In loving memory of Yossi Hershkovitz Z”L
שעקד נפשו להגנת עמו
Introduction
The Pentateuchal narratives about the election of Levi refer to the singling out of a collective—the tribe of Levi—following the exodus. One central biblical tradition tells that the Levites were blessed because of their zeal for God during the sin of the golden calf (Exod 32:26–29), while another teaches that they were sanctified in place of the Israelite firstborn, who were saved during the plague of the firstborn in Egypt (Num 3:11–13, 8:5–19). There is, however, consensus that it was the tribe of Levi, rather than Levi the individual, that was chosen “to stand in attendance upon the Lord and to bless in His name, as is still the case” (Deut 10:8).Footnote 1 In Second Temple literature, on the other hand, the elevation of Levi to the priesthood becomes a personal story of Levi, son of Jacob.Footnote 2 Planting the priesthood in the world of Genesis allowed authors of the Second Temple–era to depict the sacralization of Levi as a personal drama.Footnote 3 One of the earliest of these works, from around the third century BCE, is the Aramaic Levi Document (hereafter ALD).Footnote 4 The text offers a first-person account of Levi’s priestly biography and integrates the events of Shechem (chs. 1–2) and Levi’s prayer and visions (chs. 3–4) into a narrative sequence leading to Levi’s election to the priesthood (ch. 5). As a priest, Levi receives instructions relating to the “law of the priesthood” from Isaac, his grandfather (5:8).Footnote 5 This priestly education is detailed in a central section of the text (5:6–10:14).
The laws described in this section include warnings regarding sexual and bodily purity (6), laws of ritual purification (7:1–3), the laws around wood on the altar and the ‘olah sacrifice (7:1–8:6), the quantities of substances offered up with sacrifices (9:1–16), and a section that deals with comparing different units of measurement (9:17–18). This cryptic text is replete with operational details to a degree that no text before (and, to a large extent, after) offers in describing the priest’s service in the Temple. This raises two questions: First, what connects the random sequence of laws about sexual purity and the wood for sacrifices? Second, does the description of worship serve the overall narrative framework of Levi’s ascent to the priesthood, and in what way? Scholars have offered three directions for answering these questions. Robert Kugler has argued that the common denominator of the laws in ALD is their stringency, compared to biblical law and the Jerusalem priesthood of the time. In his view, just as ALD’s narrative portrays an idealized figure of Levi as an alternative to the flawed Jerusalem priesthood, so too ALD’s laws provide a more stringent alternative. By retroactively projecting these laws back to the time of the patriarchs, ALD gives them chronological priority over the laws of the Jerusalem priests, which are attributed to the covenant at Sinai.Footnote 6 Martha Himmelfarb has argued, however, that the ALD narrative carries no polemical overtones. The laws in the document are not more stringent than those in the Pentateuch but rather supplement the regulations of Leviticus with further practical details.Footnote 7 This characterization aligns with Józef Milik’s suggestion that the literary framing of the instructions (the story of Levi’s initiation into the priesthood) reflects its practical use—that is, the training of apprentice priests for their service in the Temple.Footnote 8
Recently, Liane Feldman has argued that the academic impulse to connect the instructions in ALD and their biblical source rests on an unnecessary assumption about the level of authority the Bible held in the beginning of the Hellenistic period. She believes that ALD presents a different idea of sacrifice than that found in Leviticus, which focuses on the function of the senses of sight and smell and limits the function of blood.Footnote 9 Although I do not agree with Feldman’s claims about the uniqueness of the sacrificial laws that appear in ALD,Footnote 10 she is certainly correct about the necessity of learning the 菟riestly laws” of Levi in a holistic manner. Before any conceptual analysis, however, we need to understand and identify the ritual described in the seventh and eighth chapters of the text. This fundamental issue has not yet been addressed in the scholarship, and the goal of this article is to answer that question.
I begin with an analysis of the laws of ritual immersion in ALD. I will show that they form a ritual sequence that describes the priest痴 service in the Temple, which connects the different sections of ALD to each other. They are all parts of one ritual order for the morning offering in the Temple. I end by returning to the narrative in which the ritual is embedded and discuss the relationship between law and narrative in ALD’s law of the priesthood.
