----- Original Message ----- From: "Joshua Ezra Burns" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Ian Werrett" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <g-megillot@mcmaster.ca> Sent: Wednesday, February 09, 2005 4:44 PM Subject: Re: [Megillot] Essenes, Sadducees, and Joseph Baumgarten
> The same can be said about traditional Samaritan halakhah, which, as far as > I can know, is still called halakhah by Samaritans today. An legal > exegetical device by any other name... > > Josh Burns I did not know this. Please elaborate. In which Sam. documents can we find the H word? And why is halakhah exigetical? What we now call Midrash halakhah (likely, coined in opposition to the term midrash aggada) may pay attention to counter intuitive exegetical rules but in general the term "halakhah" in the literature I know refers to unwritten laws (not said to be based on exegesis but) based on oral traditions given to Moses at Sinai, (in later usages-- equal to a unit of mishnah) or laws proclaimed by decisive authority or the common practice, . It is the two latter usages that are used primarily in the exegetical literature itself (and not used much at all there). The Halakhot of the Sabbath are famous for not being based on scriptural exegeses in the main and I doubt if Shifman would justify his usage by defining halakhah as a law derived by some exegesis of scripture. I'm open to challenge on this of course but so it seems obvious to me without checking concordances, databases or my library or even Shifman himself. Herb _______________________________________________ g-Megillot mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mailman.McMaster.CA/mailman/listinfo/g-megillot
