המדרש הקדום והמדרש המאוחר

What form did Pharisaic halakha have in its earliest formulations? Was it Mishna, or hermeneutic Midrash? Since Pharisaic halakha was not put down in writing, we have had nothing from the Second Temple period upon which to base any theory. Everything said so far on the subject has been conjecture. However, the recent publication of the Dead Sea Sect Temple Scroll, wonderfully edited with full introduction and notes by Yigael Yadin, has given us something really tangible to go by for the first time. The Temple Scroll presents a clear picture of the 'oral tradition' of the Sect, already committed to writing in the second century before the Common Era. This makes it easier to surmize the form assumed by Pharisaic halakha in the parallel period. For although Pharisaic halakha differs greatly from that of the Sect, its early form seems to have been close to that which we find in the Temple Scroll — albeit completely oral. The Mishna still preserves several passages which have an affinity in form to what we find in the Temple Scroll. The distinguishing feature in the presentation of the sectarian oral law as we find it in the Temple Scroll is its close interweaving with the verses of Scripture. This interweaving is so fine that it is often difficult to differentiate between Scripture and added matter. In the 'interweaving' of Pharisaic oral law with Scripture, wherever we find such, the oral supplement is clearly distinct, even when written, as eventually happened. Nevertheless in the use of a Scriptural frame for the presentation of its halakha, early Pharisaic form resembled that of the Temple Scroll. In both, it is most important to point out, the halakha was put in the frame of Scripture, but was never represented as being derived from Scripture. The use of Scripture itself as 'proof' for the oral law through various hermeneutic techniques, was a later development. Such sophistication reached fruition only in our halakhic Midrash, although the Mishna already shows the beginnings of such. It is primarily a post-Destruction phenomenon and seems to have been the exclusive development of Pharisaism.