The author of the studies presented in this volume, Joseph M. Baumgarten (1928â2008), was a humble man, a servant of God who devoted his scholarly life to examiningâbit by bit, detail by detail,
Indeed, this volume appears, to our regret, much later than we imagined when we undertook to produce it not long after Baumgartenâs death. âLife happenedâ; delays and competing obligations were followed by other delays and other competing obligations. It is, therefore, with mixed feelingsâwith sorrow at the delay, with satisfaction at nevertheless completing the project, and with sweet memories of a great scholar and teacher, gentleman and friendâthat we present this collection to the scholarly world.
While much has moved forward in Qumran and cognate scholarship in the years since these articles appeared, we believe they retain their valueâand not only as evidence for an earlier stage of Qumran scholarship. They also retain their value as detailed contributions to the elucidation and contextualization of the texts and laws they discuss; as examples of the fruitful results of integration of the study of rabbinic literature into the study of the Scrolls; and as models of research that is painstakingly thorough, careful, honest, and calm, corresponding both to the belief that âGod is in the detailsâ and to Isaiahâs promise, and admonition, that Baumgarten took as something of a motto: âby stillness and quiet shall you be saved; your heroismâin calm and confidenceâ (Isa 30:15; see p. 151).
In preparing these papers for publication, we did not attempt to update them systematically. We corrected errors (and hopefully did not add many of our own); filled in allusions to texts or then forthcoming publications; added various cross-references among the studies; and stroveâbut without undue insistenceâto introduce a measure of consistency concerning citations, transliterations, and the like; sometimes this entailed changes in the numbering of footnotes. In one case, we eliminated part of an article because it was basically identical with text in another. Throughout, apart from trivialities, we have used square brackets to indicate our interventions. For abbreviations of ancient sources and of bibliography, we depended, for the most part, on the lists in the Society of Biblical Literatureâs Handbook of Style.
We are grateful to many who helped bring this project to fruitionâto the Baumgarten family, particularly Meir Neuberger, for their support and assistance; to Prof. Lawrence Schiffman (New York), who undertook to write the introductory essay characterizing Baumgarten and his oeuvre; to Prof. Francis Schmidt (Paris), who located the original English file of the first article in the collection; and to the publishing houses that generously agreed to allow the republication of the essays included in the volume. Here at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, generous financial assistance was afforded by the Mandel Institute of Jewish Studiesâ Joseph J. and Diana H. Schwartz Fund and by the Herbst Family Chair of Judaic Studies; two students, Yifah Eisenmann and Chananya Rothner, did yeoman service, respectively, in retyping the original articles and in proofreading and indexing. The Orion Center for the Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls at the Hebrew University is an institution that Baumgarten supported by his friendly counsel and encouragement, as well as by his scholarly contributions to its international symposia and publications, through the first ten years of its existence; we thank the Center for the use of its resources in the preparation of the volume. Finally, we want to express our appreciation to Prof. George J. Brooke (Manchester, UK), who agreed to accept this collection as a volume in the STDJ series, and to our friends at Brill, especially Marjolein van Zuylen and Dirk Bakker, who, as always, have been both efficient and friendly, a pleasure to work with.
Ruth A. Clements and Daniel R. Schwartz
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
July 2021