Purification, Wood, and Sacrifice: Instructions Regarding the Order of the Morning Whole Burnt Offering
A. The Purity Laws and Their Rhetorical Structure
7:1 And when you are about to enter the house of God, bathe in water and then put on the garment of priesthood.
7:2 And when you are dressed, once again wash your hands and feet before you make any approach to the altar.
7:3 And when you take for sacrifice anything that is fit to be offered on the altar, wash your hands and feet once again.
7:4 And offer split wood, and examine it first for worms and then offer it up, for thus I saw my father Abraham acting with care.
7:5 Of any of all twelve kinds of wood which are fitting, he told me to offer up on the altar, whose smoke rises up with a pleasant odor.
7:6 And these are their names: cedar and juniper, and almond and fir and pine and ash, cypress and fig and oleaster, laurel and myrtle and asphalathos.
7:7 These are those that he told me are fitting to offer up [be]neath the whole burnt offering upon the altar.
8:1 And when you have offered up any of these woods upon the altar and the fire begins to burn them, you should then begin to sprinkle the blood on the sides of the altar.
8:2 And once more wash your hands and feet of the blood and begin to offer up the salted portions (or: limbs).
8:3 First offer up the head and cover it with the fat so that the blood of *the slaughter of* the bull(?)Footnote 11 may not be seen.
8:4 After it, its neck and after its neck its forequarters and after its forequarters the breast with the side and after the forequarters the haunches with the spine of the loin and after the haunches the hindquarters washed, with the entrails.
8:5 All of them salted with salt as is fitting for them in their proper amounts.
8:6 After that, fine meal mixed with oil. After all that pour the wine and burn the frankincense over them; and thus let your actions follow due order and all your sacrifices be [acceptable] as a pleasing odor before the Most High God.Footnote 12
The purity laws begin with three instructions regarding the priest’s purification. The author uses two verbs to describe the ablutions: סחי, “bathe,” for the first, and רחע, “wash,” for the second and third.Footnote 13 The first instruction requires that the entire body be bathed in water upon entering the sanctuary.Footnote 14 This requirement is not necessarily connected to the priest’s bodily purity. It is a prerequisite for his entrance into the Temple precincts and for donning the priestly vestments.Footnote 15 The following two instructions command the priest to wash his hands and feet before approaching the altar.Footnote 16 The distinction between bathing upon entering the Temple precincts and washing hands and feet before approaching the altar, and again before offering a sacrifice, is grounded in a reading of Exod 30:18–21 as an ordered sequence of actions required for the priest’s purification upon entering the Temple.Footnote 17 Exod 30 reads:
(18) Make a laver of copper and a stand of copper for it, for washing; and place it between the Tent of Meeting and the altar. Put water in it, (19) and let Aaron and his sons wash (ורחצו) their hands and feet [in water drawn] from it. (20) When they enter (בבאם) the Tent of Meeting they shall wash with water, that they may not die; or when they approach (או בגשתם) the altar to serve, to turn into smoke an offering by fire to the Lord. (21) They shall wash their hands and feet, that they may not die. It shall be a law for all time for them—for him and his offspring—throughout the ages.
According to the interpretation reflected in the Masoretic division of verses, verses 19 and 21a are an introduction and conclusion to verse 20, respectively.Footnote 18 The two adverbial clauses in verse 20, “when they enter” and “when they approach” refer to the single law found between them, “they shall wash with water,” which is the equivalent of the phrase “they shall wash their hands and feet with water” found in the introduction and conclusion.Footnote 19 Thus, the entire passage refers to washing hands and feet with water from the laver. The Samaritan text of the Torah, and the Samaritan Targum, read or reflect the reading ירחצו rather than ורחצו as the first word of verse 21.Footnote 20 This reading may be reflected in the Septuagint as well. In this reading, verse 21 continues verse 20, and we have two adverbial phrases modifying two separate laws:
In this reading, the pericope contains two distinct instructions regarding ablutions: when the priest enters the Tent of Meeting, he must wash his entire body; then, when he approaches the altar, he must wash his hands and feet. ALD, the Samaritan text, and perhaps also the Septuagint, may have derived this understanding by reading Exod 40:12 into Exod 30:20–21, since Exod 40:12 commands Aaron and his sons to wash their entire bodies before donning the priestly vestments (see also Lev 16:4).
