מקומראן לפרובנס: רעיון המשיח משבט מנשה- ממגילות ים המלח אל מדרש מימי הביניים

In Pesher Nahum we find the Jewish nation divided into three "tribes": Judah, which represents the Qumran community, apparently the Essenes; Ephraim, which stands for the Pharisees; and Manasseh, which symbolizes the Sadducees. A similar formulation appears in a derashah in Midrash Numbers Rabbah, attributed to the eleventh-century Provençal rabbi Moshe ha-Darshan. Based on Ps. 60:9, the derashah in question refers to three future messiahs: a messiah from the House of David, another from the tribe of Ephraim, and a third from the tribe of Manasseh, who are joined by a fourth figure, the prophet Elijah. Elijah and the Judahite and Ephraimite messiahs appear in rabbinic literature, but no other known source refers to a Manassite messiah and this third messiah's appearance seems to have been influenced by the Qumran typology. Rabbi Moshe ha-Darshan of Provence is known to have had access to some apocryphal literature originating in Second Temple times. This derashah suggests that his writings were influenced by Qumran writings to some extent, although we cannot identify the precise mechanism through which this was effected. Conceivably, ideas and even parts of some works may have reached Provence via Byzantine Italy, a well-known venue for transmission from the Orient to the West. Karaites, whose presence in northeastern Spain, adjacent to Provence, is well attested for that period, were familiar with, and could also have transmitted, Qumran materials.