

The article deals with a fragment of the Scrolls published by J.M. Allegro (JSS VI pp. 71—73 [1961]). The end of row 8 of the fragment must be completed by the words: "לחמש המאות חמשת מנים". With the insertion of this addition based on the Pentateuchal text all the figures in rows 8—9 and their order become intelligible. The order of the figures concerning the shekel donors in the scroll corresponds thus exactly to the order of figures in Ex. xxxviii 25—26 and the sum of money collected fits in with that in the Biblical text. The scroll is therefore concerned with explaining the Pentateuchal text. This filling in of the lacuna in the text whose certainty can be vouched for gives us the length of the line in the whole fragment. Therefore only the last third of each line is missing. This determination of the length of the line enables us to overcome the difficulty in Allegro's explanation of lines 3—5. According to Allegro lines 3—4 are an amplification of the Biblical law of Deut. xxiii 25—26 which line 5 deals with; the prohibition of taking away the corn or the fruit in the field does not apply after it has been gathered. But this explanation which is based on the assumption that only one word has to be supplied to complete these lines is untenable; for what logic is there in being strict, when the produce is still attached to the ground, and taking a lenient view with regard to gathered produce, which the owners have had the trouble of harvesting? Since at the ends of these lines a number of words have to be supplied it seems likely that here we have the explanation to Deut. xxiv 19—21, exactly as the subsequent line is an explanation of Deut. xxiii 25—26. The whole text, to the extent that we may judge from the fragment available is an explanation and elaboration of texts in the Pentateuch. It is certainly not a collection of laws designed for particular circumstances. At the same time, according to the sect's conception — as to that of Judaism in general — the laws of the Torah have basically the validity of halakha. In the fragment available it is stated with regard to the half-shekel of the Pentateuch;"אשר נתנו איש כפר נפשו" "רק [פעם] אחת יתננו כול ימיו" and it is obvious that the sect would not explain the law of the half-shekel in Ex. xxxviii 25—26 in a manner conflicting with the accepted halakha, that is to say, if the annual offering of a half-shekel had been accepted by the people for many generations previously. Evidently the obligation of rendering the annual half-shekel offering for the needs of the Temple was fixed only after the members of the Judean desert sect had separated themselves from the rest of the people and the Temple. The emphasis of,"רק [פעם] אחת יתננו כול ימיו" too, which does not of necessity follow from Scripture, originated in the opposition of the sect to the annual offering of the half-shekel to the Temple which the Sages wished to link to the half-shekel of the Torah. This evidence from the scrolls combines with other data indicating that the ruling concerning an annual half-shekel offering to the Temple came into force only at the end of the Hasmonean period or even a little later (Cf. my article: Parashat Maḥaẓit Hashsheqel, Kaufman Jubilee Volume 5721, pp. 54—67); that is after the members of the Judean Desert sect became divorced from the rest of the Jewish people.