The distinction between the two instructions is neatly reflected in the distinction ALD makes between “washing in water” when the priest enters the TempleFootnote 21 and “washing his hands and feet” when the priest approaches the altar. Unlike Exodus, which prescribes different ablutions for various situations,Footnote 22 ALD prescribes a sequence of ablutions for priests entering the Temple: the priest must bathe his entire body before entering the Temple precinct, and then he must wash his hands and feet after donning his vestments, and again before sacrifice. The double washing of the hands and feet before approaching the altar (7:1–3) is based on a reading of the extended phrase “when they approach the altar to serve, to turn into smoke an offering by fire to the Lord” (Exod 30:20) as a double instruction. Thus, priests are required to wash their hands and feet “when they approach the altar to serve”Footnote 23 and also “when they approach the altar to turn into smoke an offering by fire to the Lord.”Footnote 24
The structure of the text reflects the sequentially linked instructions that it presents: “When you are in state X, do Y, and then Z will be allowed”:
In this chain of instructions, the first segment of 7:2 וכדי תהוי לביש)) repeats the last segment of 7:1(תהוי לביש לבוש כהנותא) , and the first segment of 7:3 (וכדי תהוי נסב להקרבה) repeats the last segment of 7:2(עד דלא תקרב למדבחא) . The different actions are concatenated into a ritual sequence that continues in the verses that follow (7:4–5), which detail what is suitable to be offered on the altar—“anything that is fit to be offered upon the altar” (כל די חזה להנסקה למדבחה) (7:3)—and then list the wood that is classified as “fitting to offer up upon the altar” (די חזין להסקה מינהון למדבחה) (7:5; see 7:7). From this, it is clear that the chain of purifying actions is connected to the offering of the trees detailed after it.
The instructions that follow regarding sacrificing the ‘olah open in a similar fashion:
And when (וכדי) you have offered up any of these woods upon the altar and the fire begins to burn them, you should then (והא באדין) begin to sprinkle the blood on the sides of the altar (8:1).
That is, burning the wood is a condition for offering the sacrifice. The rhetorical structure describing the order of sacrificing the ‘olah’s organs is structured in the same way: “After it, its neck, and after its neck, its forequarters, and after its forequarters, the breast with the side” (ובתרוהי צוארה ובתר צוארה ידוהי ובתר ידוהי ניעא עם כן דפנא) (ALD 8:4).Footnote 25
Thus, the reason that ALD includes together laws pertaining to purity, wood, and sacrifices is simply because these laws form one continuous ritual sequence.Footnote 26 Such a sequence is indeed worthy of the conclusion: “and thus let your actions follow due order (סרך)” (8:6). That is, the essence of the instructions concerns the order (סרך; τάξις) of their proper implementation.Footnote 27 The ritual sequence contains purification (washing and immersion), burning wood, and sacrificing the ‘olah. But what is this ritual?
B. Sacrificial Laws for the ‘olah and the Morning ‘olah
Previous studies of this text have described the sacrificial laws without paying attention to the internal connections. Since during the detailing of the order of offering of the organs of the ‘olah on the altar (8:3) it is mentioned that the head of the sacrifice is the head of a bull—those studies have interpreted the sacrifice mentioned in the text as a bovine offered by an individual as a whole burnt offering.Footnote 28 The mention of a bull would ostensibly rule out the possibility that the passage refers to the daily tamid sacrifice, which must be a lamb (Exod 29:38; Num 28:3; Ezek 46:13), or to burnt offerings in general, which are from a variety of animals (Lev 1). However, the textual evidence is not quite so clear:
In contrast to the Genizah version, the Greek text, which is fully preserved, here makes no mention of a bull. The text does not specify which animal is being offered up but simply warns against leaving the blood of the sacrifice’s head exposed, which reflects the Aramaic phrase: ואל יתחזי דם על ראשא. Moreover, the use of the feminine personal pronoun (αὐτῆς) rules out the possibility that the Greek translator had a Greek word for “bull” in mind.Footnote 31 Additionally, the word immediately preceding the word תורא in the Geniza version of ALD is erroneous; the phrase נסבת תורא is emended by all editors to נ<כס>ת תורא and rendered “the slaughter of the bull.”Footnote 32
