הלכות שבת בספר היובלים נ 6-13

This article explores the group of sabbath laws found in the last chapter of the Book of Jubilees (Jub. 50:6-13). These laws are problematic for several reasons. First, they do not provide a fitting conclusion to the book; one would expect a parenetic ending to match the beginning of the book. As it is, the book ends rather abruptly. Secondly, the laws of the sabbath had already been presented at length earlier in the book (chapter 2:24-32). As is well known, the author of Jubilees strives to incorporate much legal material in his book; inevitably he seeks to connect this material to some event being narrated in Genesis. In the case of the sabbath laws, the 'event' in question is the creation of the first sabbath in history (Gen. 2:1-3). From the standpoint of Jubilees, this is the proper place for the sabbath laws to appear; those at the end of the book are thus, apparently, out of place. What is more, the laws themselves as presented in Jub. 2:24-32 are different from those in Jub. 50:6-13; why would the author have presented some laws at the beginning of his book and then, without further justification, given other laws later on? Finally, the laws in these two groups seem to have different ideological underpinnings. Those at the beginning of the book reflect Jubilees' clearly stated belief that the sabbath is essentially a divine institution, observed by God and the highest classes of angels as well as by a single people on earth, Israel, whereas those at the end of the book apply observance of the sabbath as well to Gentiles, slaves and livestock. On the basis of these considerations, it is proposed that the sabbath laws found at the end of Jubilees are a later addition, inserted by an editor or copyist who found that the sabbath laws in the book did not match those of his own group. The original conclusion of the book is still in plain sight: its last sentence is Jub. 50:5.