Syllabus - Purity and Impurity in the Bible and in Qumran (21912)

Course/Module Content:
Weeks 1–2: Introduction: Constructing a Model for a Ritual System
1. Maimonides, Introduction to Seder Qodashim (“Introduction to Tractate Zebahim”)
2. Staal, Frits. Rules without Meaning: Ritual, Mantras, and the Human Sciences (Toronto Studies in Religion 4), New York: P. Lang, 1989.
3. Frits Staal, “The Meaninglessness of Ritual.” Numen 26 (1979) 2–22.
4. Axel Michaels and Anand Mishra, Grammars and Morphologies of Ritual Practices in Asia (2010).
5. Gane, Roy E. Cult and Character: Purification Offerings, Day of Atonement, and Theodicy. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2005.
6. N. Meshel, A ‘Grammar’ of Sacrifice (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014).
7. Leach, Edmund. Culture and Communication: The Logic by which Symbols Are Connected. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976.

Weeks 3–4: One or Two Systems: “Ritual” and “Moral” Purity
Primary literature: Leviticus 4–7; 10–21, Numbers 19, 31
1. D. P. Wright, “The Spectrum of Priestly Impurity”, in: Priesthood and Cult in Ancient Israel, ed. G. Anderson and S. M. Olyan (Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1991), 150–181.
2. Jacob Milgrom, “The Priestly ‘Picture of Dorian Gray.’” RB 83 (1976): 390–99.
3. Regev, Eyal. “Priestly Dynamic Holiness and Deuteronomic Static Holiness.” Vetus Testamentum 51:2 (2001). [or: א' רגב, "קדושה דינמית או קדושה סטטית? לאפיון הקדושה ברבדים הכוהניים ובספר דברים בעקבות שיטת משה ויינפלד", שנתון לחקר המקרא והמזרח הקדום, יד (תשס"ד), 51-74.]
4. T. Frymer-Kensky, “Pollution, Purification and Purgation in Biblical Israel”, in: The Word of the Lord Shall Go Forth, ed. C. Meyers and M. O’Connor (Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 1983), 399–413.
5. Jonathan Klawans, Impurity and Sin in Ancient Israel (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000).
6. Martha Himmelfarb, “Impurity and Sin in 4QD, 1QS, and 4Q512,” DSD 8 (2001).

Weeks 5–6:
Primary literature: Leviticus 4–7; 10–21, Numbers 19, 31
The Biblical Purity System in Detail
1. Maimonides (transl. Qafaḥ), Introduction to Seder Tohorot (“Introduction to Tractate Kelim”)
2. Knohl, Israel. The Sanctuary of Silence: The Priestly Torah and the Holiness School. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1995. [originally published as: י' קנוהל, מקדש הדממה: עיון ברובדי היצירה הכוהנית שבתורה (ירושלים: מאגנס, תשנ"ג).
3. D. P. Wright, The Disposal of Impurity, Elimination Rites in the Bible and in Hittite and Mesopotamian Literature (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1987). [with Milgrom’s notes]
4. Jacob Milgrom, Leviticus: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary (3 vols. AB 3, 3A, 3B. New York: Doubleday, 1991–2001) 1.953–968.

Weeks 7–8: Purity and Impurity of Animal Species
1. E. Durkheim and M. Mauss, Primitive Classification, trans. R. Needham (London: Cohen and West, 1963) [Paris, 1903].
2. C. Lévi-Strauss, Totemism, trans. R. Needham (Boston: Beacon Press, 1963). [originally published as: C. Lévi-Strauss, Le Totémisme aujourd’hui (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1962).]
3. Douglas, Mary. Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo. London: Routledge & K. Paul, 1966.
4. M. Douglas, “The Forbidden Animals in Leviticus”, JSOT, 59 (1993), 3–23.
5. Seth Daniel Kunin, We Think What We Eat: Neo-Structuralist Analysis of Israelite Food Rules and Other Cultural and Textual Practices. JSOTSup 412. London and New York: T. & T. Clark, 2004.
6. E. Firmage, “The Biblical Dietary Laws and the Concept of Holiness”, in: Studies in the Pentateuch, ed. J. A. Emerton (Leiden: Brill, 1990), 177–208.
7. S. J. Tambiah, “Animals are Good to Think and Good to Prohibit”, Ethnology, 8 (1969), 423–45.
8. M. P. Carroll, “One More Time, Leviticus Revisited”, in: Anthropological Approaches to the Old Testament, ed. B. Lang (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985), 117–126
9. E. Hunn, “The Abominations of Leviticus Revisited”, in: Classifications in their Social Context, ed. R. F. Ellen and P. Reason (London: Academic Press, 1979), 103–116.
10. Jacob Milgrom, “Two Biblical Hebrew Priestly Terms: שקץand טמא” Ma‘arav 8 (1992) 107–16.
11. N. S. Meshel, “Food for Thought: Systems of Categorization in Leviticus 11.” HTR 101 (2008) 203–29.
12. D. Sperber, “Pourquoi les animaux parfaits, les hybrides et les monstres sont-ils bons à penser symboliquement?”, L’Homme, 15 (1975) 5–34.
13. Leach, Edmund. “Anthropological Aspects of Language: Animal Categories and Verbal Abuse.” In New Directions in the Study of Language, edited by E. H. Lenneberg. Cambridge: M.I.T. Press, 1964, 23–63.
14. Kunin, Seth Daniel. We Think What We Eat: Neo-structuralist Analysis of Israelite Food Rules and Other Cultural and Textual Practices. JSOTSup 412. London and New York: T. & T. Clark, 2004.