The only parallel to this unique law of ALD appears in Hebrew in Tractate Tamid of the Mishnah in an identical context; that is, in the order of sacrificing the organs of an ‘olah: “He took the fat and placed it on the place of slaughter on the animal’s head above” (m. Tamid 4:2; see also 4:3).Footnote 33 The law in the Mishnah that details the concealing of blood mentions the place upon which one must place the fat (“the place of slaughter”) but not the type of animal being slaughtered. Since the Greek version does not mention an animal, the Hebrew parallel does not mention an animal, the reference to aתורא in the Geniza version does not accord with any of the surrounding regulations (see below), and the Geniza version in this sentence is generally recognized as corrupt, the most plausible conclusion is that the Greek translation preserved the original formulation, where the type of animal is not mentioned.Footnote 34 This textual correction is necessary in order to understand the text in full. ALD does not describe a specific sacrifice brought as a voluntary offering but rather a sacrifice brought in connection with the priest entering the Temple and burning the fire on the altar. This is why the description of the sacrifice omits both the act of semikha (hand-leaning) and the atoning function of this action (Lev 1:4). There is no apparent reason for offering this sacrifice, such as a vow or a sin, and it has no apparent owner. All this shows that the sacrifice in question is part of the order of “the house of God” (בית אל) into which the priest enters, as described in the beginning of the section (7:1). In other words, this is an ‘olah which the priests must offer, not a voluntary ‘olah by the animal’s owner. A command of this sort to sacrifice an ‘olah in the morning when entering the Temple is found in Lev 6. It describes the sacrifice of the ‘olah as part of the ritual of burning the altar fire:
The fire on the altar shall be kept burning, not to go out: every morning the priest shall feed wood to it, lay out the burnt offering on it, and turn into smoke the fat parts of the offerings of well-being. A perpetual fire shall be kept burning on the altar, not to go out (Lev 6:5–6).
ALD also describes the sacrifice of the ‘olah that follows the beginning of the daily order (washing, donning vestments, entering the Temple) and describes the sacrifice of the ‘olah as part of burning the altar fire. Moreover, ALD emphasizes that the order of actions includes burning the fire only once the ‘olah’s blood has been dashed (8:1): “And when you have offered up any of these woods upon the altar and the fire begins to burn them, you should then begin to dash the blood
( והא באדין תשרא למזרק דמא) on the sides of the altar.” This order of action could not match a description of an ‘olah brought by an individual, in which burning the wood is done after the dashing of blood (Lev 1:5–7).Footnote 35
The connection between the morning ‘olah and the order of instructions in ALD is stronger. According to the Torah, in the morning, the priests need to burn the wood, then place the ‘olah, and then offer the fat of the shelamim on it (Lev 6:5).Footnote 36 This description, which appears elsewhere in P as well, reflects a widespread view in priestly literature according to which sacrifices are offered “on” the morning ‘olah.Footnote 37 P’s view regarding the function of the morning sacrifice is reflected at the end of the section about the sacrifice of the ‘olah in ALD: “and thus let your actions follow due order and all your sacrifices be [acceptable] as a pleasing odor before the Most High God” (8:6). The correct implementation of the altar fire and the offering of the ‘olah will lead to “your sacrifices” (וכל קורבניך, in the plural form) being accepted. The reference to the totality of the sacrifices at the conclusion of the description of offering the sacrifice of an individual does not make any sense. On the other hand, because the sacrifices are all offered “on the tamid offering,” it is indeed reasonable to conclude the ritual of its offering by referencing the acceptance of all of the sacrifices “as a pleasing odor before the Most High God” (לריח ניחח קודם אל עליון).
The identification of this sacrifice as the morning ‘olah also explains the relationship between the ritual described in chapters 7 and 8 and the chapter that follows, which surveys the various sacrifices and prescribes the exact quantities of wood, salt, fine meal, oil, wine, and frankincense that must be brought with each. These quantities depend on the type of sacrifice (burnt offering or well-being offering) and on the type of animal offered.Footnote 38 The relationship between chapters 8 and 9 of ALD is thus similar to the relationship between the daily tamid sacrifice, the first to be offered in the morning, and the other sacrifices, offered “upon it” (Lev 6:5). We can now solve the thematic problem—why ALD chooses to engage only with the ‘olah brought by an individual (without any discussion of a ḥattat, asham, or shelamim). The text is addressing a priestly apprentice engaging in the daily priestly order, which includes the requisite morning ‘olah, upon which all other sacrifices are offered.
