Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-06T07:26:20.734Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
This chapter is part of a book that is no longer available to purchase from Cambridge Core

9 - The Secessionist Priesthood and Rabbinic Tradition

Rachel Elior
Affiliation:
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Get access

Summary

And he shall undertake by the Covenant to separate from all the men of injustice who walk in the way of wickedness.

And you know that we have segregated ourselves from the rest of the people and from mingling in these affairs, and from associating with them in these things.

THE priests who held these separatist views, relying on a supernatural source of authority and linking their fate with that of the angels of the Countenance, the Prince of Light, cherubim, holy angels, and godlike beings of knowledge, defined themselves and their allies as ‘chosen ones/knowers/Sons of Righteousness’, ‘righteous plantation’, ‘those appointed for righteousness’, ‘Sons of Light’, ‘those who enter into the Covenant’, or ‘those called by name’, who walked ‘in faith and with a whole heart’, observed the sabbaths, the festivals, and the tablets of the Covenant, and walked in the ways of justice, righteousness, and perfection illuminated by the sun itself.

Enoch, the mythological hero called by God himself ‘righteous man and scribe of righteousness’, embodied the values hallowed by the secessionist priests relating to knowledge, testimony and appointed time, calculation and number, righteousness, light, book and law, sabbath and oath. He defined his heritage through his exhortation to his sons: ‘Now, my children, I say to you: Love righteousness and walk therein! For the ways of righteousness are worthy of being embraced…. But seek for yourselves and choose righteousness and the elect life!’

The secessionists’ opponents, in contrast, were associated with angels of Belial, the Prince of Darkness, the Watchers, angels of destruction, spirits of injustice, Azazel and mastemah (lit. ‘malevolence’, i.e. the forces of evil), the pit and the shadow of death. Members of their circles were defined as a ‘congregation of wayward traitors’, ‘those who have turned aside from your Covenant’, and treacherous men who walk ‘in the stubbornness of their heart’. They are described as ‘Sons of Darkness’, associated with unjust ways; they rely upon sensory perception, upon observation of the moon, upon error and distortion.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Three Temples
On the Emergence of Jewish Mysticism
, pp. 201 - 231
Publisher: Liverpool University Press
Print publication year: 2004

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×