Toward an “Archaeology of Halakhah”: Prospects and Pitfalls of Reading Early Jewish Ritual Law into the Ancient Material Record

Archaeology is indispensable for understanding the genesis and development of halakhah, Jewish ritual law, and the impact of its observance on the functioning of ancient Jewish societies. Using examples from my own work over the past few years, this paper seeks to illustrate the kinds of data archaeology can provide on how ancient halakhah was practiced, information which is simply not to be found in texts. The topics to be surveyed include mikva’ot (ritual baths), chalkstone vessels, and tefillin (phylacteries). The unique contribution of archaeology to the study of each of these halakhic phenomena is explored, with a special focus on what archaeology has to teach us about these rituals which we would not have known from the texts alone. Some of the potential hazards and pitfalls of using archaeology together with texts of a halakhic nature are discussed as well, including the anachronistic use of written sources in interpreting earlier remains and the mistaken privileging of rabbinic halakhah over alternative possibilities. Archaeology and texts tend to provide very different kinds of information, and if brought together prudently, hold the potential to offer a much more comprehensive and accurate understanding of how halakhah was observed in the ancient past.