C. Summary
ALD thus contains three units of instructions that together describe a sequence of sacrificial actions performed at the start of each day. This sequence begins with the entrance of the priest into the Temple precincts, followed by the priest’s ablutions upon entering, the lighting of the altar fire with the appropriate wood, and finally the sacrifice of the whole burnt offering. These activities—ablution, kindling, and sacrifice—are the main components of the morning service in the Temple.
Understanding the text as an order of service allows us to place this work as a link in a rich and variegated tradition of “orders” of Temple service, beginning with instruction manuals for priests in the ancient Near EastFootnote 39 and down to the Mishnah.Footnote 40
This analysis supports the generic classification of ALD as instructional literature for priests, as an inductee into the priesthood who is expected to learn the laws of sacrifice needs a practical order of service. However, even if this hypothesis about the original function of the law of the priesthood as an instructional manual is accurate, it is of course important to distinguish between deciphering ALD’s sources and the way in which these sources were compiled at the beginning of the Hellenistic period into the literary composition we now have depicting the ascent of Levi to the priesthood.Footnote 41
ALD in its present form combines dreams and ritual instructions, which are intertwined into one first-person account, the characteristics of which are not fully described by classifying it as “a manual for priests.”Footnote 42 In light of the new explanation proposed so far for the section of instructions, I will attempt in what follows to address the connection between the law (the order of sacrificing the daily offering) and the story in which it is combined.
The Narrative Framework
The instructions regarding the order of the tamid offering are related by Levi, quoting his grandfather, Isaac (“he said to me . . .,” ALD 6:1; “thus I saw my father Abraham . . .,” ALD 7:4), who taught him the laws of the priesthood in Abraham’s house (5:8). Since these instructions form a pedagogic text directed toward neophytes, such a discursive situation is justifiable even on purely rhetorical and pedagogic grounds.Footnote 43 However, it is not entirely clear why ALD specifically casts Isaac as the instructor, rather than Jacob, Levi’s own father.Footnote 44 In what follows, I suggest that it is in the light of intertextual connections between the “law of the priesthood” in this unit and the biblical narrative of the binding of Isaac that the “recruitment” of Isaac as the priestly teacher makes perfect sense.
ALD’s Isaac has seen Abraham examining the wood for worms and arranging upon the altar logs that were “split” (מהצלחין, σχισμένα) (7:4).Footnote 45 This particular instruction is based on the biblical description of Abraham splitting the wood before departing to sacrifice Isaac (Gen 22:3). In ALD, Isaac attributes to Abraham the instructions regarding the twelve acceptable types of wood (“He said to me”) (7:5).Footnote 46 These instructions are apparently rooted in a reading of the phrase עצי עולה, “wood for a burnt offering” (Gen 22:3), as if it were a genitive of quality: “whole burnt wood.”Footnote 47 While the lexical connection between the two texts has been noted in passing,Footnote 48 the implications of this subtle reference are worthy of consideration: Abraham, according to Genesis, is commanded to sacrifice Isaac as an ‘olah sacrifice, and Isaac’s role, according to Genesis, is to carry the wood for the whole burnt offering (22:6). Accordingly, the author of ALD places the order of the sacrifice of the ‘olah and the instructions regarding the wood in Isaac’s mouth. Thus, as the one bound to be offered as an ‘olah in his youth, ALD’s Isaac has become an expert in the order of the ‘olah sacrifice; and as the one who in his youth bore the wood upon his own shoulders, ALD’s Isaac becomes the expert in the laws of the ‘olah wood.
