'ראשי לבושי פלא': לפירושו של שיר עולת השבת השלוש־עשרה

The liturgical composition Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice originally consisted of thirteen songs. This study focuses on the concluding song, offering a new interpretation of its best-preserved section, which survives as an almost complete paragraph (4Q405 23 ii 18–23). I argue that this paragraph can be read as a self-contained poetic unit. Thematically, it concerns the high priestly garments viewed by the speaker in the inner sanctum of the heavenly shrine. Terminologically, the passage makes sophisticated use of biblical priestly phraseology, adapting it to its own vision of the garments as animate, spiritual, and illuminating beings. I give attention to the literary makeup of the passage, to its interpretive and poetic adaptation of the scriptural prooftexts, to its theological presuppositions, and to the historical and cultural signification of the symbol of the high priestly garments within the context of the late Second Temple period.