Letter from Lhasa, number 167. (Ginzberg 1976): An Unknown Jewish Sect
by Roberto Abraham Scaruffi
Ginzberg, L., An Unknown Jewish Sect, The Jewish Theological Seminary of America, New York City, N.Y., U.S.A., 5736-1976.
(Ginzberg 1976).
Louis Ginzberg
This is a complex work with intersection of different levels. It is the “literary” discovery, about one century ago, of a new sect or tendency, sect or tendency whose existence was later confirmed by other archaeological and literary discoveries.
More broadly, it reflects the plurality of points of view have been always existing in Judaism, which was not at all insulated from the external cultural environment, always nurtured from its surroundings and even determined from them. What is anyway normal for whatever social phenomenon.
Actually, the real sect might have been the fraction of Rabbinate who produced and imposed, the official “oral law”, the Babylonian Talmud. Judaism has always been, and largely remains, despite Rabbinate and Israel, an anarchic space, even, fortunately, without the centrality of sin characterising for example Christianity.
About the fragments:
“Yet we have never had any doubt that the document is composite in character. (...) It is most likely that these are fragments of diverse documents. On the basis of the historical background of the sect’s origin and development, as we described it above, we are in a position to classify the major part of these desjecta membra according to their provenance.” (Ginzberg 1976, p. 274).
The analysis of the fragments, referred from the author as “the sectarian document”, shows that the Torah was used for justifying pragmatic choices judged indispensable for the survival of the sect. Again, that is what always happens in social phenomena and for ideologies
Although very specialistic, or precisely because very specialistic, the book is of sure interest for whatever student and scholar of this field.
Ginzberg, L., An Unknown Jewish Sect, The Jewish Theological Seminary of America, New York City, N.Y., U.S.A., 5736-1976.
