היסטוריה והיסטוריוגראפיה — 'ממלכת כהנים' כסיסמה פרושית

It is widely held that the verse 'You shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests' (Exodus 19:6) was a Pharisaic slogan, expressing their view that all Jews (or all proper Jews, i.e., Pharisees) — and not only Aaronites — are to be considered priests. In the first section of this study, the ancient sources are culled for allusions to this phrase. A review of the Bible, its ancient translations, the extra-canonic literature, Josephus, the Dead Sea Scrolls, rabbinic literature and Philo produces largely negative results: the phrase apparently drew little attention altogether, and was virtually never given the putatively Pharisaic meaning which uses this verse to justify an antihierocratic democratization of the Jewish people. Rather, Exodus 19:6 is usually held to refer to the three estates of idealized Israel, viz., the monarchy, the priesthood, and the 'holy people', or else to refer to the special 'priestly' status of Israel among the nations. Democratic opposition to the hereditarily limited character of the priesthood is found in the mouths of two arch-villains alone: Korah (Numbers 16:3) and Jeroboam (Josephus, Antiquites VIII, 227-228). Among the reasons for this general failure to universalize the priesthood, especially notable is the fact that the Hebrew word kohen — in contrast to the Greek hiereus and the Latin sacerdos — is not linked to any other words, via which the concept of priesthood might be expanded. The second section of the study lists the prime exponents of the view: A. Geiger, K. Kohler, I. Elbogen, J. Z. Lauterbach, E. Hirsch, R. Leszynsky, L. Baeck, Hermann Vogelstein, I. Maybaum. All were leaders of German Reform Judaism or its American offshoot, all but one (Leszynsky) graduates and/or teachers of the Lehranstalt (Hochschule) für die Wissenschaft des Judentums in Berlin or the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati. It is next shown that "a kingdom of priests" was in fact a popular slogan of the German movement for Jewish reform, used in the struggle for democracy (instead of traditional rabbinic authority), for spiritual religion (instead of ritual), and for universalism (instead of nationalism). Evidence is brought from the writings, especially the sermons, of the scholars listed above and of other leaders of the movement (S. Maybaum, H. Cohen, J. Prinz). It thus becomes clear that by attributing such a slogan to the Pharisees they were in fact supplying themselves historical precedent and legitimization. An investigation of the views of reform scholars toward Pharisaism indicates that a crucial change began with Geiger: while other Reformers, such as Jost and Holdheim (echoed later by M. Friedländer) accepted the traditional Christian condemnation of the Pharisees, whom they identified with the modern Orthodox, Geiger and his heirs viewed Pharisaism as the religion of progress and democracy. The Reformers were now modern Pharisees, leaving the Orthodox to be identified with the Sadducees and the Karaites. Self-identification with the Pharisees imposed two new obligations upon the Reformers: internally, they had to prove that the Pharisees really did favor progress and democracy, and externally they had to defend the Pharisees against attacks from the Christian world. The claim that the Pharisees preached universal priesthood contributed to answering both needs: it made them exponents of democracy and of nonsacrificial worship, like modern Reformers, and it gave them a slogan which was one of Luther's favorites. The epilogue discusses a 1929 article by Ludwig Levy, the liberal chief rabbi of Brünn (Bruno), showing that it reflects the complex of ideas discussed in this paper.