The speaker’s identity as someone who was bound for sacrifice and the fact that the source of his priestly knowledge stems from the fact that his own body was to be offered as an ‘olah is reflected in Isaac’s rhetoric as well: “For I saw my father Abraham being careful in this manner” (7:4).Footnote 49 Unlike the usual Second Temple motif that attributes the origin of priestly law to written works, Isaac describes the source of his knowledge as lived experience: he saw how Abraham prepared to sacrifice him as an ‘olah. Isaac’s knowledge is, so to speak, inscribed in his own flesh, from firsthand experience,Footnote 50 since he himself was bound to the altar as a “lamb for the burnt offering” (Gen 22:7–8).Footnote 51 In conclusion, the reference to the story of “the binding of Isaac” is reflected in the identity of the speaker, his rhetoric, and the legal details.
ALD is thus one of the first examples in Jewish literature of the connection between the one-time act of the binding of Isaac and the daily Temple service. This connection is found already in the narrative itself, which identifies the place of which “it is said to this day on the mount where the Lord is seen” (Gen 22:14) with “one of the mountains” in “the land of Moriah,” upon which the binding of Isaac took place (Gen 22:2).Footnote 52 In ALD, however, this connection goes beyond the location of the sacrificial cult, touching upon the ritual’s very nature.Footnote 53 ALD reads the story of the binding of Isaac in Gen 22 as the source for the order of the morning offering. The daily sacrificial cult of the Jerusalem Temple is thus cast as a perpetuation of the constitutive, seminal binding of Isaac.Footnote 54 As I have shown, the legal structure of the document reflects the idea that the ‘olah is the ultimate sacrifice upon which the rest of the sacrifices are offered. The narrative framework shows that the ‘olah sacrifice is based upon an even more significant sacrifice—the near sacrifice of Isaac on Mount Moriah. It is upon this primordial ‘olah that all other sacrifices are offered.
The transmission of cultic instructions from Isaac to Levi carries additional meaning regarding the connection between priest and sacrifice. In the priestly biblical tradition, the Levites’ service is “instead of every firstborn” (Num 3:12, 41).Footnote 55 The Israelites, who owe God their firstborn sons, offer God the tribe of Levi instead (Num 3:11–13): like a sacrificial victim, the Levites are subject to the rituals of hand-laying and “elevation” (תנופה; Num 8:5–26).Footnote 56 This is a case not only of exchanging the firstborn for the Levites but also of exchanging sacrifice (of the firstborn) with service (of the Levites). This ancient idea—portraying the priest as a sacrifice and his service as a sublimation of sacrifice—is given new expression in ALD where Isaac, the educator of Levites, himself served as a sacrifice, and his ritual knowledge was acquired through his experience as victim. Isaac teaches the laws regarding the wood he carried on his back during his journey to the land of Moriah to be bound, and he instructs Levi in the laws of sacrifice, while remembering his father, who had prepared to sacrifice him (7:4).Footnote 57
The unique, unfulfilled human sacrifice translates into the regular, quotidian priestly service. While in the biblical story, Abraham offers up a ram as a burnt offering “instead of his son” (22:13), in ALD the passive biblical figure of IsaacFootnote 58 is transformed into the figure of the priestly teacher, and human sacrifice is sublimated into priestly service.Footnote 59
Conclusion
There are three legal sections that describe the actions of the priest from the moment he enters the Temple until the ascent of his sacrifice as the Lord desires (chs. 7–8): purification, burning the wood, and offering the ‘olah, which combine into one order of actions that describes the daily worship done at the beginning of the day of service in the Temple. The identification of the type of ritual explains the internal connection between the laws that appear in these chapters, as well as the connection of these chapters to the list of sacrifices that follows after; since according to biblical priestly literature, all sacrifices are offered “on” the ’olah sacrifice, ALD describes the materials offered together with all sacrifices as being “on” the sacrifice of the ‘olah, in accordance with the biblical rhetorical model. These chapters, therefore, do not include a random collection of laws or a collection of stringent laws but rather a full display of the laws of sacrifices that emphasizes the connection of all of the sacrifices to the ‘olah sacrifice. These laws appear in the text as given by Isaac to Levi. The connection between narrative and law is portrayed in two ways: First, ALD codes the one-time extreme event of the binding of Isaac into the cultic system by basing all sacrifices on the daily ‘olah, the laws of which are in turn derived from the story of the ultimate sacrifice of Isaac. Second, ALD articulates the connection between priest and the sacrifice through the identity of the speaker and the description of priestly education as the transmission of “living knowledge” from Isaac (the sacrifice) to Levi (the priest).