Weeks 9–10: Applicability of Π
1. From: Hanna Harrington, The Impurity System of Qumran and the Rabbis (SBL Dissertation Series 143; Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1993).
2. Hanna Harrington, The Purity Texts Companion to the Qumran scrolls 5; London: T&T Clark, 2004).
3. ספר מצוות גדול הנקרא גן עדן: בבאור כוונות המצות שבתורה ודיני ענינים הנכללים בתוכה חברו החכם האלהי והכולל הרב רבינו אהרן בעל ספר עץ חיים וכתר תורה נב"ע בהר"ר אליהו ניקומודיאו זצ"ל (יצא לאור פעם ראשונה מוגה ומתוקן על פי נוסחאות שונות כתיבות יד חדשות גם ישנות על ידי יהודה בכ"מ יצחק ז"ל סאווסקאן; גוזלווא: אברהם בן שמואל פירקוויץ פירקוביץ', תרכ"ו [1866]).
4. Iain Ruairidh mac Mhanainn Bóid, Principles of Samaritan Halachah (Studies in Judaism in Late Antiquity 38; Leiden: Brill, 1989).
5. Selected Samaritan sources (in Hebrew translation)
Comparative perspectives:
6. From: Manusmṛti and its medieval commentaries (in Hebrew and English translation)
7. Robert Parker, Miasma: Pollution and Purification in Early Greek Religion (Oxford: Clarendon, 1983).
8. Christian Frevel and Christophe Nihan, eds., Purity and the Forming of Religious Traditions in the Ancient Mediterranean World and Ancient Judaism (Leiden: Brill, 2013).
Weeks 10–11:
The problem of compoundment
1. Thomas Kazen, “4Q274 Fragment 1 Revisited—or Who Touched Whom? Further Evience for Ideas of Graded Impurity and Graded Purifications,” Dead Sea Discoveries 17 (2010) 53–87.
2. Hannan Birenboim, “Expelling the Unclean from the Cities of Israel and the Uncleanness of Lepers and Men with a Discharge according to 4Q274 I i,” Dead Sea Discoveries 19 (2012) 28–54.
3. From: Yadin, Temple Scroll
4. Milgrom 1995 Jacob Milgrom, “4QTOHORAa: An Unpublished Qumran Text on Purities,” in Time to Prepare the Way in the Wilderness: Papers on the Qumran Scrolls by Fellows of the Institute for Advanced Studies of the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, 1989–1990 (Ed. Devorah Dimant and Lawrence Schiffman; Leiden: Brill, 1995) 59–68.
5. Wayne Westbrook in the Mesopotamian World (Chip Dobbs-Alsopp)
6. Solomon 1997 Avi Solomon, “The Prohibition against Ṭevul Yom and Defilement of the Daily Whole Offering in the Jerusalem Temple in CD 11:21–12:1: A New Understanding,” Dead Sea Discoveries 4 (1997) 1–20.
7. Fitzmyer 1981 Joseph A. Fitzmyer, S.J., The Gospel According to Luke (I–IX) (New York: Doubleday, 1981).
8. Jayantakrishna Harikrishna Dave, Manu-Smṛti: With Nine Commentaries by Medhātithi, Sarvajñanārāyaṇa, Kullūka, Rāghavānanda, Nandana, Rāmacandra, Maṇirāma, Govindarāja and Bhāruci, Volume III (Adhyāyas 5–6) (Bombay: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1978).
9. Schenker 2015 Adrian Schenker, “Unreinheit, Sünde und Sündopfer: Kritische Untersuchung zweier verbeiteter Thesen: befleckende Sünden (moral impurity) und Sündopger chaṭṭaˀt als Reinigungsopfer für das Heiligtum,” Biblische Zeitschrift 59 (2015) 1–16.
10. Ravid 2002 Liora Ravid, “Purity and Impurity in the Book of Jubilees,” Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 13 (2002) 61–86.
11. Thiessen 2012 Matthew Thiessen, “Luke 2:22, Leviticus 12, and Parturient Impurity,” Novum Testamentum 54 (2012) 16–29.
12. יאיר פורסטנברג, טהרה וקהילה בעת העתיקה: מסורות ההלכה בין יהדות בית שני למשנה (ירושלים: מאנגס, תשע"ו).
13. Joseph M. Baumgarten, “The Laws about Fluxes in 4QTOHORAa (4Q274),” in Time to Prepare the Way in the Wilderness: Papers on the Qumran Scrolls by Fellows of the Institute for Advanced Studies of the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, 1989–1990 (Ed. Devorah Dimant and Lawrence Schiffman; Leiden: Brill, 1995) 1–8.