What Kind of Sect was the Yaḥad ? A Comparative Approach

While few would dispute that the group known as the Yachad, as reflected in the Community Rule, was indeed a sect, previous scholarship has paid little attention to the existence of a variety of sectarian groups, each with its own distinct social characteristics. Scholars who have addressed the phenomenon of sectarianism, notably Albert Baumgarten, have asserted that the Qumran sects were in general introversionist in nature, that is, they separated themselves from the evil world in order to attain salvation. However, even introversionist sects have subtypes. In order to conceptualize the Yachad’s social and religious systems, it is necessary to establish the features peculiar to this specific sect.
In my book, Sectarianism in Qumran: A Cross-Cultural Perspective (Religion and Society Series; Walter de Gruyter, 2007), I examine the Yachad and the Damascus Covenant in light of social-scientific theories of sectarianism, and compare the Yachad to early modern Christian introversionist sects: the early Anabaptists, Mennonites, Hutterites, Amish, Puritans, Quakers, and Shakers.
In the present paper I would like to focus on the characteristics common to the Yachad and these later sects, as well as those which are unique to the Yachad. Like the early Anabaptists, Puritans, Quakers, and Shakers, the Yachad emphasized the need to atone for one’s sins and confess frequently. Common to most of these sects is a resistance to the accumulation of wealth. The Yachad, Hutterites, and Shakers all held their property in common. These attitudes, towards sin and atonement and wealth, mark the material and spiritual boundaries that these sects establish in order to separate themselves from the outside world, which they regard as corrupt.
As a commune, the Yachad had a democratic and partly egalitarian character, quite like the Hutterite communes; a measure of egalitarianism also characterizes the Mennonites and Amish. However, this feature is not self-evident, since the Shakers, who also lived in communes, had a hierarchical structure to their society. Interestingly, the members of the Yachad were also divided according to their spiritual competence, quite like the Shakers. The Yachad commune therefore bears an extraordinary degree of social complexity, combining elements of democracy and egalitarianism with a certain measure of hierarchy.
Unlike the early Anabaptists, Mennonites, Amish, Hutterites, and Puritans, the members of the Yachad had revelations on a regular basis. Such a phenomenon is characteristic only of the Pentecostals, but in certain periods many Quakers and some of the Shakers also had revelations. If the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifices and the Self-Glorification Hymn are ascribed to the Yachad, one may conclude that Yachad members had a strong tendency towards mystical experience, which is unattested among the other sects – even the Shakers, who were the most spiritual of the groups considered here. It therefore seems that the Yachad was indeed a unique sect. It shared many characteristics common to other well-known introversionist sects, such as stressing atonement and condemning the accumulation of wealth. But it combined democracy and measures of egalitarianism with social hierarchy. Unlike other sects, it had an extremely strong tendency towards heavenly revelation and mysticism.
In short, a comparison of the Yachad to similar sects demonstrates that the Yachad ethos was highly complex. Its members lived in a state of intense religious tension, separating themselves from the outside world, and aspiring to reach a direct relationship with the Divine.